Originally Posted by
saunders111
I'm not quite sure that this is still possible in the modern era, at least on a regular basis. For example, seats are available on May 16, 2025, for flights across the Atlantic. (330 days out, which I guess is what you meant by "~10 months"?). But there is no available C class inventory for confirmable upgrades from, for example, JFK to anywhere in Europe on May 16. So unless something special happens at 10 months, as opposed to 330 days, I am afraid that things have dried up a bit since 2018, in terms of C inventory on the day seats become available. So it might sometimes be possible, but my impression is that a game of roulette or a lot of flexibility is very much necessary at this point.
Please correct me if I am missing some key element of your strategy, as I would love to get guaranteed upgrades as much as the next person and I am totally willing to plan ~10 months or 330 days ahead.
If what you say is true, then, yes, my 10-months ahead of flight hack is not longer working. If there are no C buckets available on the day seats are first released, then indeed you will be relegated to Upgrade Roulette near flight time. Because my work and personal life changed radically in 2018, I haven't tried this strategy since then, and certainly not since I started to fly again after 2020.
It might be worth setting an alert in Expert Flyer so you get a notification if a C seat is released, then try to nab it.
Thank you for the correction.
ETA: I meant 330 days, but could not remember the exact number. That's why I wrote ~10 months. At the time I was doing this, I got on line right on the very day the seats were released. I was watching it closely in those days.