aanswer

I'm a lowly Silver this year due to limited travel last year, so I don't usually count on EUAs, especially since I'm based out of EWR.

But, a few weeks ago, we booked a family vacation to PVR. Flying from EWR - IAH - PVR.

I checked in this morning for tomorrow's flight and the system asked me if I wanted to purchase an upgrade to first class from IAH-PVR. I declined since the cost was $269 and there were plenty of first class seats open.

After checking in, I immediately get upgraded ^

I check in for my family an hour later (separate PNRs) and they were offered the same IAH-PVR segment for $69!! Given that my family doesn't travel much, I got the upgrades for them as a treat

So, my question is this -- why was I offered a $269 price vs. they being offered a $69 ea? I know this has been discussed in one form or another in the past few months, but would appreciate some insight.

PS: Can't wait to get back up to *G.

wcalvert

What happens is that once they upgrade every elite member on the flight, they will drastically lower the cost of upgrades just to get some cash.

This happened on a recent flight to Costa Rica. As a silver, I was upgraded both ways (only 5 or 6 elite members on the plane total). My friends were offered a buyup of $49 to extended legroom or $69 to first class. ^

smg77

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.5.0.175 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

The problem in this case is that CO offered the OP what was probably a buy-up to F then immediately EUA'd him once he declined the buy-up. Sort of shady if you ask me.

aanswer

That's what I thought, too. But, a free upgrade is an upgrade. Of course, thanks to FT, I wouldn't know how to check how many open first-class seats were left.

juanvaldez

Friends,

I will be traveling EWR-TLV soon and wanted to maximize my chance of being offered a paid upgrade. If I am traveling on a CO ticket with a CO flight number, or a UA codeshare ticket, will that make a difference in the system offering me an upgrade?

Reason I ask is that my journey starts in SFO, and since I have status on United, I'm inclined to book it as a UA ticket so that I can upgrade on the UA segment from SFO to EWR.

But if that means I'd lose a shot at paying to upgrade on the EWR to TLV segment, I'd reconsider, since that's the longer part of my journey.

FYI, I have no status with CO. I am * Gold, having Premier Exec on United.

Thoughts or advice would be appreciated. I'm happy to pay for the upgrade (since my company surely wont )

sbm12

The UA code on CO metal from SFO-EWR won't get you an upgrade anyways so I'm not sure that matters. If you can book the UA metal SFO-EWR and then connect to CO metal for EWR-TLV then you would be eligible for the UDU.

That said, the only buy-up offer you are going to get on the EWR-TLV route is to buy the BF fare. It will not be cheap.

smg77

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.5.0.175 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

CO is not known to generally offer cash-only upgrades on BusinessFirst-marketed flight like EWR-TLV. You could try to use the Star Alliance upgrade approach if your ticket is Y or B fare class.

cova

This looks like something CO needs to look into. Agreed - shady.

Sounds like you checked in nearly 24 hours before flight. CO should have processed EUA's at the T-24 mark if it was shortly going to release the upgardes. EUA's only occur at T-24 and T-3 hours.

LEt's say CO opens upgrades at say T-22 after the EUA run at T-24, you check in at T-23 (with upgrades disabled) then a lower fare code Silver checks in at T-22 (with upgrades enbled) then this is a glitch that has been around for a long time. I thought CO fixed it as a work around - by processing EUA's at T-24 for all F seats to avoid this situation.

But in this case looks like the software automatically offered you a buy up at check in before offering the EUA. CO needs to fix the software to disable this buy up offer when seats are still available.

juanvaldez

Unfortunately, my title doesn't have CEO in it, so my company will pick the cheapest option for travel. The lowest economy r/t pricing is around $1600, but the Y/B is like $4300, so there's no way they'll do it.

I'll just buy a UA ticket and hope to get UDU on the SFO-EWR segments. EWR-TLV I'll have to go coach. I hear it's always a full flight and I'm sure there are no shortage of customers who would pay the BF fare for a flight like EWR-TLV.

Thank you all for your kind help!

sbm12

Remember that if it is UA code on CO metal there are no UDUs. And until the reciprocity kicks in you aren't EUA-eligible either.

sbm12

This is not the case anymore. There is no more 3-hour sweep. Inside 24 hours (and there is some evidence that it is really as soon as the first customer checks in which can be farther out given connecting flights) the EUA process is much closer to real-time.

They have "fixed" it, but not in the way you are describing.

cova

This is good to know. CO had been talking about real-time EUA for some number of years. Sounds like in this case the OP was upgraded because he checked in, not because of real-time EUA - just slightly different than the old - - ie upgrade seats open, check in, if available "would you like to upgrade", then yes.

As you indicate "closer" to real-time but not really real-time, which would upgrade by order those eligible as soon as the seats are released irregardless of checking in.

Now it sounds like you need to check in - just that the upgrade occurs without the asking - "if upgrade seats are available, do you want to upgrade?"

A step ahead - but still not there.

sbm12

My understanding of the process is that there should never be a scenario anymore where someone can grab an R seat out of sequence. Even if one is released such that the flight is listed as R# (where #>0), when the time comes for a passenger to grab that R seat it will be given out based on the true hierarchy rather than just to whomever is checking in next like in the old days.

HeathrowGuy

What about if EUA stops for a flight -- say, due a glitch in an EUA-eligible reservation? Assuming the R seat capacity remains until OLCI eligiblity time, wouldn't it basically get doled out first-come-first-served upon check-in?

sbm12

It shouldn't based on the way the system is designed.