Originally Posted by
rploehn
Since I am looking for four eVIP upgrades (total) on two round trips, ORD-PVG, I have observed interesting things. On one flight, coach is full, but first and business are near empty, until one day. Bingo, like 25 seats went in one day in business. So much for my upgrade. I schedule a different return from PVG on a Saturday...in a matter of days, almost all those business seats sell out also. The 747s at United are wide open while AA's 777 are selling out in premium. Even the coach exit row (31 ABHJ) is getting hard to snag two months out.
I have given up all hope of using any eVIPs on these flights, and it looks like I will eat some of them on Feb. 29, 2008.
It must have something to do with the route. I flew this on UA last year, and similar weird things were happening. Coach was zero'd out for months - yes months - in advance (while AA had plenty of availability), and then BOOM - all fare buckets opened up (down to the cheapies) to 9's about 2 or 3 weeks before the flight. Business did the same thing, zero'ing out about 2 weeks before the flight, then went to 9's a couple days before the departure. Plane left with biz about 1/2 full. It was very strange, so don't give up on the VIPs!