<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by MEBenson:
It's very clear to me why CO has the BF policy that it does. I fly to Asia once every month, and to London twice a month. On virtually every flight, there is someone who was on the waitlist but didn't get cleared for one of the few BF seats that are set aside as reward seats. Time after time, I see these folks whip out their credit card and pay thousands of dollars for one of the unsold BF seats. If CO were to set aside more BF reward seats, they would see those last-minute revenue upgrades cease. On my flight to NRT last week, they sold at least 3 (that I saw) and maybe even more were sold after I boarded. I don't know how true it is, but a redcoat I spoke with said his friend in revenue management told him that on all CO BF flights, there are a minimum of 3 seats set aside as reward seats, and a maximum of 6, on a 777.</font>
I am amazed at your extensive travel. Assuming you fly from EWR (ie a minimum CO mileage point), this means each month you must fly a minimum of 20K, 7K and 7K or 34K
actual air miles. That is over 400K actual miles/year. WOW! I know some UA and DL pilots who fly less miles per year. I certanly do not envy you but you appear to wildly wave the CO flag. Good for you.
I also have seen very few business persons (well, actually none) who would whip out their credit card at the last minute to get on a flight after losing out on a reward B/F seat. I cannot imagine (1) a business person flying a business trip in this off-the-cuff manner, or (2) letting everything go until flight time rather than booking a full fare J seat days earlier to insure passage.
As for a minimum of 3 reward B/F seats per each plane, this seems very odd. I doubt if hardly any seats are available the Wed before Thanksgiving etc etc. It would make absolutely no sense to allocate reward seats at ultra peak periods when seats are always priced high and always sell out quickly. Econ 101 anyone?
MisterNice