Question about "M" fare upgrade
 

Just booked EWR-SEA-SFO-EWR 2/9-2/12

My SFO-EWR flight is a "M" fare so I was all excited about the instant upgrade as a plat. No such luck despite their being open seats in F. To get that instant upgarde, does there need to a certain type of F ticket available? (e.g., "R")

Yes, it is capacity controlled. R needs to be available. If R becomes available between now and your trip, you should be able to upgrade.

It is ZE, not R, inventory that the M-Ups come out of. It tracks VERY close to Z inventory. If you see Z inventory then the M-Up should be available. ExpertFlyer can track and alert on Z inventory or you can just check every now and then.

Interesting. So R is only EUAs and vouchers? I received a instant upgrade a few weeks ago and my fare class was R...

More proof that there are some bugs that need to be addressed.

So does anyone know if I will automatically be prompted for the upgrade if any ZE inventory opens up?

It's not going to send you an e-mail or anything, but if you view the reservation when ZE is available, there should be an option to upgrade.

Hartmann is right. You have to either keep checking the reservation all the time. Or use something like Expertflyer to track and alert inventory changes.

Was just looking at CO.com to see how they define the M-fare upgrade: Full Fare Economy Y, Discount Full Fare Economy B and Platinum Elite Members in M Allows all Elite members to upgrade at the time of ticketing when a seat is available. Continental Airlines will be offered instant upgrades on eligible Continental and Continental Micronesia

I guess it would be nice of they clarified the "when a seat is available" part to say that a certain fare class must be available at time of ticketing in order to process the upgrade. Don't think thats asking too much. :td: