Originally Posted by
Zoui21
According to a couple of my brothers friends who are UA GS they get upgraded pretty often purely because of GS status, and I'm talking TATL's
I dont see myself hitting GS for a while though, but it will be a hope to one day get that invite. Maybe after college when I can work for a company that can shell out for full fare C and F.
Originally Posted by
rruaco
On the rare occasions they have to do it then it usually goes:
Airline's elites.
*A elites.
Everyone else.
Honestly, you can't rely on op-ups too much. It would make sense in the case of overbooking for UA to upgrade their best customers first. So if you're a 2P, you're going to be behind the GS on the list for op-ups. Although, I've been op-upped when I had no status before so YMMV BUT usually it will go to higher level elites.
From the OP, you say your dad was upgraded to F on DL. Was that domestic or intl since DL doesn't have an Intl First Class product? Either way, there are various reasons for this. He could have been on YBM fare or some other reason. Main point is, op-ups are rare-ish, and you shouldn't rely on them and when they do happen, it's usually given out to higher status passengers.
Accrual wise, I'd say pretty much all the legacy carriers are pretty much the same across the board and (for me at least) choose the carrier to credit based on convenience - who I will probably fly the most from where I live. One downside of DL is that you can't redeem a true Intl F award since they don't have F. That means no KL/AF or KE or MH F. Max redemption is for a J seat.