How noble and kind of you Sir...

ugh. Yeah upgrades are awesome and probly the best part of elite. But there are lots of other benefits.

And bottom line, CO is a business trying (TRYING!) to be profitable, if they can sell that seat sell it! keep the planes in the air so we can get where we need to go. Giving away seats that had other opportunites to sell is not a good business model. I don't think many of us run our businesses with the thought that are product has 7 days left on the shelf so we better just start giving it away rather than discounting it more and more as its shelf like expires.

A plane seat like a hotel room is one of the most pershable commodities round, so do all you need to to earn money when each opportunity presents itself.

I just dont get all this "why dont they give me free things and tell people who want to pay for them to go away" sentiment. I don't imagine lots of us are out there sending CO random checks for no reason, so we shouldn't expect them to do the same, and we should be happy to get the upgrade if it comes about. Or pay and buy the 1st class seat if its so important. or buy a high fare Y seat to increase your chances.

The whole upgrade game is a gamble, truly the more you bet (buyying YBM fares instead of TNL fares) the better your chances of the great award - but no guarantee!

And I love all the posts about "shenanigans" and "someone must have bought that last seat" you can never know. I was recently inbound from FRA to EWR and missed my connection due to late arrival. New flight the upgrade EWR-CLE showed 1st booked and checked in full. 24 people on upgrade list (i was nowhere on the list as I had not checked in for the flight). I rechecked bags, got new seat on new flight, and ended up getting upgraded 30 minutes before flight left. Case of my PLAT, my fare class being F or C trumped all those on the list and most lilely a checked in person missed connection or rebooked last mintue. I didn't even get priority for check in time T-24 since I was not checked in for that flight. So lots of the assumptions people bought out the seats are probably oftern cases like me. I've done this 2 or 3 times on delayed inbound TATL flights and always wonder how many people are behind staring at me with darts that I took their seat.

Is your assistant cute and single?

On almost any flight to/fro EWR these days, I have found, results in theblakefish sitting in the rear with the gear, ymmv. I guess ContiUniHound is prepping my posterior for days ahead...

They must be trying to acclimate our elites to the new Y seats

but in all seriousness I am hitting all my upgrades except for an eq swap once so I don't know why some have "issues" with the EUA system...I do recognize that it does not work as published and is not transparent but as long as I get my EUA when I am privileged to it, I could care less.

PTY-EWR upgrades are pretty easy upgrades as a plat

Most who know both programs would tell you that if domestic upgrades matter to you, you'll do better on DL but accumulate miles that are nearly worthless. On CO the upgrade story is a pale shell of what it was even three or four years ago, but the miles are worth something. Pick your priority: upgrades or free trips.

It's the sequence of events, though, and the amount of F inventory left for EUA when this "real time" event happens, that diminishes one's chances. F buy-ups are cross-sold to customers from the day of booking to T-24 OLCI. There is IME not much left, often nothing, for EUA.

It's not that OnePass circa 2010 has "gone to hell in a handbasket" compared to other programs; I still choose this over DL. It's that OnePass 2010 sucks compared to OnePass 2000 or OnePass 2005. This is in line with the airlines' new strategy to do nothing they don't have to do. Nobody's trying to be best in class here.... just one tiny notch above the worst-in-class.

Are you sure? We keep discovering new aspects of this procedure. For example, the "buy-up sale" that you reported on. I do not think we have heard how that came about and how this "sale" works.

She is stunning, and her name is Dulcinea del Toboso... (which says a lot about miguel_far-east).

I largely agree with you. But CO is not a monopolist and have to look at what competitors are giving their elites. It is perfectly fine to say "I want (some) free upgrades, or I'll start flying with DL, where I can expect about 90% EUA".

Buy-ups generate revenue, but come at the expense of are devaluing elite benefits. A rational airline would raise revenue from this source to a point where the marginal revenue exactly offsets the marginal cost of buy-ups.

Cost includes (some) disgruntled elites that leave CO and other aspects. For instance, CO may see buy-ups generate lots of revenue, but the effect on the bottom line will be smaller, because buy-ups reduce the (EUA) incentive to purchase a higher fare.

It is not clear that offering buy-ups on the most "EUA competitive" routes, such as EWR-SFO, is a smart move.

• Platinums that fly frequently on EWR-SFO will have lower than average upgrade percentages, and appear to be more upset about the effect of buy-ups.
• Moreover, if the EUA percentages goes to zero on a route, where instant M-up and B-up are hard to come by, I cannot see any incentive to purchase anything but the cheapest fare.

I agree that there is a lot of speculation about such instances. But CO has not been very transparent about the mechanism by which buy-ups operate.
The discovery of the "buy-up sale" was particularly offending to some.

That's my point exactly. The system that exposes F seats to buy-up opportunities, the audience for those opportunities, the timing -- it's all a black box which makes EUA less and less real / credible. You can suggest CO is calibrating that extra revenue against the potential loss of elites with a fine hand, but I think they're going for the bird in the hand every time -- today's hundred bucks over lifetime customer value.

Here's to that hope ^

And here it is folks. We've now identified the job ranked more difficult than assistant to Lindsay Lohan.

Seriously, in 3 years, you're going to pay an extra $100 for a fare just because it says Continental? There are plenty of people here that are already willing to switch programs every year to maximize their benefits from the airlines and they aren't truly, "loyal," they're merely trying to maximize their benefit every year. Similarly, Continental is trying to run a for-profit airline and it has to put consistent profits above some vague claims about loyalty from people that are happy to become elites at another airline in 2 weeks if that airline will offer a status match.

I flew today on the 9am from EWR-SEA. It was not a real-time EUA. I was number 2 on the list out about 30 people on the standby Up list.

Around 7:30am this morning I checked and F was still full at 24, then it opened and then only 23 seats occupied in F. The person at the top of the list did not get the upgrade. Then about 20 minutes later, the 24th seat goes and it goes to someone who then takes seat 2F and they appear on the upgraded list.

So I do not think it was realtime EUA - I believe someone was offered the buy up when they checked in around 7:40am and they took it and got the seat. The person at the top of the list the night before and up to flight time did not get an upgrade. Somehow the other person that got it at 7:40am - got it.