I know of no U.S. airline that offers every FC seat for free FC upgrades five or three or even two days before a flight. What would airlines’ sell if they did that? Airlines hold a percentage of FC seats to sell based on a formula they figure will give them the highest flight yield. After all, FC is the most desirable seat on the plane and all airlines want to keep that tool available to attract the last minute full-fare-paying customer.

Regarding tactics on acquiring upgrades, I will agree with Craz and Greg… keep trying to call every couple hours or so for that FC upgrade, even if it is right before you leave for the airport.

If you don’t get the upgrade on the phone, then there’s the bonus of the very-last-minute release of no-show FC customer seats. That is the reason all of us guys and gals hang around the gate to be last on the plane… we all want that free FC upgrade whenever available. First come, first served, but hang around anyway in case an upgrade falls your way.

If you want, you can read an earlier post with some other thoughts here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum49/HTML/000085.html

TWA, Continental, and Northwest’s unlimited upgrade policies are designed to fill FC seats that might in turn go empty as a reward to their most frequent fliers. If you’re a regular flier of that airline, then you have a deserved advantage against those who aren’t.

I disagree with Craz in that entry level TWA Elite IS valuable on their newer domestic flights since you have an opportunity to upgrade to one of 16-20 seats EVERY time you fly. If I understand Deelmakur’s post correctly, he/she upgraded on his/her first TWA flight. I think that’s cool, especially when you note that all the NY – STL flights I have been on have full FC cabins.

If Deelmakur wants to talk about what’s not fair… since the middle of May I’ve flown exactly 38 segments on AA and I’m still waiting for my FC upgrade. Am I going to complain that AA is unfair? Nope, it’s the luck of the draw and I know some day I’ll take a flight that’s not top-heavy with AA Platinum & Executive Platinum members. Although with the 4 to 10 FC seats on the AA Fokkers and Super-80’s I seem to fly on all the time, I still may have to wait a while. Will I stop flying AA as a result? No, but if I have a choice of carriers I’ll go with the airline that will give me the best chance at a free upgrade every time.

As for success rates… I’m Elite 1 and I have upgraded successfully in the mid-90% range since TWA started the unlimited upgrade program. The majority of my upgrades are not three days in advance, either. For example, on this morning’s flight I upgraded a couple hours before flight time because I finished up a job site ahead of schedule and changed my flight to come home a day earlier. I also find the Ambassador Club very helpful in obtaining last-minute upgrades, too.

[This message has been edited by buck (edited 11-30-1999).]