I will have enough flight for Elite status in a week. In the month following I have ten flights, all of which I would love to take as an Elite!

How quickly do they get status set up? Is there a live person somewhere to whom I can speak to expedite the process?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

You can email them once you qualify and they will process it pretty quickly (day or two, if I recall). And watch out for this: if, for instance, your 20th flight does not POST inside of the 90 day window, it will not recognize it, and you will HAVE to email them and explain, but again, they will handle it quickly.

As for the flights you have in the next month- don't get your hopes up too much in terms of Elite benefits, especially if you already booked them, prior to attaining status.

I don't know, but I would bet that the system will not go back and annotate your elite status to the existing itineraries, thus you won't be recognized for upgrades (which really doesn't happen all that much anyway,) etc, and without the card that you won't have in the mail for a few weeks, you won't even get much help with Security in Atlanta.

But cheers on making status!

Thanks!

The delayed posting is exactly why I am concerned - they are still missing some September flights, aafter three requests to correct it.

Once I am in, I will try calling previous to each flight to get the upgrade request in. I do BOS-PHL and biz class is generally empty. If there is room, do they put in the Elites?

Not as much as you would like.

You're mileage may vary, others may disagree, and maybe I just fly full flights all the time.

Once you are approved you only need to email them the conf# of your flights to have your status added.
There is no "Waiting list" for free upgrades, nor will you find elite literature anywhere about free upgrades, as officially that is not an elite benefit.
What is official is the ability to practically guarentee yourself a paid upgrade by purchasing it the day beofre the flight.

Now, i have had 100% success on my past 20 flights or so, (all either to or from cak) on getting upgraded for free by check-in or at the gate, sometimes w/o asking, but most times by asking at the gate.

Basically as long as there is an empty seat you will be upgraded!

Actually, the offical benefit is first come, first sever free upgrade on certian fares. However, these are the same fares on which we used to allow anyone to purchase an upgrade. Because we now allow people to purchase upgrades on any fare class, most GAs will upgrade Elites free on any fare class if requested.

You are 100% correct, on Y and B fares you will be upgraded at time of booking.
I was simply referring to the more common M and lower fares...

I am Elite! When I got the last flights credited
I inquired abt how to make it happen immediately and they did it immediately.

Newbie questions:
1) on my pre-existing bookings there is a button to email cust svc to have elite benefits applied to the booking. What would this yield? I see I can cancel/change, as well as book seats. Is there more?

2) To get an upgrade from a GA, does one just inquire gently? How is Boston? Baltimore? At PHL yesterday I heard two GAs telling a very frustrated elite that the rule is free upgrades only for Y and B, that's the rule and they follow the rule.

How I usually see it done is "Hi, how are you doing, I was just wondering if there was any chance of an elite upgrade on this fight." Generally accompanied by sliding an elite card across the counter. That or "Could you just check to make sure my elite a+ rewards number is on this reservation? Oh, and any chance of an upgrade?" The gate agents in PHL were quite correct, although in the minority, so there's not much point arguing I would think.

When you board, I often hear something to the effect of "Hey, I'm elite and they've got me back in 16C, if anything opens up in business that would be great." If you can spot the lead, it's best to make this comment to them, because that's who has the authority to do so. Then go back to 16C - there's nothing more irritating than someone that just plops them self down in BC in the hopes that we won't move them. Although admittedly I�ve never seen an elite do this. Have had one throw a temper tantrum, though. Literally screaming at us, because there was a seat open and we wouldn�t let him take it. I promised him it if it was still open when the door closed, but of course the rightful owner did show up.

Also... congratulations, and thanks for helping to pay our wages!

Thanks, very helpful!

One question: How do I spot the lead? Is there something on a nametag, or a different mode of dress?

There's not really a consistent way, that's why I said "�f". If they have a single gold line either around the sleeve of their dress or jacket, then they are lead-qualified. If there's only one of those up front, then that's your lead. If there are two or none, then you have to guess. It's usually the more senior of the two (senior people generally like to fly lead or in the back) so if they have a five or ten year service button then it's a fair assumption. When I'm boarding and asking a similar question I'll often hedge my bets by making eye contact with both as I speak.

Got upgraded on my very first flight as an Elite, BOS to PHL. Nice welcome. We will see how PHL to BOS goes.

What'd i tell 'ya!
Enjoy the elite status!

...I've consistently asked the GA, and been turned down all except twice. I found I've had much more success with the automatic upgrade on the high priced tickets bought through the A2B program, although even that has only been about 60%. I've even asked a few times and been told they have to sell the upgrades and they do not give them to the elites. I would love to know exactly what the official policy is. I would think a >$450 RT bought via A2B with an Elite flying would just about guarantee an upgrade, but not so.

I've not ever asked the flight crew, although that sure makes sense. On quite a few of the flights I've been on there has been space in business. However, I would feel awkward in announcing "I'm an elite" . Would showing my boarding pass, that shows Elite on it, help?

I keep hoping for a crew member to give me an upgrade on board, as FL/fa has written about doing, but no such luck yet.