Originally Posted by
bisonrav
They're not selling seats = they're oversold in one of the classes. If there are free seats in F, they'll be allocated to a roll forward. You're not likely to see an AOUG or POUG because any capacity freeing up will come from no shows or missed connections. When you check in doesn't really make any difference.
Au contraire, why roll forward when you can sell… on a flight selling F0J0W0Y0 but 5 oversold in Y and 5 free seats in First they would rather sell 15 upgrades via POUG/AUP (5 Y, W + J) than give them away for free as OpUps. Arguably there’s more incentive to offer these cheaply if they are inevitable.
Whats naughty however is when they sell POUGs during check-in into a cabin that’s oversold. I’ve seen a GCH pay to upgrade Y>W LHR-SYD T-3h, lose their bulkhead seat and told W is oversold (and wait at the gate for no-shows), then be downgraded to a middle seat in Y on the last row next to the toilets.
Not sure even the downgrade compensation made things right after that long uncomfortable flight, but I digress…