buffcoat

Getting ready to take my first trip through Centurion (and first as a DL/CO Gold & US Plat member). The trip is RDU to SAN. Client will pay so any coach fare will do (so it may make sense to look for a Y fare).

Business trip for me and a colleague. My question: which of those three airlines (using Cent travel or something else) is most likely to result in a first-class upgrade for both of us?

I know DL and CO require you to book two different reservations and give the Gold member priority while the companion has to wait longer, while US books both at once, which would lead me toward USAir.

Any other tips also appreciated.


Sorry if this is the wrong forum - it just seems unique to Cent to have this kind of choice among flyer programs for a relatively infrequent (these days) flyer.

SusanDK

You may want to do some searches on the respective airline forums regarding upgrades on the specific route. There are often threads about which routes the elite flyers are more or less likely to score the upgrade. Also check what planes are being flown on each airline's route, and the respective seat configuration, and try to find the one that has the most first class or business seats available for greater chance at upgrades.

I think it is possible that DL (and maybe others) will give you an automatic confirmed upgrade at ticketing with a Y fare. So you may want to check that option if you're able to book a full Y fare (that's what I would do if someone else is paying the bill and ticketing in Y gives me a confirmed upgrade).

From reading the DL and, to a lesser extent, the CO forums, it sounds as if CO is more likely to ensure every seat up front is filled with eligible upgrades whereas DL will allow seats to go empty up front.

I fly a limited amount, and I will say that I like CO's BusinessFirst product better than Delta's domestic First Class. But I'm not sure that CO's BF that I experienced is the norm for your route. I have not flown USAir in over 10 years, but my impression is that they have an inferior product to DL/CO. However, as a Platinum, you may have a better chance at an upgrade with them than your DL/CO Gold status. I don't know if they offer free companion upgrades like DL/CO.

Good luck and let us know what you do.

Susan

DMSFCA

US for sure. I'm a Cent too and use DL/CO/US all the time.

Cent gives you plat on USAir. If you make the reservation for both of you and you are both traveling on the same reservation and all the same dates AND if the other person is a USAir FF member (any level) you will both get upgraded.

I do this all the time. As a plat (via Cent) I seem to get us upgraded most of the time.

Jazzop

Wow. Way to fleece your clients. Mind telling me what businesses you work for so I never contract with them?

SusanDK

I didn't say that I do this or have done this (I'm not in a position that offers this option), but it's what I said I would look at doing if I were in the OP's position and could legitimately book Y.

FWIW, when I travel for work, I am booked in the cheapest economy ticket that can be found. If travel is 9+ hours, the rules allow us to fly Business class, but we are strongly encouraged to live with Economy class to save money, which I've done. But I rarely travel for work, so it's a moot point.

The majority of my travel is personal and out-of-pocket. And I do look for the best deal to pay as little as possible but fly up front. Isn't that the whole premise on which FT is based?

Susan

LiveFromNY

I haven't had this experience on US. Are you booking through Cent. Travel or on the US website?

buffcoat

By all means, sign up with the most penny pinching, save-your-way-to-prosperity consultants you can find. I suspect you'll be in for a surprise when they turn in their work.

I wouldn't want consultants who stayed at the Ritz Carlton on my dime and the Econolodge on theirs - but I also wouldn't want ones who flew lousy airlines or inconvenient routes just to save a couple hundred bucks on a $100,000 project.

sbm12

The implication that one must fly on Y fares in order to perform one's job is ridiculous, and that is what SusanDK also advocated and what Jazzop was against. Just because one can buy any coach fare doesn't mean that it makes sense to buy a Y fare to assure yourself the F seat. For one thing, many consulting agreements have a clause that says something to the effect of "will make every effort to minimize expenses" which this would clearly be in violation of. For another, it just isn't good business sense to spend more money than is necessary to get the job done. I was actually talking to someone I met during a recent Mileage Run who said his company no longer allows booking in Y as too many people were doing it to get the F seat, making it a de facto F fare.

It is unreasonable to expect anyone to fly a double-connect over a non-stop to save $20. At the same time, if the same flight is available at either $400 or $800, buying it at $800 jsut so you get an F seat when the client offered to pay for your coach travel is a waste of the clients money and rather unethical.

To the OP, you almost certainly won't get the upgrade for the companion on CO, and if you do it won't be until day of travel at the airport, so unless you're willing to split up don't go that route. DL is the same, I think. I don't know US well enough to know how their companion upgrades work.

upgrader

sbm12, IMHO you take a very reasonable and honest view. I would like to think this is the way most consultants/businesses would function but I fear such is not usually the case. In any case, thank you for speaking up for integrity and, in the long run, good business sense.

buffcoat

I think (even though it's not TOO high) we can turn down the heat a bit. I don't think we're talking at polar opposite purposes here.

I wouldn't up a $400 ticket to $800 (and, unfortunately in the case of this flight, it's more like a $400 ticket to $1,500 right now) to get a Y-class fare. You will forgive my ignorance; as I said in the original post, I don't fly much right now, and I've never really checked flights by fare class. I wasn't aware of the wide gulf between Econo fares and the Y fares.

I hope we can move off that point...



Sbm12 - I'm wondering, are CO/DL generally bad about upgrades for Gold members, or are they just bad about companion upgrades? That's a real disappointment, in either case.

In the past I flew much more on AA and (late, lamented) Midway and even (late, lamented) Independence. And Southwest, which has no first-class to upgrade to.

I've only flown CO and DL once or twice - I'm going to be doing more traveling this year and I'm looking to fly more on one of the airlines that Cent grants status for. Sounds like US (flown more, not a huge fan of their service) is more the way to go, although you can't transfer MR points to US.

US' Gold site says that you can upgrade your companion at the same time as the Platinum member. They make a big deal out of having the most generous upgrading policy in the industry.

sbm12

If you are an elite and on a Y fare you get upgraded at time of booking, assuming there is a F seat to sell (A bucket on CO). If you are non-elite your Y upgrade comes after ALL elites on ALL fares, which is to say not very often. Companion upgrades on CO are processed just after the associated elite level of the person they are accompanying, but only at the airport. The full breakdown for the at-airport upgrade hiearchy can be found here (excerpted from the CO FAQ here on FlyerTalk). As you can see, the opportunities are limited, though I have been successful every now and then getting a companion - once on EWR-MCO with empties in F and once on SEA-IAH where he got the last seat.

As for upgrades as a regular Gold on a regular fare, it depends a lot on route and day of travel.

If your travel pattern lends itself to flying routes that are operated by a single carrier then focusing on one makes a lot of sense. If your pattern means flying routes that a single carrier doesn't serve look at alliances to get some additional benefits. And US stinks. They have no respect for their customers and appear to be in a race to the bottom in terms of service. I'd avoid them unless there are no other reasonable options available. To wit, I've flown them once in the past 12 months and the flight was OK, but it didn't inspire confidence in me that they had the whole operation running smoothly. I only took it because the timing allowed me to get between the two clients at the time I needed to travel.

climbermom

As a CO Gold, my experience has been that although you might get the upgrade out of non-hub RDU, once you connect in EWR, you will NEVER get an upgrade on a transcon. I'm not sure about connecting at IAH or CLE, but in all my years of flying CO, I have never gotten a companion upgrade, even though my husband is a plat.

You might do better to use your Centurion card to use the 2-4-1 for domestic flights and save more money.

SusanDK

I am 4 for 4 in upgrades on CO for me (CO Gold) and my husband as companion. All flights were EWR-MCO and return during 2006 and 2007.

I never said that one must fly Y to perform the job. Buffcoat said he could legitimately book Y, and I mentioned that it might be possible to get a confirmed upgrade at booking with a Y fare. Like buffcoat, my knowledge of purely domestic U.S. fares is limited as I have only flown U.S. domestic legs as part of international connections for the past 21 years as I now live outside the U.S. so I haven't even researched stand-alone U.S. domestic fares in that time period.

Sometimes there are good reasons for Y when traveling for business, like flexibility in case flights need to be changed (I'm not sure what other fares offer the same type of flexibililty for changes or cancellations).

Susan

LynchMob

sbm12, There is a reason Y-class fares exist and there is a reason a large majority of businesses use them. 1) Business trips are often scheduled days, if not a day before an actual meeting where discounted coach fares are generally much closer to Y-class fares 2) Corporations often receive discounts from the airlines for booking large quantities of Y-class fares 3) Meetings often run late or get out early and almost never end on time, we need the flexibility to take a later or earlier flight so we are not cutting a meeting short or wasting time at the airport. 4) If you have any problem the airlines treat you better and try to accomodate your needs because you booked a full fare class (not get bumped, etc). I think on flexibility alone a Y-class fare is worth the money.

sbm12

I know why Y fares exist. I fly them every now and then, as the situation warrants. And I never suggested that a Y fare should never be use. If they are all that is available (ie last minute booking that one doesn't purposefully delay just to ensure a Y fare) or they are comparable to other fares thanks to a corporate discount then there is no ethical issue - buy the ticket that is available for sale.

I believe that the total flexibility argument is a red herring. Most carriers offer same-day confirmed (SDC) standby and/or regular standby for a nominal charge or free. My general policy is to book the late flight and then, if I can get to the airport earlier, deal with trying to get on the early flight through some standby/pay means. If I have a ticket that costs significantly less, the up-charge to buy my way on to the earlier departure is still a cost savings versus a Y fare ticket. On top of that, I can continue to work while in the airport, so the wait isn't a significant advers affect on me. The full Y only gets you moved onto another flight if there is a seat available, and at that point the SDC policy applies to everyone equally.

I also disagree with the suggestion that a Y fare is less likely to be bumped than a lower fare. When it comes time for IDBs the fare class has much less to do with the situation than other things, such as who has a seat assignment and who is already on the plane in said seat. There is some additional flexibility in cases of irregular operations (weather/mechanical), but that is carrier-specific to a large extent and also depends on there being other options. If I am flying NYC-LAX there are plenty of alternatives. If I am flying ROA-NYC there are significantly fewer, and the flexibility doesn't do one any good.

Finally, even if one accepts the idea that the flexibility is needed every now and then, with some advance planning and a relatively regular travel pattern advance purchase tickets plus change fees still work out to be less expensive. If I can buy my tickets in advance at a reasonable discount (which buffcoat and SusanDK both acknowledge is likely in this case) and even if I have to change to 50% of the time, which I think is a very high number in most cases for most travelling people, I still come out ahead on the savings.

As I said, there is a time and a place for the Y fare. Doing so simply to ensure an upgrade to F when there are other fares available on the same or very similar flights is unethical, particularly when the travel policy is for Y travel.