2) If you abort the check-in process after being put on the waitlist, and a few hours later see F availability (using an inventory tool) and then try online check-in again to snag that seat, WILL you be able to snag that seat, or will you be then told that you are already on the gate WAITLIST and are therefor ineligible to snag that seat?
Option #2 concerns me. We've all read about the old days where a "savvy Silver" could monitor the Availability Tool and call the reservation line to snag a FC seat that just opened up. While great for the SE who received the UG, it wasn't all that great for a Gold or Plat that missed that seat when the next EUA run rolled around.
Now, with phone agents not able to process UG's other than full-fare, the EUA-or-bust policy is supposed to close this loophole. What I'm wondering is if there still may be a weakness in the EUA system where a lower-level elite
could snag an UG as the OP suggests?
Obviously nothing to lose sleep over, but I imagine a Plat (or myself as a GE) sitting in coach would be none too pleased to hear that a discount-fare SE is up front by gaming the system. However, perhaps the new rules, coupled with the R-bucket, prevents option #2 from being successful. At least I believe that once the first higher-level elite OLCI's into coach with R availability at 0, the EUA and OLCI UGs should end for that flight and all remaining UGs must be handled at the gate.
Thoughts?