Originally Posted by
SFOAmdam
I was traveling from SFO to JFK on a PS flight. I had put in for an upgrade with a RPU but it had not cleared. I was something like 6 on the list and from the monitor it said all but one seat had checked in. I asked and they suggested I wait in the gate area as I had a chance. After letting a bunch of people on, I asked again highlighting that I was pretty far down the list. I told the agent I did not want to wait and end up with no overhead space if it did not clear. She said, go ahead get on and if you clear we will come on and move you. We never pass over anyone for an upgrade. Is this true, I seem to remember threads suggesting to not get on.
I did board and kept checking the flight status where it got closer to me clearing but looked like they only could clear 3 of the people ahead of me. Any thoughts or recommendations for future situations?
The biggest issue with the sCO UG processing methodology is that they are far less likely than sUA was to process a UG request in advance because they are more focused on keeping those seats open then selling them at a discount to anyone who will take them. Then there is what appears to be a very manual and inconsistent process for clearing pax on the waitlist in the 20 minutes or so before departure. In my recent experience with this process, my companion was not given an upgrade when she was supposed to have been given one. I only discovered this because I confronted the gate agent when I saw that my companion was still languishing as #1 on the wait list while 1 seat remained open, just a few minutes before door closing. The gate agent told me that she told the other gate agent to upgrade my companion, but that "he forgot" to do it. In 800,000 miles over 10 years with sUA, I never once experienced such unprofessional nonsense. So, I don't know the answer to your question about "passing over" people but I do know that this sCO methodology produces outcomes that are far less desirable than what I experienced under sUA.