Originally Posted by
channa
Since CO's upgrade system is opaque, and you have no visibility into it (no Upgrade: Pending or Upgrade: Waitlisted notation), you just have to have blind faith that the system will work and take care of you if appropriate.
It's unfortunate that they don't have a DL-like or UA-like system where they run upgrade as soon as space is available inside your window, but CO is probably working around a lousy back end system, and apparently this is the best they can do.
And unless the UA flight has a GID at the gate, you'll have no idea where you stand on the upgrade waitlist. You'll also have to wait until you get to the gate to see where you are, unlike co's system which will show you the battlefield upgrade order as soon as you check in. @:-)
I know you have a CO flight, just highlighting some differences with UA