Originally Posted by dlen111
hypothetical....im gold. im leaving tuesday at 3pm. monday at 3pm i check in. i am added to the FC list. EUA runs at midnight. no body gets anything. then for some reason 3 seats are released. at 6am tuesday, a silver checks in and gets that seat even though im higher level, possibly on a higher fare and i checked in earlier? i would think the system would know that there's already a SB list and that no seats would be given until EUA runs at 3 hour and at the battlefield mark.
although f the above sitch is true, it sucks, it cant happen that often. i almost always get my upgrades.
Yes, I think the upshot of this and other discussions, is that this situation is theoretically possible. However, look more closely at your wording: "for some reason 3 seats are released". I don't think this happens all that frequently.
Perhaps if someone who had already been upgraded cancelled or changed his/her flight, the revenue management system
might put that seat back into R, but I think the most likely scenario is that R inventory is held back until the final 3-hour dump.
Originally Posted by dlen111
so is it better to check in after midnight, on the day of travel, in hopes some seats opened up after the midnight EUA?
Anecdotally, it sounds like the chances of snagging an upgrade like that are few and far between. Though I don't see any real benefit of checking in right at the 24-hour mark other than to snag an exit row/bulkhead seat (if you weren't able to pre-assign it). There are a bunch of other priorities in assigning upgrades before you get to check-in time -- e.g., elite level, fare status, date of ticket purchase -- so I don't think the early check-in is ever that valuable.
BUT, you can check periodically on ITN for any F inventory that opens (in those rare events). I think (but am not sure) that F maps pretty closely to R, where EUA comes from. Then you can check-in, try to snag the upgrade, and if it fails, I think you can still cancel the process. In fact, you may even be able to assign yourself a restricted seat
before completing the check-in process, I just can't remember exactly.