Gallank

I've got to admit I'm very disappointed at the moment with Continental.

I'm Platinum elite... And I flew Panama to Newark -- no upgrade. That's fairly standard.

But then I flew Newark to San Fran and all 12 seats were SOLD OUT! I was offered to buy the seat for $149 a 2 days before take off. I'm assuming that 1st class was sold because they're basically selling the seats for pennies on the dollar.

Is there any value in being Platinum anymore? If things don't improve (in terms of getting upgrades) -- I'll be switching to Delta (my friend gets upgraded 90%+ of the time and he's only Silver).

What's your opinion? Have they killed the value of being Platinum by offering cheap 1st class seats?

cova

What was your fare code? The $149 might have been the difference between your coach fare and a M fare for upgrade.

CO has changed the way it calculates the buy up to F. It used to be the whole one way - ie Panama to SFO via EWR. But now it computes by some formula each segment individually. It is likely it only allocated $149 for the fare difference between your fare and a buy up (not upgrade) to an M fare which is an instant upgrade for Plat. But there have been reported problems with this.

M up likely not available that soon to departure (2 days) since it is ewr-sfo. Also - the formula for calculation has been discussed as being faulty.

mike_asia

i agree with you. My assistant will be contacting you shortly with more information.

peace

mike_asia

sbm12

Not for purchasing such 2 days out.

And which EWR-SFO flights are operated with a 73G (12 F seats)?? I thought they were all 738/739s these days.

cova

I am at EWR waiting for a transcon flight. I just purchased the ticket last night so F was already full. But I just noticed that one seat in F opened. Then a little while later - the last F seat was taken and one of the empty seats was now occupied and the person that took it is in the upgrade list.

Now they may have bought up to an M fare or something like that - but with F having been full and one seat opening - CO is selling them to people that are now checking in at the counter.

Syzygies

This is my route. He surely meant 16 seats.

I know my EWR SFO schedule well in advance, and try to time the lowest fare, often $300, but alas a few in the $400 to $500 range as I've blown this game and fares only climb. I then plough all Plat miles back into upgrades, covering the most difficult legs. I'm 5 for 9 this year using miles and 9 for 12 on the easier legs I left uncovered.

This isn't entirely clairvoyance. For example, I cover all red eyes on principle. If it's blisteringly obvious a few days out that I'd clear anyway but CO still hasn't processed the upgrade, I take particular pleasure in pulling the miles back.

Anyone whose boss pays for the trip, but thinks the miles are exclusively for taking the spouse to Italy, is trying to have their cake and eat it too. Not the current climate, unfortunately.

Of course, I'd want to go with the spouse to Italy, and I absolutely have to pay for every single trip. Reward travel is not an option, as I'm guessing that 100k will soon (2012?) trump 75K EQMs in the upgrade pecking order.

For all the grumbling about EWR SFO, it's a very competitive, and competitively priced route. CO can't have optimized their business plan around me. As long as 15k is the flat fee for all domestic upgrades, making it attractive for CO to sell miles, it all comes together as a neat little closed system, on this route.

Am I drinking the COolaid? No, that's not what they serve in first.

CHIC SILBER

Some of us were led to believe that both of you left the ballpark

channa

I'm not really interested in the reason. Whether it's buy-ups, M-Ups, B-Ups, or their overall philosophy of low F fares so they can sell lots of them vs. selling fewer of them at a higher margin (UA model), it doesn't matter to me.

What does matter to me is how many upgrade I get. I'm over 90% as UA 1K, I'm just about 90% as DL Plat. Last year as CO, I came in at 33% as CO Plat but was able to strategically SDC to bring that up to 50%.

Clearly if upgrades is what I'm looking for, OnePass is not the right program for that. There are probably many in a similar situation.

I appreciate the poster's opinion that you could use miles to assist that. But that's not always necessary -- you can also fly another carrier.

sbm12

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.591 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

If there is someone eligible the system will process the EUA in near real-time before offering it for sale.

You used to be so happy about real-time EUA. What happened?

AAExPlat

Not trying to be unnecessarily contrarian, but evidence all over this board suggests that what you say is happening is simply not happening at all. Many EUA eligible customers have the seat sold from under their rear-end, it seems.

AAExPlat

And to add one more datapoint...I'm flying on Monday very early in the morning on CO. As of right now, both legs are still showing 8+ seats for sale in F. As of this morning, we are already within the EUA window and so far, no EUA for me with 8+ seats left on each leg. I bet that I won't get an EUA as many now panic and either use miles or buyup online. Good for CO, but it clearly contradicts the claim of "unlimited free upgrades".

CHIC SILBER

They seem to be trying to iron out the issues

while Rev/Man is doing all they can to screw it up

Only time will tell who wins (I try to stay optimistic)

But AAEx your last statement is not correct

EUAs are working properly SOMETIMES

sbm12

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.591 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

EUA still depends on R inventory. M/B-ups come from a much less restricted bucket. So it is possible that the seat was sold to an M/B-up but that should not be the case and I'm not sure why the above scenario suggests it was.

When any passenger checks in the system will try to calculate what price, if any, to offer the upgrade at. This pricing exercise also evaluates the EUA list/inventory and the B/M-up list/inventory. If you are on a B fare as a platinum but still in the back then you should be upgraded before I ever get the fare difference quoted to me from my L fare up to a B that would similarly get me upgraded.

In the example that cova provided he's a last minute fare so below all other platinums in that same fare class to get the upgraded seat that opened up. Not much of a shock to me that someone else got it.

I do agree with channa that CO is not the best choice for folks who want upgrades on all their domestic flights. It has other things that make me continue to accrue points in the program and I get enough upgrades to not be too unhappy about it.

Steph3n

Realtime EUA is very nice, doing well for me, getting upgrades for tickets purchased within hours of the 24 hour point. Was concerned as I did not show up on upgrade list, but EUA came anyway

entropy

lest you feel like I only give CO a hard time, I did IAD-SFO on United, 14 seats left in F 1 day out, when I get to the airport I'm #8 with 6 seats left, at the gate #11. (it was a 777 so 36 F seats). I was not a happy camper. Apparently, IAD-SFO is pretty rough these days.