Originally Posted by
notquiteaff
Is $20 the difference between a Saver fare and a fare that guarantees an MVP or MVPG selection of a PC seat at booking? Not everyone here is 75K, and the lowest regular (non-Saver) fares have more often than not resulted in no upgrade for me this year (fortunately row 17 was often available, though not always).
It is not guaranteed. I've literally gotten it every time, though. I'm mostly found to/from SFO; it's certainly possible that other cities / routes are more elite-heavy and harder to get.
Note that you don't need to wait for the "you've been upgraded to premium" email; I haven't seen one of those in 6 months. Just go select the seat when your upgrade window opens. It will be free. Even if the app shows a charge, it will skip the payment step and assign the seat so long as your upgrade window is open. I'm pretty sure that the PC upgrade processor is broken and I'm jumping the queue... I've certainly been in flights where I snagged a premium seat and 10 people ahead of me on the upgrade list didn't get F or PC.