Originally Posted by
acwolf
How do they fill all the seats in First? I know all the seats in Business get filled by elites getting upgraded, but can you get upgraded to First as a result of your status? What are the ways to get into first using upgrades?
Originally Posted by
acwolf
Guess I should have stated the obvious..."how do they fill the seats that they cannot sell?"
In the case that the flight is about to go out with open seats...do they just stay open?
Welcome to Flyertalk.
As others have noted, an upgrade to F is unlikely unless you buy a business class fare and use miles or SWU. While lucky exceptions exist, double upgrades don't happen, unsupported upgrades (just 'cause you have status) don't happen and operational upgrades can't be predicted.
One great way to sit in F is to redeem a MileSAAver award for a mere 32,500 miles, which is cheap no matter how you value miles. For today, LAX-JFK, several flights are showing Z class (MileSAAver) availability. Some have several seats available.