Originally Posted by cova
My observation has been that a few EUA seats are released to Plat at the 5 day EUA (you can check the seat maps after 9pm) and likely only to the point of the higher fare codes. Afterwards I have not seen any EUA's at all, even though there may be 8 of out 12 FC seats still available.
Prior to March 16th, it would be possible for a silver to check in (I have seen it first hand) and get an OLCI up, even though a Plat did not get EUA'ed the night before. The OLCI had to occur in the afternoon, not 24 hours before.
Now after March 16th, it appears the OLCI up has gone away. All seats are held and processed at the gate. On a flight IAH-SNA a few week ago (after 3/16), Galileo showed A7 - six hours before departure. Then at the gate, it looks like 7 people were called up for new F boarding passes. The agents had a list of the sorted elite ups.
i believe you are incorrect re OLCI.
say your flight leaves friday at 6pm. you checkin thursday at 6pm. no upgrade. then at midnight, the EUA runs. no upgrades awarded because there is no R availability. then, the rev managemtn people get to the office and run their daily reports on available fare buckets and whatever else they do. they make their changes on your flight and release 3 R seats. let's say they do this around lunch time on friday (the day of your flight). upon arriving back from lunch, i check in for the your same flight using OLCI. i get the upgrade. let's say two more elites check in. they get the upgrades. then whatever seats are left get EUA'd at the 3 hour mark.
once you go on the waitlist, the only way you get up'd is through the nightly EUA, the 3 hour EUA or at the gate.