Originally Posted by icedancer
Does this mean, then, that if you're short certs, and choose to buy more, you have to take the risk and buy them before it's confirmed that you're actually going to get the upgrade? If so, that's complete and utter b.s.
I hadn't thought of that aspect. The only time I bought 500-milers at the airport was when my upgrade request was confirmed at check-in and when we got to the "how will you support the upgrade" question, I whipped out the credit card and bought the 500-milers.
Perhaps this is a naive question, but it has never come up for me: can GA's process credit card payments? Assuming that the answer to this quandry is, "I'll pay at the gate if the upgrade clears"?