I'm on CO1866 from IAH-YYZ Sunday, April 8. Monday or Tuesday, I noticed that 14F was no longer available. Interesting...I thought you could not get exit row until 24 hours before hand. I call to try to get 14A for myself (Silver) and was told that only plats can get exit row unless 24 hours before.

OK - so there must be a plat in 14F. So - if I understand upgrades correctly, they start automatically clearing plats 5 days before flight. We're now ~3 and a few hours before flight and first class has not changed.

The way I read the upgrade terms, USA-Canada travel follows the same schedule as domestic so I would have expected the plat in 14F to already be upgarded.

As a new elite, what am I missing on the upgrade process? Does Continental also limit the number of seats they allow to be upgrades (I assumed 7 out of 8 showing available would allow them to release at least a few on the 5 day schedule)?

Just trying to gauge my chances (other than zero) of getting an upgrade on this flight.

Thanks for your insight. I don't post much, but I read quite a bit.