How Complimentary Upgrades Work

Old Jun 19, 2018, 2:06 pm
  #586  
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Originally Posted by tonythetiger06
The Alaska upgrade process is a joke.
As an MVP member when you check in and there is a Premium Class seat available, you can choose that for free and essentially not have to go through the upgrade process. My issue is that after check in, you have to go through the upgrade list or pay the upgrade fee. If there are no good PC seats and then one pops up after check in, you have to pay or hope you get upgraded.
While it's not the ideal scenario, you can also just call or tweet and ask to be placed into that seat. They should do it gratis. But I agree, it's maddening to have to do that extra step versus just being able to self-select online.
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Old Jun 19, 2018, 2:08 pm
  #587  
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Originally Posted by be_rettSEA
curious if others have seen this on other AS flights, and if this strategy could be why some of us are seeing fewer upgrades?
sounds like an anomaly, and unlikely to be a regular recurrence...kudos for the GA of delivering a reasonable solution that would have possibly been quite appealing to someone in 29E.
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Old Jun 20, 2018, 9:27 am
  #588  
 
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Originally Posted by PV_Premier
While it's not the ideal scenario, you can also just call or tweet and ask to be placed into that seat. They should do it gratis. But I agree, it's maddening to have to do that extra step versus just being able to self-select online.
I've tweeted and went to the gate counter ton only get the run around to the point where I just gave up, even told that I wasn't eligible for one and that people behind me on the upgrade list were eligible.
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Old Jun 20, 2018, 9:32 am
  #589  
 
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Originally Posted by PV_Premier
sounds like an anomaly, and unlikely to be a regular recurrence...kudos for the GA of delivering a reasonable solution that would have possibly been quite appealing to someone in 29E.
Agree, I found it to be super clever, and the two that finally took the offer ran off the plane giddy. Just wondering if anyone had seen it.
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Old Jun 20, 2018, 9:54 am
  #590  
 
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Originally Posted by tonythetiger06
The Alaska upgrade process is a joke.
As an MVP member when you check in and there is a Premium Class seat available, you can choose that for free and essentially not have to go through the upgrade process. My issue is that after check in, you have to go through the upgrade list or pay the upgrade fee. If there are no good PC seats and then one pops up after check in, you have to pay or hope you get upgraded.
On most of my flights I just select Premium seats when I see one open I want (within the upgrade window). Last week was the first time I was automatically upgraded to a Premium seat. \_(ツ)_/
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Old Jun 20, 2018, 3:35 pm
  #591  
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I think the Premium upgrade list and the First upgrade list should be 2 separate entities. Looking at the order on the app or the gate board can be confusing at times as to where you really stand. If you are on the waitlist for both, you show up on both lists, if already have a PC seat, just show up on the F list. When you are on both (you hope) all you see is your name with no seat assignment in PC. Sure it shows you are on the upgrade list for the PC seat, but what about F? The whole process needs an overhaul to display and operate properly.
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Old Jun 20, 2018, 6:54 pm
  #592  
 
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Booked an instant-upgrade-eligible award flight today. Both flights had the blue F meaning U space is available.

On the confirmation screen i clicked the "Complimentary upgrade" link and got an error "Unable to process your request at this time"

I swear this has happened every time I've tried to do this for months

How is the AS upgrade process STILL SO broken...???

Called and of course the perky agent was able to take care of it. But. I. Shouldn't. Have. To. Call. Every. Time.
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Old Jun 21, 2018, 3:50 pm
  #593  
 
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I think I got this to work by waiting for a minute or two before clicking. There is some kind of delay in the back bowels of the system.
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Old Jun 21, 2018, 5:11 pm
  #594  
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Originally Posted by dmodemd
I think I got this to work by waiting for a minute or two before clicking. There is some kind of delay in the back bowels of the system.
Someone needs to give Alaska's SABRE instance some Metamucil?
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Old Jun 21, 2018, 9:08 pm
  #595  
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Originally Posted by dmodemd
I think I got this to work by waiting for a minute or two before clicking. There is some kind of delay in the back bowels of the system.
IIRC this mirrors my experience as well.

AS' systems take a minute after ticketing sometimes to do basic tasks.
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Old Jun 21, 2018, 9:29 pm
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Originally Posted by Tracer_SEA
Booked an instant-upgrade-eligible award flight today. Both flights had the blue F meaning U space is available.

On the confirmation screen i clicked the "Complimentary upgrade" link and got an error "Unable to process your request at this time"

I swear this has happened every time I've tried to do this for months

How is the AS upgrade process STILL SO broken...???

Called and of course the perky agent was able to take care of it. But. I. Shouldn't. Have. To. Call. Every. Time.
I had the same issue on an instant upgrade fare a couple of weeks ago, albeit on an award ticket but it works the same way. The wisdom from the board was that it takes a few minutes for the ticket to be issued before the upgrade processes. Sure enough, by the time I finished posting my question here, the upgrade had processed. So you probably just jumped the gun a little bit. Had you waited, I’m sure you would have gotten the ‘you’ve been upgraded’ email within 10 or 15 minutes.

My thread here: MVPG upgrade on award ticket
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Old Jun 22, 2018, 9:47 am
  #597  
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the inability to claim an instant upgrade "instantly" is because the ticketing process is not actually instantaneous. the ticket can take up to 10 minutes to actually issue after you buy it, but usually it's closer to 10-60 seconds. you can't get it upgraded until the ticket number issues, despite the fact that the PNR issues immediately.

back in the days of the UA/CO merger, some tickets were actually taking hours or days to issue, even when they were 100% on UA metal.
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Old Jun 25, 2018, 12:16 pm
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Originally Posted by ucdtim17
On most of my flights I just select Premium seats when I see one open I want (within the upgrade window). Last week was the first time I was automatically upgraded to a Premium seat. \_(ツ)_/
On a recent flight, SFO-SEA, I was on the list. I had checked in the day before (exit row as booked). Day of flight, I was looking at the open seats, and noticed 7D open (other PC seats open were middles). I chose it, even though the screen showed a $29 fee, and I got the seat - never saw a "pay now" request. I guess I jumped over those ahead of me on the list (I was #5), but with the confusion of one list for two categories, who can tell?

PC as a "product" has been weird (meaning unclear, irregular, and inconsistent treatment by/from the software) ever since it started. My pet peeve is that, although you can select "upgrade to PC" when seated in an exit row, the software will not do this, ASAIK. So weird.
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 10:03 am
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Originally Posted by akdancer
On a recent flight, SFO-SEA, I was on the list. I had checked in the day before (exit row as booked). Day of flight, I was looking at the open seats, and noticed 7D open (other PC seats open were middles). I chose it, even though the screen showed a $29 fee, and I got the seat - never saw a "pay now" request. I guess I jumped over those ahead of me on the list (I was #5 ), but with the confusion of one list for two categories, who can tell?

PC as a "product" has been weird (meaning unclear, irregular, and inconsistent treatment by/from the software) ever since it started. My pet peeve is that, although you can select "upgrade to PC" when seated in an exit row, the software will not do this, ASAIK. So weird.
Apologies! The forum software marked your post as needing approval, and we didn't notice until now. Wanted to bump your post in case other missed it since it's a couple days old.

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Old Jun 28, 2018, 11:00 am
  #600  
 
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Originally Posted by akdancer
On a recent flight, SFO-SEA, I was on the list. I had checked in the day before (exit row as booked). Day of flight, I was looking at the open seats, and noticed 7D open (other PC seats open were middles). I chose it, even though the screen showed a $29 fee, and I got the seat - never saw a "pay now" request. I guess I jumped over those ahead of me on the list (I was #5 ), but with the confusion of one list for two categories, who can tell?

PC as a "product" has been weird (meaning unclear, irregular, and inconsistent treatment by/from the software) ever since it started. My pet peeve is that, although you can select "upgrade to PC" when seated in an exit row, the software will not do this, ASAIK. So weird.
When they initially rolled out PC, they got some complaints from elites upset about being moved from exit rows to premium class seats. They currently indicate on PC FAQs that those seated in exit row seats at their upgrade window will not automatically be moved to premium class. It seems like they could control this better with the check-boxes for Waitlist for Premium Class / Waitlist for First Class at booking rather than assume exit row folks don't want to move up. They could also just make exit row seats part of premium class and throw some free drinks the fig bar at those seats as well, but I guess this process is what we have for the time being.

Bottom line: if you're an elite in an exit row seat and want a premium class seat, move yourself at your upgrade window.
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