Mileking

If you are using upgrade coupons then you as a Prem Exec you may be confirmed 72 hours in advance of the flight time. However, sometimes they have already allocated the seats available for upgrades and wait until 20 min prior to flight time to release the remaining seats. Basically they are trying to sell the seats up to the last minute. A recent example for me (a 1K) was flying to LAX on an A320 where five seats were left in FC the day of the flight. I had been on the upgrade list about a week or so in advance. I checked in at the RCC about one hour before the flight and the upgrade still had not cleared. About 30 min prior to flight time the gate called the RCC and told them to go ahead and upgrade three of us (all 1Ks) who were waiting in the RCC. Two other 1Ks got the other FC seats. There were a lot of PEs in coach.

Most of my upgrades via coupons happened at the gate even though I requested the upgrade at the time of reservation. I can only remember one time where they called me in advance and told me my upgrade cleared.Again, they allocate so many upgrade seats and the rest are revenue seats. Revenue seats are held until the last minute for the obvious reason.

Yes, I agree that the 757 (24 FC seats) gives you a better chance of upgrading than some other planes (737, 727, A320). The A320 is tougher because it has half the FC seats of the 757.