DrAlex

5am on a Saturday?? I'm not sure if I'm surprised by that.

Flying for Fun

There was also U1 availble on a couple other flights out of SEA as well as PAE-LAX.

James

radtechtraveler

just got off the phone with an AS supervisor that told me U space has been held back because when people who buy full price F tickets want to change their flights the day of and cant change to another flight with a F seat because others were upgraded into that space. The big wallets complained a ton over the last year and she said RM changed how they release space

RAD_PDX

jjmadison

Good point. I'm just used to SEA being so elite heavy and surprised there wouldn't be at least MVPs taking those F seats.

beckoa

Wouldn't be surprised by this. Unfortunate as there has been a change in A and U space being released...

Kurt

A bit of good news: we are booked on AS371 Ft. Lauderdale-San Francisco (7:40 a.m. departure) in late November (on a Sunday, no less; prime day for cruise passengers like us to fly out). We were waitlisted using GGUs on an Airbus with eight seats in F. Aircraft swap occurred yesterday to a 737-900 and within a few hours of acknowledging the change we were upgraded to F. I did not have to look for U space myself; it happened automatically. This flight is 6 hours 30 minutes so the upgrade is well appreciated.

nearlysober

Setup expertflyer alerts for all my upcoming flights (and friends and family) to alert me if U space opened up and got a hit today on one of my flights.
Was able to call in, drop off the waitlist & apply one of my GGU's that was at risk of rotting away.

Not the longest flight out there, but still glad to get use out of the code... and while not exactly elite tier trickery when it comes to the frequent flier world it's still a technique that I never would've understood a year ago so I'm feelin pretty savvy

Eurynom0s

Do you need to pay for Expert Flyer to get U space alerts, or is that at the free tier?

NoLaGent

Pay.

diver858

Well worth the $10 per month.

Flying for Fun

I am not sure what you mean by waitlisted with GGUs. You can't waitlist with a GGU. What fare class did you purchase and what is your Elite status?

It sounds as if you had purchased an eligible fare and were on the upgrade waitlist already. With the aircraft swap and addition of 8 more F seats your eligible fare should clear the waitlist if sufficient U space opened up. (Assuming the processor is working as it should be! )

Ineligible fares are not automatically upgraded before the Elite tier window. A GGU can be applied to a K fare or higher but it still requires a manual application from an agent. If your fare class is below K an upfare would be required before the GGU can be applied.

James

Kurt

Yes, K fare. How is it not a waitlist if it says "waitlisted" on other segments of the itinerary, also in K?

beckoa

This should be waitlisting for F during your elite upgrade window (120, 72 or 48 hours respectively). Not sure what happened here? But if in F ^^

Flying for Fun

Any Elite who purchases any non-saver fare is eligible for a "complimentary" upgrade. As such, you will see that you are "Waitlisted for First Class." It doesn't matter if the fare class is K, R, T, G, L or Q.

Fare classes for complimentary upgrades are either "eligible" or "ineligible" Eligible fare classes can be upgraded immediately at the time of purchase if U space is available. It is a benefit of Elite Status. Eligible fares for MVP are Y & S, MVPG Y, S, B & M and for 75K Y, S, B, M & H. These fare clases are in decending order with Y being a fully refundable fare. All eligible fares except H have a class of service bonus and are considerably more expensive than the lowest G, T & R fares. Fully refundable Main awards "Z" are also eligible. A 75K could purchase an H fare and enjoy an immediate upgrade to F (U available) while that same fare purchased by a MVPG is ineligible for immediate upgrade but will still be waitlisted for First Class even if U is available. An upfare to M would get the MVPG into an eligible fare for the open U space or they could apply a GGU if they have one. For any elite who purchases an eligible fare without U availability they are added directly to the waitlist for the flight at the time of purchase.

Ineligible fares are also "waitlisted for first class" but are added to a first class request queue for their elite status, not the actual waitlist for the flight. When the upgrade window for the elite tier opens, the upgrade requests are processed in fare class order, highest to lowest. In the event of a tie, the date they were added to the request queue is the tiebreaker. In our example of an MVPG purchasing an ineligible H fare, that elite will be added to the upgrade waitlist before any MVPG that purchased a K fare five months ago and before any MVP. The MVPG will be behind all 75K elites in any class and also behind any 75K who has a discounted award ticket.

Now we get to GGUs. Gold Guest Upgrade certificates are an elite benefit earned at the MVPG & 75K level. They can be gifted. Look at it as an upgrade instrument that allows the bearer to get a complimentary "eligible" immediate upgrade into First when applying the certificate on a U space available bases on a lower fare class down to K.

If there is no U availability, you can still purchase the K (or higher) fare and be waitlisted for F on the ineligible fare, however, the GGU is not waitlisted. You have to manually monitor for U availability. Should U space become available, you would need to call AS to be removed from the waitlist and apply your GGU which makes your K fare eligible and you will be upgraded immediately after application. This is not an automated process.

Since there is no change fee to upfare an itinerary, I don't purchase a GGU, or for that matter, any eligible fare (unless a lowest available fare is already eligible) when I can't confirm an immediate upgrade. I will just monitor and upfare later if/when U opens up.

If you are not monitoring for U availability, it is possible that U space can come and go without you ever being upgraded as you need to manually request the application of a GGU to make your K fare eligible.

Also keep in mind that if your connection time is 4 hours or less on your other segment(s) and U is also available on those other segments, only one GGU is required to upgrade them all. If you successfully upgrade one segment then all the other segments with <=4h connections are now also eligible and should U open up later, a call to upgrade will do so on the strength of you prior application. Again manual monitoring is required as it is not an automated process.

James