Originally Posted by
golfingboy
Look at the E-Ticket #. Usually the one who was ticketed first (will have a lower number in the end of the E-ticket such as 1200 vs 1201). The one with the lower number usually gets upgraded first IME.
As for leapfrogging two people ahead of your wife, sounds like all four of you have the same status and fare class, however you guys booked first before the other two, but the other two checked in first so they appear higher on the airport list. Now, it everything remains constant (no new last min purchase, SDC, etc) if CPU runs before the GA runs it, your wife will leapfrog the other two customers.
This is just a guess based on anecdotal experiences.
Thanks, guys, for trying to explain the "unexplainable."
Golfingboy -- I think your guess as to what's going on is likely correct. My 1K wife did check herself in first, and then checked me in (also 1K). So she's higher on the "at-gate airport list" that's visible on the website. But I have the lower ticket number, so I cleared ahead of her when the "CPU advance upgrade program" ran.
So for my wife to get the upgrade, another FC seat has to fall into the right bucket and that program has to run before the gate agent takes "control" of the upgrade list, right?
As a practical matter, to maximize gate upgrades (at least on 1-traveler PNRs), does this mean one should always try to check in at exactly 24 hours?
And getting back to my original question: it IS a good idea to split two-person PNRs well in advance if both pax have the same status, right? Will the advance CPU system skip over you if only 1 seat becomes available in the correct FC bucket and give it to somebody lower on the list?
On the other hand, if I'm travelling in a 2-person PNR with somebody with a lower (or no) elite status, and we want to maximize our dual upgrade chances, I don't want to check-in until I get to the airport? Of course, does this mean if only one seat becomes available, somebody below me on the advance list will get it?
Sheesh. My brain is starting to hurt from this strategizing.
They need to simplify this.
EDIT: OK, just when I think I understand this, ponder this other scenario. Two weeks ago, my wife and I (both 1Ks) are travelling with our 2 children (both silvers). We have 2 PNRs (each 1 adult, 1 child). Nobody clears the upgrade list. At 24 hours, I check us all in. We're all in coach. But less than an hour later, I and my silver daughter have been upgraded, and my wife (and other silver child) are still in coach. (Later, many hours later, my wife did clear, but not our other child). So how did that happen? From reading some posts from the other thread, I would have thought my daughter would have lost my "advance CPU upgrade" status (and been demoted to silver) when her PNR was split off at check-in, yet she still got upgraded before my 1K wife (who was then in a solo PNR).
EDIT 2: Well, for all the strategizing, it didn't matter -- I couldn't take the first flight because it was several hours late and would have stranded me. Interestingly, my wife never cleared the list, although she probably would have at the airport because she was 2nd on the airport list and there were 3 seats remaining. Oddly, one of the pax that I leapfrogged on the list to get upgraded WAS later upgraded, while my wife languished. When you split a record, could that affect the "purchase date"? If status level and fare class are equal, is the priority given by low ticket number or the date the PNR was created? From my experience, I'm thinking it would be the latter (which would explain why I got leapfrogged with my original PNR, and my wife languished), but who knows. This might be an argument against splitting.