Originally Posted by eerich
I have missed two upgrades recently b/c of this system simply because I was not aware of how it works. Now the agent has confirmed that they are really pushing the CO.com check-in and CO execs feel this is a way to reward all of its elite customers.
This sounds more like lazy people on their tech team than some intentional method by the CO exec's to reward that use online check-in. While CO saves considerable time/money when someone uses the website to book a flight, I would assume there's no/negligible savings for someone who checks in online vs. at a kiosk at the airport.
So the luck people have with securing an upgrade outside of the automated process through online check-in seems to be more of a function of CO's wacky inventory control and weak technical prowess than a beancounter hoping to use this tiny flaw to reward those that check-in online at the right time.