The Lev

I for one consider an upgrade from Y to PE to be a complete waste of what are becoming very scarce eUpgrades. I would likely never want to be upgraded to PE and burn all those points. If I want PE, I'll book PE.

I'm imagining this scenario will happen all too often...

Setting the scene: The Lev books his lovely bulkhead aisle seat in Y many weeks prior to departure, but decides to try Aerolotto to upgrade to J because as usual R space has been zeroed out before the upgrade window had opened.

Gate Agent (perky and very pleased with herself): "Your J Upgrade has been denied so as not to cheapen the product, but AC has relieved you of 13 eUpgrades for the lovely experience of sitting in PE while still earning only 100% miles.
The Lev: "heck no, if I can't get the J upgrade, give me back my old bulkhead seat"
Gate Agent (typing furiously on her keyboard): "I'm terribly sorry your comfy bulkhead aisle seat has been given away to a non-status passenger who had "GTE" on their boarding pass. I have put you in a lovely middle seat between two football linemen in row 967."
The Lev (putting on best DYKWIA attitude): That's not acceptable, give me my seat back.
Gate Agent (trying to maintain smile): Sir, as a SEMM I'm sure you know that specific seats are not guaranteed. I can't ask that lovely passenger (flight attendant flying standby) that has already taken her seat to move. You'll just have to take your newly assigned seat.
The Lev (maintaining DYKWIA demeanour): "This is ridiculous. Let me speak to your Supervisor."
...
Cut to scene several minutes later where The Lev is being led off in handcuffs for attempting to throttle the supervisor who finally showed up and offered him a 5% discount code as a goodwill gesture while insisting that he take his new seat.

24left

LOLOLOLOL. Hilarious and thanks.

Did you not remember to wear your special hat, you know, Sapphire Titanium Diamond Medallion imprinted on the side????

Can you provide the link to the video?????

Geoflying

roflmao

PLeblond

Thank you to The Lev. You made my day.

In all seriousness and following on the same idea:

Given that: one needs to be in Flex to upgrade, and the current difference in price between Flex and PY being not significant,

Most SE's either buy PY to be higher up on the eUp list OR as The Lev stated wasting eUPs for up-ing to PY, that monetarily isn't much more than Flex, would have purchased PY in the first place if that's where they wanted to sit... So, the majority of SE's would eUp to J from either Y or PY with very few actually preferring PY as a second choice.

Those who will tend to eUp to PY are the lower tier members who don't want to co-pay and already know their chances of actually making it to J on eUps equivalent to getting a lap-dance from the lounge attendant (slim to none).

So regardless what the planned method is, either the situation described by The Lev, or the situation our Bovine friend is making popcorn for would occur.

Result, its impossible to please everyone, but this solution seems to have the fewest potential worse case scenarios...

Does that make sense?

Ben Lipsey

Status first but within cabin, and as O/E/N are higher than Y/B/etc an SE in PY will get priority an SEMM in Y.

pmax

This is exactly what I envision too. I'm going to be seriously pissed if I lose my seat or my credits in a situation like that.

PLeblond

According to the current method, you would not.

Should your upgrade to J not clear, you would retain your Y (like the current system works). If you would then want to upGrade to PY, you would need to see if there was still space at that time.

As The Cow mentioned, there will be SEs who don't get an eUp to PY in this case, but a lower tiered member might have already cleared to PY, so the SE will be pissed.

Moral of the story: no matter what you do, SEs will be pissed. So nothing new there...

24left

Well, there's always your suggestion upthread involving the words "dance" and "lounge attendant". And popcorn.

winnipegrev

I thought Ben made it clear the upgrade from Y to PE would be automatic if the request for Y to J doesn't clear, but there's still space in PE after Y to PE requests cleared?

If that's the case, the likelihood of 18A still being available once the upgrade to PE is turned down is almost 0 in the days of packed/oversold intl flights and computer-placed GTE passengers.

PLeblond

Reading Ben's note bellow, you appear to be correct. Thank you for the clarification.

So The Lev is correct in his example AND The Cow is also correct should after the automated process has run, someone who requested an upgrade to J was denied and PY is then full.

Maybe those who are not SEs should wear a bulletproof vest a hockey helmet before boarding an international wide-body flight.

canopus27

Thanks.

One clarification - what is "the cabin"? Is it the fare purchased, or the current seat location?

Concrete example - if I purchased a Y fare, but then used an eupgrade to get into PY ... would I now be a higher priority for an oversell op-up, than an SEMM who was still sitting in Y? Or does the fact that I'm now sitting in PY not change my priority, because the fare I purchased was Y?

The Lev

This is what will be needed to avoid the scenario I outlined above.

(Would need to work not only on the web interface but presumably also in the antiquated RESIII system for when people call in for upgrade requests, or request it with a live agent.)

Ben Lipsey

Yes you can, you can ask the GA to downgrade you.

The Lev

If we ask to be downgraded what happens if our (preferred) seat has been given away to someone else?

24left

Ummmm....