Originally Posted by
daibatsu1
It is quite nice that Alaska gives mvp gold members the guest upgrades. However, it is extremely difficult to try to use them. Has any Alaska Airlines employee actually gone through the process of trying to research and book a flight where you might be able to use the gold guest upgrade? I don't think so but if so then you really must be a glutton for punishment. Seriously, you need to try to book a flight where you can use a gold guest upgrade. When you are looking for the flights, you select the button that says you want to use the gold guest upgrade. You when receive the results back you get a mix of flights and fares. It will show fares are not upgradeable and that are upgradeable. But then you have to look for a bold U not a U with a line through it next to the flight information. This is stupid. You are giving the customer mixed information. On the one hand you are telling them the flight has this upgradeable fare but you are also telling them they can not use the upgrade. Re-read that sentence and take 5 seconds to let it soak in. Doesn't that sound silly to you? If I am searching for flights where I can use the gold guest upgrade, that is what I want to see, the flights where I can use the upgrade. I really don't want to have to have to hunt and peck through multiple flights which show the information I do not want to see.
For a flight to be eligible for upgrade with a GGU, you must book into an appropriate fare class (anything but G,T,R classes). For the upgrade to actually process, "U" space must also be available.
The purpose of showing the "U" with a slash is that the fare
allows an upgrade, but there is no space to put you.

Above, there are four flights. Three are eligible and will clear immediately. The other is eligible, but there isn't upgrade space available.
If you book it now, you won't upgrade immediately. But if U space does open up, the upgrade will clear.

Here is a screenshot from ExpertFlyer. You can see that there are >7 U fares available on this flight. An upgrade would automatically clear if you booked into an eligible class.
And yes, agents have been very helpful finding appropriate fares for me in the past. Though I prefer to book my flights online.