Originally Posted by
avidflyer
Well put Steve.
That is what I understand as well but you worded it much better than I.
Here is a link to the Wiki...most of the tips, tricks and general knowlegde reported here is in there. It is a great resource.
http://www.flyertalk.com/wiki/index....Elite_Upgrades
Thanks... I'm usually the one having other people word-craft for me...
Originally Posted by
remedy
This is a tired topic, but in my mind still unresolved. I have been under the impression that 23 59 olci is the best way to optimize the chances of an upgrade and was in the middle of doing this today but had to call the elite line because of a glitch in seat assignments. The agent told me NOT to check in, because I would miss the computer sweeps that happen periodically between now and the 7 am flight tomorrow. So, I aborted olci. I have heard both theories on this - both on Flyertalk and from elite desk agents. Does anyone have the definitive answer on this?
anxious in cmh
Wow. I could cover my presumptions about system logic, but this
does sort of make sense. As a Gold, I've seen EUA sweeps occur at 1 day (vs. 3), so that sort of makes sense that NW could do delayed manual releases of the EUA process. Remember that EUA sweeps requires entries in the R-bucket, so it makes sense that they would have to release R-bucket seats,
and run sweeps (Plat, then Gold, then Silver).
Originally Posted by
humanoid94
I no longer believe that checking in at 23:59 is the best approach. In my experience of flying DCA-DTW almost weekly this fall, there is definitely a "new" sweep that occurs sometime in the early morning the day of depature. My new recommendation is to not check in the day before unless you see R availability in KVS or similar. Should you not score an upgrade at that time, cancel out of OLCI and hope you are automatically upgraded in the early morning.
It appears to me that NW is holding back more F inventory and dumping it into R and sweeping people into it the morning of the flight.
Well, here's the big question, and I'm looking for someone
who definitively knows to answer it...
does doing OLCI at 23:59 prevent you from having an EUA sweep (with available R-bucket space) place you into First, if the EUA sweep occurs after you OLCI?
This seems to be a rather straightforward back-end process. Backward-engineering this: at 6 days, X number of R-bucket seats are released. Plat runs at 5 days, Gold at 3 days, Silver at 1 day. I can't see any reason for someone to manually release more R-bucket seats at/for OLCI, in that if the system is tuned enough, there's 1 or 2 F-bucket seats left, everyone's been upgraded who can be, and the F-buckets are sold or given out as BF upgrades (do remember that BF upgrades are entered as F).
If NW is holding back the R-bucket seat release, and picking specific flights to delay Plat/Gold/Silver EUA processing, that really isn't a problem... we all just have to wait a few days before our confirmed F upgrade. As long as doing OLCI at 23:59 doesn't impact your ability to be EUA'ed by automated processes after OLCI, then NW is invited to try to sell every last stinkin' F-bucket seat they can... I can wait until BF upgrades, to sit in F.
But.. if doing OLCI at 23:59
does impact your ability to be EUA'ed, if EUA
does run after 23:59, then there's a serious systems design issue here. Imagine the confusion, if half the Elites checked in at OLCI, then NW ran the EUA processes in serial at 11:59 pre-flight (in the proper order). The OLCI people would get nothing, the non-OLCI would be upgraded until the R-bucket was empty, then the OLCI people would be BF upgraded until the cabin was full. That'll be fun.
I'm sure there's a dozen reasons why NW hasn't done this, but it sure would make life easier: why doesn't NW just publish a single 8.5x11 Visio flowchart with the full system logic of EUAs?!?! Include things like what processes can be manually overriden, how OLCI and fare effect EUAs, and what the impact is if EUA runs after someone's OLCI'ed?
Please?
Pretty please?
With cherries on top?
Steve B.