Same to report SEA-JFK.
9 seats in F within 24 hours. Ultimately, there were 14 on waitlist. One pax was upgraded a few hours before the flight and 8 people were upgraded at boarding. That really makes for a stressful wait with all those open seats just sitting there.

One thing I have to say from intense monitoring is NO ONE was upgraded outside of this priority waitlist within 24 hours and the open seats showing actually matched the available seats.

As long as they truly lockdown the 24 hour paid upgrades jumping ahead of elite passengers, which appears to be happening, this is probably the best way to go.

By holding out on upgrades until the last minute, it allows people who buy last minute tickets to get higher fare classes and score those upgrades in front of those who booked weeks earlier. I don't know if it is intentional but they then reward their higher fare paying customers.

United changed to this strategy and pushed out elites on lower fare classes from ever having a chance.

So long as the process maintains integrity and doesn't start moving toward TODs/paid upgrade preference, I'm fine with this. I always thought it was a bit crummy that my R fare purchased 7 months in advance had priority over another MVPG who bought a walk up ticket for 10x as much money...even though that policy benefited me greatly as a flexible mostly leisure traveler who books far in advance.

The thing I don't like about DL and UA is that they'll happily sell those upgrades out from under elites who are indeed buying expensive tickets and playing the stupid MQD/PQD game. I routinely get paid upgrade offers on el-cheapo DL tickets at OLCI, only to find that the upgrade list at the gate is miles long and available F seats go from 5 or 6 at OLCI to 1 or 0 at the gate with no move in the #1 person on the list.

It has gotten so bad on DL that I watch the advance purchase Y->F fare differentials and just call in or buy it online if the price is palatable, because upgrades are pretty much not going to happen if you are not a DM or flying an ultra-leisure route on a Tuesday at 3am. Just this week I sniped one for a $300 add collect on a $170 fare for 8 hours in F, 3/4 of which is lie flat.

I totally understand them keeping a couple of seats for last minute sales, but there are currently seven available according to the CSA I spoke to and we are less than 24 hours out. How many last minute sales are they really going to have. The CSA said she sees us at the top of the upgrade list, but they haven't released the inventory so nothing to do but wait...

If they want to hold upgrades until the gate I wish they'd at least let the gate agents process them at, say, T-60 or even T-45 instead of later. When we were upgraded last weekend at T-30 at PHX we were among the last people to board. The agent obviously tried to do it sooner and had already chosen seats for those being upgraded but said that the system wasn't letting them release the upgrades until 30 minutes before scheduled departure. We were told that this problem was supposed to have been fixed early in January but wasn't. Perhaps this is airport specific? Maybe upgrades are released later in some locations. In any case I'd like to board while overhead space near my seat is available.

I told Alaska about my situation in Chicago via Alaska Listens and this was the response I received.

That explains why they wait so long... I must admit they do a good job of coming back on the airline and giving you an upgrade. On United it only happens maybe half the time. It is less work for the GA to just give it to that last standby person :(

If it looks like I am getting the upgrade when I board, I'll put my bag in first class overhead, then take my pre-assigned economy seat. Of course I may get some dirty looks :(

Thanks. At least we now know that the T-30 restriction has been intentionally imposed by AS and is not under the gate agent's control.

If it looks like I'll be upgraded, I'll hold back for the T-3 mark and wait for a boarding pass. Happened twice for me last month, and went as expected ;)

Holding back F inventory also helps G75K's (and those in paid F) with SDC scenarios ^

That's exactly what I was going to say. It use to be that if you did a same day change you were guaranteed not to keep your seat in F so you have to choose either F or leave earlier. This latest system gets everyone in contention at the same time and disburses at the last possible minute based on elite status and fare paid. As long as they really don't allow piad upgrade line jumpers to take F during OLCI then it is really difficult to fine fault other than the stress worrying. Most importantly if you want F and are not elite it will be much more difficult using a last minute paid upgrade.

My understanding of how the wait list works is that people move from the waitlist queue to the waitlist either when they purchase a qualifying fare or at their window and that within elite level they are processed onto the waitlist at this window by fare class but once on the waitlist they stay in line. Am I misunderstanding this? By my understanding, once inside the window fare class shouldn't matter.

I think there was a glitch in the upgrade processing of my flight last Sunday IAD-SEA. There was about 8-10 people on the waitlist for about 6-8 seats but not U space the night before. The next morning I noticed that there was U open and I was first on the list but was not upgraded. I left it for a few hours and no change. I tried checking in again but there was no upgrade option either complimentary or paid. I called in and the agent was perplexed by it too but upgraded me.

Just to close the loop, in the end the upgrade did not happen before checkin (at T-24), but cleared overnight. By the time I woke up, everyone on the upgrade list was cleared, and U was available (can't say which happened first). Flight went out with empty seats, so guess they weren't able to get anyone to buy up, either.

Not worthy of a new thread imo but here is a new (to me at least) wrinkle I experienced today.

Booked a RT on the app (iPhone) which is not something I often do. There were NO boxes to check for "complimentary upgrade" rather there were two boxes that you would potentially check if you 'DO NOT want an upgrade to premium class (including middle seat possibility)'
and another for 'DO NOT want an upgrade to first class'

Seeing as how they are NOT's I figured that leaving them unchecked would in effect opt me in to "yes I want those opportunities for upgrade"

Completed res. Not identified as Waitlisted for First class"

Went To website and pulled up reservation on iPad (full version) and clicked - complimentary upgrade. Chose the two flights and submitted. "Sorry we can't do that,please call"

Canceled reservation and rebooked via website. Now I am on the upgrade list.

New to me. Thought I'd share.

I believe that info was posted a couple of weeks ago.