Originally Posted by
nycua1k
This past week, I flew EWR to PHX, and bought my ticket 2 weeks out and was $330 RT (L-class). I was shocked that it was so cheap. Thought the fare would have been at least M. Outbound was middle of day on Wed and the return was Sunday red eye. Really thought I would have cleared both. Nope. T-25 hrs out, seats disappeared faster than I could blink. My colleage connected through IAH but went to Bos. All of his flights cleared 3 days out, and we had the same booking class. I've come to accept that if I wanted to upgrade, i have to burn miles or an instrument.
That's my weekly route, and $330RT is an amazing fare even if booked well in advance, for 2 weeks out it's unbelievable. As i look through my spreadsheet, I've only booked one ticket at or below that price so far in 2013, and that was booked 45 days in advance.
I was on that redeye last night, and got the CPU at about T-36. I didn't get the CPU on Friday evening though into PHX, but that flight was full of GS travelers (assuming the dozens of folks that pre-boarded were in fact all GS). All in all, I've cleared 13 upgrades of 22 domestic legs so far this year.