Originally Posted by themicah
This makes perfect sense. I have updated the wiki accordingly:
http://www.flyertalk.com/wiki/index....ld.22_Upgrades
There seem to be two general possibilities on how this might work:
- When you click the "yes, I'd like an upgrade if available" button at OLCI, it checks "R" availability and gives you an upgrade as long as R > 0 (without checking or changing the waitlist). This is what I suspect happens, and would mean that a well-timed OLCI could snag an upgrade even if a higher-status elite was already on the waitlist (as long as an F seat had been released to "R" after the last round of EUA and before you did OLCI).
- When you click the "yes, I'd like an upgrade if available" button at OLCI, it gives you a seat only if R > 0 and nobody is ahead of you on the waitlist (if R >0 and somebody is ahead of you on the list, it could either upgrade the first person on the list, as if your OLCI triggered a "mini-EUA," or it could simply add you to the list). This would be the more fair system, but I suspect it's not how it was actually programmed.
I can add my experience with CO, where the situation appears similar. At about 3 hours (sometimes at the 24 hour point, though), all but a few FC seats are dumped to the "F" (upgrade) bucket. Then EUA runs and allocates the seats. This is supposed to be 'almost' instantaneous, but in reality, rarely is. The delay can be 15 minutes or more. Any elite doing OLCI at this point can snag those seats, no matter what his/her status. I can say, because I have done it, that if you monitor this release using KVS, and then check in as soon as you see it, you will definitley get the F seat, unless some elite checking in by pot luck beat you by a few minutes.
I find KVS invaluable. In looking at today, EWR-DTW, I see R2 for the 20:03 flight and R8 for teh 21:47 flight. Anyone doing ONCI now should be allocated those seats.