gateH15

ijgordon

I don't know all the details of this for sure, but they may also do it when coach (or PE) is oversold and they have to upgrade people anyway, regardless of whether there are a few seats or lots of seats left in J. Historically they'd do those "operational upgrades" for free, but now they have the cutting edge technology to be able to try and sell them for some cash.
$500 is a good deal, compared to $350 + 25,000 miles on a discounted "P" ticket.

voweffekt

I was also offered this from Prague to Philadelphia recently ($500 from premium e) upgrade to J .

is it worth trying to track these same day upgrade options that appear in the online check-in? I think the orders are reached for British airways

​​​​​​There were only 2 J seats open and I snagged one. Since economy was fairly full, I suspect that they would have done an operational upgrade but who knows where I would have come out on the pecking order. premium economy was open when I checked in but full upon takeoff, thus my assumption about upgrades.
I wonder:
Is the online check-in also offering upgrades from economy to premium economy?
Are these options at check-in to upgrade only when the flight is full or is this a part of a revenue-maximizing program?
V

SeattleDavid

This is just plain wrong and pessimistic. I fly TATL all the time and frequently I am the only person in the upgrade list when C becomes available – for example 5 days before the flight it goes to C4, my miles upgrade clears and it goes to C3 and sits there for a few days. When you get to the airport there may be an upgrade list, but these would seem to be people who joined the list at checkin.

Yes, there are some TATL flights where only #1 and #2 on the list clear at the gate and they will be EXPs or PPros. And there is no way to predict now for November whether your flight will be like this or not.

If you have enough miles and are willing to pay the copay (there is only a copay if you are booked in P) then get yourself on the waiting list now. You might get upgraded in a week or two from now, or a day or two before the flight, or at the airport or not at all - but if you don't go on the list then I guarantee you won't get an upgrade.

HLCinCOU

First off, did you not notice that you quoted this same post of mine last October with a similar sentiment, somewhat less combatively stated? And that I responded and agreed that I was perhaps too matter of fact about it, but referenced the main upgrade threads to support the idea that the baseline here should be at least somewhat pessimistic?

To reiterate: I agree that I should not have said so flatly that it would not clear. To wit "there will be plenty of status-holders ahead of you to fill the cabin" should maybe have been qualified with "probably" or something like that. That said, your characterization that it's more likely for a no-status person to easily upgrade runs very counter to my experience and my understanding from reading the main upgrade threads around here. I'm not sure what routes/times you're flying, but I find it extremely unlikely that the modal outcome is that you're the only person on the waitlist and they drop C4 five days out.

I agree with this advice. But I'm totally mystified by the statement, "there is only a copay if you are booked in P." The prices for miles/copay upgrades are listed here, but the short version is that the only time you don't have a copay is if you're on a full-fare ticket. Given full-fare tickets are a tiny percentage of tickets sold, it seems likely that OP will have to pay a copay. Or rather, had to pay a copay, since his flight was last November.

Dave Noble

Given that the site that you referenced details that P is discount PE and W is Full PE

■Discount Premium Economy with published fares booked in P
■Full-Fare Premium Economy with published fares booked in W

seems not a very mysterious comment. Just comes down to how expensive W fares are

Given that the flight was last november though, the whole thing seems moot

HLCinCOU

Oh, right, with respect to OP having said he was in PE, sure. I was reading the statement stand-alone I guess, and thinking "ehhh, there are like 15 different discount-econ fare codes that would require a copay too."

But as you say, as regards OP this is all extremely moot.