Flying for Fun

That is a good point. I was going to mention that too.

James

sea_jeff

There’s a zero percent chance I would choose a middle PC seat over an exit row aisle without knowing that the aisle and window occupants were really, really slim.

ezak

I did click through to the purchase page until it asked for a credit card number. Maybe it’s a one-time system error? I’ll try again next time - seems like y’all have been able to make it work.

notquiteaff

I have seen that before, and like you went to the purchase page, but not further. Pretty sure I mentioned it in another thread here a few months ago.

edit: more than once, according to my post here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30782309-post7.html

Waitlisted

I’ve had it happen a few times, it wants to charge when it shouldn’t but a call is all it takes. Seems to happen more when I try to upgrade earlier than T-36, because the window actually opens up day of your upgrade, not right at the T-time.

lensovet

I’m not sure what the point of an alert i set for myself is? The upgrades don’t always clear immediately. So I don’t need a notification to check 48 hours before (I already do that), I need a notification to know when an upgrade actually clears.

also, fun times: today my upgrades from non-exit-row seats cleared immediately at T-48 but the seats still weren’t changed. Luckily I was able to snag aisle/window before they disappeared.

be_rettSEA

The point of setting an alert is that premium "upgrades" don't work the same as First upgrades, and I think it's somewhat intentional. I find it rare that my main cabin seats "upgrade" into premium class at my upgrade window, even if PC seats are available. I think I've gotten automatically moved and an email about it once or twice. Most times, if I'm on a lower fare, I'll just grab one at T-72 hrs (MVPG here). I don't find the waitlist order is respected for these seats and don't particularly care. I'd rather just check on my own time vs being surprised about being in a window when I'd generally prefer an aisle, etc. Between the variety of IT issues AS has overall, including w/ upgrades to First being broken (a much more annoying issue), I'd say this is a fairly low priority for them to fix.

lensovet

So another day, another failed upgrade – we have exit row seats and there’s 4 pairs of seats together in premium. A few hours ago there were 6. Tried chatting an agent who said that I will need to call in to get the upgrade fee waived. It’s past midnight now so this will have to wait until the morning at which point hopefully those pairs of seats are still there!

yeah thanks but no thanks.

twitch76

You probably answered this already and I missed it -

what status are you and your companion?

lensovet

I ended up calling last night and the agent had a good idea regarding a potential bug in the upgrade system. We are both MVP. It is probably thinking that because we are “just” MVP, it doesn’t even bother noticing that we both are and thinks that we aren’t eligible for upgrades. Sucks because first is wide open on this flight but if they end up upgrading someone else in front of us before I can get an agent, those empty seats might be gone.

be_rettSEA

If you're both MVP thus have your own individual benefits, what's the benefit in keeping on the same reservation instead of just booking two independent PNRs, or asking them to split the reservation for you? Are you on a companion fare or something (apologies if it's been stated above).

rustykettel

Ahhh!! Yeah, that's been a longtime issue with First upgrades as well. If there's any companion, even another MVP, the system will skip over it.

Protection together during IRROPs? There's linking reservations but that's just a note, more or less.

lensovet

Oh ffs. Does Alaska know about this or plan to do anything about it? Primary reason to book together is convenience and getting PreCheck for my partner (who doesn’t have it but I do and she rarely travel travels by herself to justify it for her).

eponymous_coward

You're going to have to decide what's more important, PreCheck for her without paying the $100 (or whatever- it's often free with the right credit card) or getting upgraded. Not being able to split parties on a PNR for things like upgrades without splitting the PNR isn't an unusual problem (IOW, you'd run into this on other airlines too). And since I can guess what you're going to ask or complain about next, upgrades are not processed at the same time for a party of two, they go one by one.

And you can't be upgraded with a companion because... wait for it... MVPs don't get companion upgrades. If one of you was a Gold, this won't be a problem.

You're an edge case (both MVPs, both traveling at the same time). The best solution is to be on separate PNRs and find a credit card that will pay for your SO's TSA Precheck.

be_rettSEA

Or one of you (sounds like you, since your companion only travels a few times a year) do some extra flying and get Gold so you can upgrade both of you. That'll probably cost more than the $0 w/ credit card benefit / $85 for Precheck/ $100 for Global Entry but would solve the issue as well.