Did I "steal" someone's upgrade?
 

Yesterday I was booked on CO 233 (7:00PM LGA-IAH) and then connecting to AUS. The EUA had cleared for me 4 days out. 233 was delayed enough that I was going to misconnect, so I decided to get onto 1433 (scheduled at 5:05 but delayed). There was a long stand by list for the flight and also a long upgrade stand by list. I went up to the agent expecting to get put on the flight stand by list, but instead a F boarding pass printed out for me. Not objecting I just took it and ran... This would've made sense to me if I was on a Y, B, or M fare, but i was on a K fare.

Just looking at the length of the upgrade stand by list, my guess is that there was at least one elite on a high fare (or plat on a higher fare). Any guess as to why it directly cleared me into one of the two open F seats on the flight?

That exact same thing happened to me when I was a CO plat. I just assumed that all other F seats were assigned to the plats, and the upgrade list folks were all gold and silver...

Hmmm...could it be that CO is actually taking really good care of Plats during irrops? These experiences are similar to some of mine.

Same experience here from DFW-EWR onMonday. Showed up at the airport a bit too early. There was a flight leaving 2 hrs earlier than my scheduled flight. Was upgraded on my original flight. Was put on standby when I checked in... went to the gate, mentioned to the agent I'd be happy if I got on this flight, ahppier with an exit row and thrilled with a first class seat. He printed out a first class BP and handed it over. Am a Plat...

This is to be expected. As posted on the CO SDC page, if there are R bucket seats available after you were EUA'd and you do a SDC, you'll get an F seat.

A little different scenario happend to me twice recently. At T-24, I was #3 on the waitlist and FC was completely sold out. Kept checking the PDA site throught the following day and still #3. Few hour later, I noticed that 1 seat became available so I went to CO.com to see what buy-up upgrade fee would be and was notified that no FC seats were available. Darn. Checked the PDA site and noticed that I was upgraded and prior #1 and #2 were still on the list. Same thing happend to me a couple of weeks later, only this time I was #2 on the list. Not that I am complaining but am curious what might have happend here. I am Plat and had low class fare (Q, W, V or something like that).

This has been discussed before. The PDA upgrade list is for airport upgrades processed by the GA. I believe the priority is status, fare class, then check-in time. While the PDA list populates as passengers check-in, EUA's continue to run inside of T-24. The priority for EUA's is different, and I believe that the priority is status, fare class, then date of purchase.

In the scenario you describe, it's possible that there were two plats on your flight who purchased tickets in the same fare class as you, at a later date then you, and who also checked in before you. So they were ahead of you the PDA list that the GA would work at the airport, but behind you on the EUA list (which is not published), from which you were automatically upgraded.

Not sure I understand fully - if these two are supposed be behind me, then when I check in, I should jump ahead of them, which I didn't. Also, I don't believe GA had anything to do with this upgrade as both time, the EUA was processed over 4 hours before flight. I was still at home/work and got an e-mail notification of the upgrade.

Poor us little Silvers....

There are two lists; the PDA list, and the EUA list, with different criteria for rankings on each list. We can all see the PDA list (beginning at T-24), but not the EUA list. So while you could see that you were #3 on the PDA list, there was no way to know your place (or anyone else's) on the EUA list. Obviously, you were first, since the automatic EUA process upgraded you.

You are correct about the GA not being involved in your upgrade.

So why two lists and why the lists rank differently? Is that why a while back I was #12+ on the PDA list and got an upgrade? I thought it was strange and pure luck :D

One list, the PDA list, is solely for the GA to process upgrades, and is automatically compiled for the GA (beginning at T-24) as passengers check-in, as golds and plats add companions, etc. That list is not truly active until after all of the EUA cycles are complete.

The EUA 'list' is independently created based on passenger bookings. Upgrades from this 'list' are processed automatically by the CO computer. At the time an EUA cycle runs, a sophisticated algorithm determines who is eligible, ranks them, and then processes upgrades based on available inventory. The cycles begin at 5 days prior to the flight (at which time only plats are eligible), and run periodically until T-3 hours. Maybe calling it a list is not entirely correct, as CO does not publish it.

The important point to note is that there is a time (from T-24 to T-3) where the PDA list is visible but not active while EUA cycles still run. These automatic EUA cycles account for upgrades where a passenger ranked lower on the PDA list is upgraded over a passenger ranked higher.