I am on the waitlist for BF from LGW to EWR on a K ticket (Platinum) the end of September. There appear to be only 6 BF seats not sold out of 24 seats on my flight. Having a day or two of flexibility, as well as flexability regarding the departure city I found 18+ seats not sold on flights to EWR leaving from Manchester and Birmingham, and decided to change my return flight to one of these.

I called the "Elite Line" **cough** and got an AWESOME agent in Salt Lake City who helped me in other ways not related to the present subject (she got me a BF seat on my departure flight out of EWR by using her own initiative to help me in a way I would not have attempted after she figured out what I was trying to do-- other agents had just said, in response to my faulty strategy "No, that won't work").

She suggested that I do NOT change from LGW, even if I do not get a BF upgrade at least 3 days prior to departure on my ticketed flight. She stated that Manchester, Birmingham, Dublin, and Shannon were the most difficult cities out of which to get upgraded for two reasons. First, CO only has one flight out of these cities per day, hence low BF seat volume. Second, although many seats may be available for purchase, many never make it into the upgrade bucket, and the planes will actually fly with empty seats (is this TRUE?).

In contrast, about 5 CO or Virgin codeshare flights leave from LGW to EWR daily, and if I don't get the upgrade on my flight, I can stand-by the day of departure for BF on any one of these other flights and get BF for a $200 change fee and a seat will probably be available (is THIS true?).

So, should I change my return to a smaller airport, or stay at LGW per the agent's suggestion? Thank you for your help.

[This message has been edited by Joey (edited 08-31-2002).]