Originally Posted by cova
...I am also finding that you never get upgraded when you check in. If you do not get upgraded via EUA during the overnight processing (1-5 days out) - then you will always be on the standby list when you check in, or get EUA processed at the 3 hour mark.
My experience has been different. As a Silver (for now) I've missed the "1 Day Window" where you actually have a second shot at midnight say about 8 hours before the flight. (my flight is usually leaving SLC at 8:20am) After missing the 'first' midnight upgrade I checked in online at about noon about 20 hours before departure. When asked if I wanted to be placed on the waitlist I checked 'yes'. Then the next screen says my upgrade has been successful and I get upgraded.
I think that if I did NOT check in at the 20 hour mark then when EUA would run again at midnight about 8 hours before my flight time then I would have been granted the upgrade.
This tells me however that sometimes they release inventory at hours/times other than the midnight window.
This happens to me about 50% of the time and another 50% I actually get the upgrade while checking in online. (about 25% of the time total)