Originally Posted by Seattlenerd

In my perhaps imperfect understanding, they flat out shouldn't be selling upgrades within the elite upgrade window if upgrade space is available and there are elites eligible to upgrade. That doesn't mean there aren't mistakes made (and believe me, I've experienced them). But they tend to be at the ticket counter or gate the day of flight, not a day or two in advance. Or someone sneaks in during OLCI to buy an upgrade while the upgrade processor is still chugging along to process a elite upgrade eligible batch.

I suspect the Twitter human, as nice as he/she may have been, may have also been misinformed.

And yes, an ExpertFlyer subscription is worth its weight in upgrades. (Not to mention seat alerts for better seating, and aircraft change alerts to make sure your seat still is exactly what you expected.) My unpaid endorsement of EF.

Originally Posted by altadoc

Recently flew PDX-ABQ and back last week. Ticket was booked prior to qualifying for MVP for 2018. On my reservation clearly stated "waitlisted for first class... waitlisted for premium economy..."

While I was eventually upgraded to first, it was not automatic at 48 hours. I looked online - 8-10 first seats available - and was able to select a premium econ seat. Then 5-10 minutes later get an email about the first class upgrade clearing. This happened at +36 hours on the initial flight and +48 hours on the return flight. Not sure exactly if this was due to the ticket being purchased prior to obtaining 2018 status. It worked out in the end, just wasn't automatic as I was expecting.

Originally Posted by Seattlenerd

In my perhaps imperfect understanding, they flat out shouldn't be selling upgrades within the elite upgrade window if upgrade space is available and there are elites eligible to upgrade. That doesn't mean there aren't mistakes made (and believe me, I've experienced them). But they tend to be at the ticket counter or gate the day of flight, not a day or two in advance. Or someone sneaks in during OLCI to buy an upgrade while the upgrade processor is still chugging along to process a elite upgrade eligible batch.

I suspect the Twitter human, as nice as he/she may have been, may have also been misinformed.

And yes, an ExpertFlyer subscription is worth its weight in upgrades. (Not to mention seat alerts for better seating, and aircraft change alerts to make sure your seat still is exactly what you expected.) My unpaid endorsement of EF.

Originally Posted by altadoc

Recently flew PDX-ABQ and back last week. Ticket was booked prior to qualifying for MVP for 2018. On my reservation clearly stated "waitlisted for first class... waitlisted for premium economy..."

While I was eventually upgraded to first, it was not automatic at 48 hours. I looked online - 8-10 first seats available - and was able to select a premium econ seat. Then 5-10 minutes later get an email about the first class upgrade clearing. This happened at +36 hours on the initial flight and +48 hours on the return flight. Not sure exactly if this was due to the ticket being purchased prior to obtaining 2018 status. It worked out in the end, just wasn't automatic as I was expecting.

Originally Posted by Seattlenerd

That's pretty automatic, though. Sounds like the upgrade processor cleared you into First when U space was released, which frequently happens after the upgrade window opens (not always at the same time as the upgrade window opening). Which is good when it does eventually happen, no matter when it does.

Originally Posted by oliver98

I'm a bit confused at the above discussion. I'm an MVPG and have a trip coming up with my wife (non-elite). She is also listed on our PNR as "waitlisted for first class". Whether she actually shows up on the upgrade list after check-in is another story, but I assume it also means if there is U space at 72 hours out she will get upgraded along with me. Is this the case?

Originally Posted by radumbo

Went ahead and subscribed to EF; lo and behold - 0 U space!
Interesting that there's 0 U space even though there are plenty of seats; it makes sense they'd want to grab at least some paid upgrades before opening this up, but I always assumed upgrades would clear first.
Thanks for your help!



After checking out EF, I'm thinking I'll have the same outcome. I flew this route last month and didn't clear at +48 hours, but I did go straight to F instead of Premium first which is what threw me off this time.

Originally Posted by makfan

What the person might have meant about paid upgrades is P fares, which are technically economy fares with an instant upgrade. The downside is that if your flight goes south, you are behind and paid F on the priority list when rebooking. That said, I've had exactly 1 P fare go south in the last two years, on American. I did re-clear into F but it was a battlefield.

Originally Posted by makfan

What the person might have meant about paid upgrades is P fares, which are technically economy fares with an instant upgrade. The downside is that if your flight goes south, you are behind and paid F on the priority list when rebooking. That said, I've had exactly 1 P fare go south in the last two years, on American. I did re-clear into F but it was a battlefield.