Westcoaster

Have you considered booking your tickets directly in F since you have one of the certs that will allow it? You'd get the mileage bonus for F plus you wouldn't have to worry about changes. Just a thought.

Eujeanie

Buying a Full Flex to upgrade is about $500+ (each way)with the companion being $110.

Buying F outright is about $700+ (each way) with the companion being $110.

It's nice to think I've got my one last F companion cert, but to save $400+ I'd rather go the upgrade route.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's PWP wondrousdevice3.0: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

For $100 per person per way I'd buy F. This way in case of irrops you'd end up in F, you get BR access, and you aren't downgraded if both Pax are not elite (in the event of a schedule change- yours or AS'. Plus you do earn 50% more miles- both EQM and RDM.

Finkface

You will both get the 50% F cabin bonus as well if you buy F outright. And they are EQM. Could get you on your way to MVP for next year.

Westcoaster

Got it. Then I agree with others that you'll have to call for upgrades after you purchase. When my husband and I were both MVP I'd get the phone rep on the line at the point I was ready to click Purchase and have them verify that I could do what I wanted to do. Then I'd click Purchase and have them process the upgrades right then. That was years ago but might still be an option to reduce the chance of something going wrong.

By the way -- from what I understand you don't need a companion cert that allows purchases booked in F to do what you're thinking of doing. We should still be able to do elite upgrades on coach fares with one of the new no-booking-in-F companion certs.

Edited to add: After some thought I realized that some of the phone reps I get these days don't seem to be as savvy as the ones who helped me way back when. I hope you don't run into one of the less knowledgeable ones if/when you call in about this. Good luck.

Boraxo

Exactly, but your math is off. The fare is $700+, so with 2-for-1 certs I save $600 per companion ticket. We have 5 cardholders and 5 children, multiply by 5.

Tell me exactly how an MVP (not MVP-G) can upgrade a companion with an economy class 2-for-1 ticket. Because I was told by AS that you cannot split the reservation or upgrade the MVP (at the 48-hour mark) as you must both travel in the same cabin. So the only way to do it is to wait until airport checkin and then try to purchase an upgrade for the non-MVP, if any are left.

Eujeanie

You guys almost have me convinced to just buy F (which is what we did last year when I had no status).

But in the case of irrops, wouldn't you only be put in F if there was space available on another flight? And speaking of other flights, where we are going there are none - only one non-stop a day between PDX and OGG. And we probably wouldn't use the BR since we're not laying over anywhere - and does OGG even have a BR?

But there is all the extra miles...

Still, $400 is $400 even if you think of it as 4 x $100.

Seattlenerd

Doing the math: If the prices were 2-for-1, only you would have to pay and your companion would be free. So if it were actually 2-for-1, the cost on a $600 ticket for two would be $600, not $710, as the companion fare tacks on an average (with taxes) $110 more.

The upgrade question has been answered elsewhere. Your original post did not indicate you were MVP. It just said there was no way to upgrade.

missydarlin

I wouldn't count on getting MVP upgrades, especially when you can't say for sure that you'll even be MVP's when the flight comes around. For $400, to have F guaranteed (and eqm bonus), I'd book it into F. It also gives you more flexibility if you want to change your tickets .. since there is no change fee for paid F. It sounds like you're booking this pretty far in advance, so that flexibility might come in handy.


There may not be any other nonstops, but there are several flights daily to where you are going through Seattle, the Bay Area, or even San Diego. They'd certainly try to find you a spot through one of those cities in case of irrops.

Eujeanie

I'm very happy to hear all opinions, and there are many things I don't really understand...someone a few posts back said once we're upgraded, they will not take it away if and when we happen not to make MVP next year - yet you (missydarling) are implying that that might happen? That is a dealbreaker, and I need to know for sure.

This is not a 48-hour - type upgrade, this would be guaranteed at purchase. "IF" I can do it on a companion fare, I'm not even sure of that yet, other than the one person who said they did it years ago while being on the phone, no one has really said whether this can be done with the companion fare.

Finkface

If there is any change whatsoever, a schedule change, an equipment change or you decide to change, then you can lose your upgrade (or your place on the waitlist if you are on it). If your are still MVP, there may not be U space after the change is made. And if you ar no longer MVP, then you lose the upgrade altogether. No changes=no problems. The longer away the flight is, the more chance there will be some sort of change, either by you or by AS. If it's a dealbreaker, then buy F.

Or I will happily trade you my to-be-earned-in-April cert in Y for your soon-to-be-expiring F cert . You would have until next April to book and could book 330 days beyond that. I will happily take your expiring one to buy another 2 F tix now. PM me if you like.

Eujeanie

Ok, I admit I'm not a Road Warrior, and don't know all the ins and outs like most of you do, so forgive this admittedly STOOPID question. If I upgrade, AT POINT OF SALE, on an MVP bucket, and I'm given a seat in F some 11 months in advance of my flight...you're all saying that I am NOT considered to be in F? That a schedule change, etc., will have me bumped back to Y?

I'm very surprised by that.

Finkface

You aren't booked in paid F, you are U. Yes, you are in the F cabin for that flight but your fare is coded as U. I know there are other fare codes as well but the experts can correct/expand on this. But for example, if they decided to cancel the non stop service on your route next month, they would reroute you via another city. Or if your particular flight were cancelled that day for whatever reason, they would again reroute you. In either case, your upgrade is not guaranteed and you would lose it. If you were still MVP and if there was U space and if there were no other similarly affected passengers with higher status, you could get that upgrade again. If not, you only paid for Y so that's what they would accommodate you in. Just 2 examples.

SF1K

I think only if you are not MVP at that point is there a risk of being bumped back to Y. Basically if you are currently following all the rules to be upgraded to F, but by the time the schedule change (which may or may not cause a ticket reissue) happens and at that time you or your husband aren't MVP and wouldn't qualify for the upgrade you could get stuck in Y.

I'm going to be in a similar situation next year. So I'm really curious to see what you end up doing. Right now my partner is MVP Gold so not an issue, next year I think we will both be MVP. The issue is that you can't force the online system to book into the lowest upgradeable MVP instant upgrade class, and you can't use a companion cert on the phone, so a bit of a catch 22.

Here are my thoughts on what I hope to do:

1. Book on-line using companion vert (ensuring 2+ U seats are available). I'll book into full-flex economy.

2. Then call in and have them "downgrade" the fare to the lowest fare that an MVP can instant upgrade and then have them upgrade both of us to F as we'll both be MVP.

Thought from anybody on that?

HikerT

These certs have been made even more useless. Prohibited item now in CC forum.