3 weeks ago, I booked separate tickets for AUS-IAH-SEA-ANC
(late May) and ANC-DEN-AUS (early June) and used RUs to confirm
upgrades on all legs. Since then, CO changed each itinerary
four times, canceling multiple flights, changing times,
breaking connections, several ticket reissues, etc.
When my outbound ticket was reissued to AUS-IAH-ANC,
CO preserved my upgrade on IAH-ANC even though no R space
was available. The phone representative had to call some
kind of desk to reissue the ticket and they forced the upgrade.
Today, my return ticket had to be reissued to ANC-IAH-AUS
because CO canceled ANC-DEN on that day. CO adamantly
refused to preserve the upgrade. I called a couple of times
and was told that there is no desk that can force an upgrade
if there is no R space available, even in the case of an
involuntary change from a flight where I was confirmed
in first.
They are following the letter of the rules ("rebook in the original
class of service" and that's that), so no complaints, but I also
know they did force the upgrade for my outbound...
how do I convince them to do the same for the return?
Waitlisting looks grim: the ANC-IAH flight is a 737-800 with
16 seats in F and it's already F4, JN4, A3, ZN3, P3, PN3 with
3.5 months to go. It's a 7-hour redeye, too - seems like
a good use for an RU, if I ever saw one
