Just a word of warning about not being given an upgrade certificate. (Weez's post) When my husband and I flew from LGW to EWR in March, the agent at LGW almost didn't upgrade my husband because he didn't have one. Before we left the US, Continental had issued an upgrade certificate for me, but not for my husband. The reason given was that since the miles were taken from his OnePass account, he would not need a certificate, whereas I would. There was no problem on the way over, but when we returned, the Continental agent at LGW wanted a certificate from each of us, and didn't really want to hear anything else. However, after we explained the foregoing, he did agree to call OnePass. Since this was 5:00 AM Eastern Time in the US, I thought it was unlikely that he would reach anyone, or, if he did, that the person would give the correct answer. But, fortunately for us, he did, and we were ultimately upgraded.

This was culmination of a horror story of waiting for the upgrades. When we called the morning before the flight, we were told that though our upgrades had not cleared, seats were available. The CSR suggested we call back that evening. When we did, we were told that our upgrades had not cleared, and that while there were seats available in business/first, we would not be upgraded. Having learned from this board not to believe everything you are told, we called back on the morning of our departure from London. We were then told that we would find out whether we were upgraded when we got to the airport. We did, but not right away. When we checked in for the flight, we were told that we were on stand-by for the upgrade, and would find out at the gate. So we did, but again, not right away. One half hour before departure, after nearly everyone else had boarded, we were finally told we would be upgraded. Then we almost weren't because my husband had no upgrade certificate.

When we got back, I wrote to Gordon to complain about the entire upgrade procedure. After a couple of weeks I received a reply from Wendy Harwood, Manager, Customer Care Department, stating, in part, "I have shared your suggestion for changing the international upgrade policy with the appropriate departments to assist our management team as we continue to make positive changes within our organization." She didn't even address the upgrade certificate question.

In my letter to Gordon I also complained about the fact that CO didn’t' credit the miles to my husband's account; this despite the fact that they had taken miles from his account for the upgrades. They obviously were given his OnePass number when I made the reservation; just didn't bother to enter it in the reservation. Wendy didn't address this, either. I was so annoyed that I wrote back suggesting that the only explanation for such a lapse was gross incompetence and/or indifference. Then, she finally sent a letter of apology. Meanwhile, I had rounded up the receipt and boarding passes and sent copies to the OnePass service center - a major pain - and he finally got the miles.

I see that what was intended to be a brief caveat has become a major rant - sorry. I just don't see why it has to be this way on CO, and if they really cared the way they say they do, it wouldn't be.