Originally Posted by
sts603
At the gate? No. On three-class international flights however RM will routinely oversell J by up to 10 and undersell F by a corresponding amount. RM will process SWU/mileage+copay upgrades creating or exacerbating such an oversale. I did substantial LHR travel in the last year. All but two upgrades cleared and I'd say 80+% of the time I was cleared into an oversold J cabin. Elites on expensive J tickets were then op-uped to F. But if this doesn't happen before airport control, its not going to happen with one exception. If J is oversold, sometimes they will run the op-ups to F all at once. then if there is a J no show (of the 37 non-op up'ed passengers), they will then clear an upgrade from Y rather than downgrading an op-up'ed passenger. Scored one LHR-JFK upgrade that way.
Thank you for this very interesting post. I am sure I don't understand all the implications. A few follow up questions:
1. You say that you were upgraded into oversold J cabins 80+% of the time. I take this to mean that RM authorized the processing of an upgrade prior to airport control, I.e., before 3-4 hrs before flight when inventory would have been showing J0. Correct?
2. In an oversold J situation, will the F inventory ever be 0 unless the F cabin is actually truly sold out?
3. If J0 shows, then the cabin is actually oversold, usually?
4. If J1 or 2 shows, it's probably already oversold at that moment?
Thanks again.