Wow - I hadn't even thought of that. Here's an air rage incident that will happen:

I'm flying with my wife and two kids(6 and 4) on a 737 from EWR-SAN on vacation. We booked it 8 months earlier, meticoulously planning to be in 8A&B and 9A&B, so we can sit directly in front/behind of each other...managing the kids would be impossible for 5 hours if we didn't arrange it that way. Three of the tickets are reward seats, mine is a paid ticket, and therefore on a different locator. Two days before the filght, I (and only I) get upgraded automatically. Then CO (as it's a full flight) gives the seat I had meticoulously arranged to be next to my 4 year old son to a stranger.

They would have to have the airport police take me away from the check-in counter, I swear. Livid wouldn't even begin to describe my feelings.

There had better be a field in the locator that can be checked requesting or refusing automatic upgrade, or this will be the fatal flaw that kills the proposal.

Why the vehement objection to this? - the same reasons we objected to the new mileage levels for the new platinum status a few years ago:

1) They're skewing the program again to the upper spenders, or the "elite, elite". This hurts the lower and mid elite and the economy traveler at all levels.

2) They're doing it IN THE MIDDLE / END OF THE YEAR AGAIN!!!. Hey, if this is announced in January, maybe I and others pick another company to fly on for the year. To be a person planning out my 25k or 50k milles of loyalty and expecting a specific level of service, to now find out that that service will be rare or non-existant unless I reach 75K, or expecting a level of service for 75K, and finding out that the equation is now more heavily influenced by $$ than the loyalty miles I've been working on all year is an insulting slap in the face. It's like changing the rules in the world series, to only 2 outs per inning...fair people don't change the rules in the middle of the game. Fair companys (one's running a loyalty program) ought to know what changing the rules in the middle of the game does to loyalty.

3) As the radio commercial I'm listening to just said, "...winning Inside Flyer's Freddie awards and J.D. Power's awards for best frequent flyer program three years in a row..." You have a system here that has struck the PERFECT balance to please all of it's customers - at all levels from twice a year flyer to Platinum elite. WHY CHANGE SOMETHING THAT EVERYONE LIKES AND THAT ISN'T BROKEN?????????? I've read these forums...So have some of the folks from Continental I suspect. Have we asked for this??? Even hinted at this??? I've never seen a word about it. I've seen (thanks Boomer) a pretty comprehensive annual list of what changes and improvements to One Pass that we, the elite, loyal flyers would like to see (more and better international upgrade possibilities, ability to use miles for President's club memberships, additional awards for Platinums over 100K, etc.). This stupid autoupgrade change then not only represents a slap in the face to all of the people who use the system and are not the top tier and highest payers, but it's also an additional slap in the face to all of the elite flyers who voiced what would represent good changes to them, and who have been completely ignored.


If this change were to be made fairly, it would be announced in January/February 2001 to take effect in January 2002. Then all of the passengers could choose to accrue status miles under the new system, or choose not to. I've spent the last 4 years as a Continental elite fighting my corporate travel policy and not flying American Airlines. I had to take flights at odd times and with wierd routings to maintain my loyalty and status. But this year, when I couldn't get a fairly priced CO ticket from EWR-SFO-LAX-EWR, I instead booked EWR-SFO round trip on CO and SFO-LAX in coach on AA. Know what, AA HAS pulled a lot of seats out of coach! I had as much legroom in 27c on AA's 737 as I had on CO's 737 in seat 3E. The seat was not as wide, but the legroom was really nice. It would be a lot easier to not fight the corporate travel group every year. COWARDLY AND STUPID is how I describe this change and it's timing by CO. I'm mad, and I and others will consider taking my business elsewhere.