Here's a little trick which has saved my bacon at times. It's quite usefull... and suprisinlgly obsure, but thanks to help from CO (Insider) it came through for me. I hope it does the same for you too.
Plan B:
There’s a often overlooked trick for BF reward travel (e.g.
not an upgrade) which we as OnePass members can use to help secure the big seat for those international flights.
While this does not access some special uber-secret reward bucket, it will improve your chances for the snagging a BF seat
as it allows you to standby at the airport on the day of departure for the front cabin.
Bear in mind, this does not give you a confirmed BF seat, rather it improves your odds at for snagging one and should only be used as a last resort. If you’re flexible and there’s a standard seat open on another date – or a partner – that you can travel on, go for it! Don’t assume this is a sure fire way to get your reward.
One more thing to bear in mind: this is an obscure rule and as such, airport frontline staff may not know what you’re talking about. If you are planning on doing this be sure you understand the mechanics of how this works and how to show the frontline staff the relevant information on it (more on this later).
Anyway, that said here’s how it works.
Overview: By issuing a standard BusinessFirst reward when no standard BF reward seats exist but standard Y reward seats are available, the customer (e.g. you) effectively become a displaced BF customer (as you have paid for BF but are not confirmed in it). As such, you are entitled to waitlist for the flight and
standby at the airport for BF should your waitlist not clear.
Here’s what you need:
1. The required amount of miles for the BF reward (check CO’s reward charts)
2. Standard coach reward seats on the flight you wish to waitlist for
3. Luck
Here’s what you do:
Call into to the international rewards desk (option 6 from the elite line) and tell explain to them you’re looking for a standard BF reward. If there’s no space on CO, check the partners! and see if they can accommodate you. If and ONLY if they cannot, go to plan B.
For example let’s say you want to go from IAH to CDG in BusinessFirst.
But for whatever reason the partners did not work nor did other dates. Yet you do see standard award availability for coach on Continental for the dates/flights you want.
Call into Continental and tell the agent to redeem a BusinessFirst reward - in the case of North America to Europe to keep with our IAH-CDG example this would cost 100,000 miles - but to seat you in coach (this is why it is necessary to have a reward seat open at the standard coach level).
The miles (100,000) will be debited from your account and you will then be placed on a waitlist for BusinessFirst. (If you do not clear into BusinessFirst you will receive a mileage refund for the difference between BF and Y… more on this later)
At this point two things can happen:
1. You clear the waitlist no later than 24 hours before the flight.
If so, than you’re set! Enjoy your flight!
2. You do not clear the waitlist 24 hours before the flight.
Okay, so you did not clear before the flight but don’t start worrying yet as there’s still a chance you can at the airport.
How to standby at the airport for BusinessFirst:
Pay special attention to this part for precision is key to make this work.
Arrive at the airport early (e.g. 2 hours) and locate an international concierge at the checkin counter (if one cannot be found at the checkin counter than check in normally, procedure through security and locate one airside.)
Explain to the concierge that you are a displaced BusinessFirst customer and need to be placed on the standby list for BF.
Do NOT mention “upgrade” – as doing so will complicate the situation (remember, you’re not upgrading as you have already ‘bought’ a BF ticket.)
You should then be placed on the standby list and if there’s an open big seat before they close the door, you’ll get it!
…What to do if the concierge/Grey Coat/Gate Agents don’t understand.
As mentioned before, an agent can easily mistake a customer requesting to be placed on the BF upgrade list as wanting to upgrade (and we all know upgrades are not done on the day of departure) and if this is the case here’s what you do.
1. Tell the agent you’re not trying to upgrade, rather you’re a displaced BF customer.
2. Ask the agent to access the following code in Sonic “gg onestandby” and review lines 85-89 as they spell out the Reward standby policy.
If the agent states s/he cannot know for sure the miles were deducted from your OnePass account do this:
1. The reward ticket will have a fare basis (FS6* in our IAH-CDG example). Going into sonic and reviewing “gg FS6” will pull up the information on the reward (what we know as a Series 6 BusinessFirst reward)
*Platinum rewards are slightly different. The same standby rules apply but rather than the prefix “FS” it will be “DG” – so a IAH-CDG BusinessFirst reward issued from a Platinum account would be a DG6 award and reviewing “gg DG6” in sonic will reveal the award is a Platinum BusinessFirst reward. FWIW, lines 57-63 in "gg DG_" should spell out the standby policy too.
If this does not work, or the agent cannot pull up the information, have them call the reward desk as they will be able to confirm the ticket.
Should you not clear the international segment you will receive a refund in mileage and taxes (if applicable) for the difference between BF and Y. I *think* the refund is solely dependent upon the overwater flight... so if you clear domestically but fail to get the BF seat internationally you'll still receive a refund.