Originally Posted by jamesreggio

I know we all know that the Upgrade Processor is hopelessly broken. But I had a new experience and new insight from Customer Care today that is both borderline-infuriating and something I thought worth sharing.

Our Situation
75K + 75K (to become 100K) on same reservation. Checked in, top of waitlist, 7 people below, 7+ F seats being marketed for the flight.

Hour later: top of waitlist, nobody below. No more F seats being marketed.

A small amount of waitlist shuffling is the nonsense we've all come to expect, but having 7 people with lower priority clear ahead (and fill up the cabin) was too much not to make a phone call.

What We Learned
The Reservations rep spent a long time scrutinizing the flight. Several MVPGs had been upgraded without GGUs or instant-upgradable fares, so she definitely confirmed something was wrong. She spoke to Customer Care while I waited on hold.

The verdict: "Sometimes the upgrade processor will release a large number of seats one at a time, and if it only releases a single seat at a time, it will fill it with the solo traveler highest on the waitlist. Even though it did release 7 seats over the course of 10 minutes, it upgraded everybody below you because each of them were solo and there was only ever one open upgrade at any one moment."

The suggestion: "You really should just split your reservations every time. It's the only way to avoid this."

The service recovery: $25 discount code.

The Conclusion
Again, I'm used to Alaska screwing this up.

But it's absolutely ridiculous advice to tell a new 100K that they should boot their companion from their reservation if they want to be upgraded.

What a joke.