avek00:
Sorry. I don't think that I should have access to EVERY BF/F seat at any time and prevent CO from making a profit. What I prefer is the NW system. Use capacity control to have a reasonable number of upgrade seats available. I want to know that if I want to fly to HKG during say, September 2003 and am reasonable flexible, that I can today book a confirmed upgrade seat. I refuse to play HoKeY. Why does CO have a FF program that advertises international upgrade benefits, if they are unavailable, unless you buy what amounts to an overpriced ticket with a lottery stub attached.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">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.</font>
I agree. I have never seen this at EWR or IAH, ever. I can relate an interesting story, though. About a year ago, I traded personal e-mails with a CO CTO person. This person related how she had a good customer who would always buy refundable tickets to Asia and upgrade with miles. These refundable tickets were not cheap (~$5,000). In the incident repeated to me, the customer bought the ticket and did not clear the 72 hour HoKeY wait list. The CT0 jumped thru hoops and made multiple calls to IAH to get one seat relased for him, all to no avail (there were plenty of seats available). Did this business man whip out his card and buy a J seat?........Nope. He got a refund on his refundable ticket and took his $5,000 to NW who were happy to upgrade him. True story.
[This message has been edited by Vulcan (edited 10-26-2002).]