Upgrade Standby List - how does it work?
 

New platinum member so getting used to the way things work at CO

My flight is 48 hours away. I check the Upgrade Standby List and only saw 3 names on the list (all had cleared). My name is not on the list. Should I be concerned or does the list only reflect those that have cleared and the full list will appear at 24 hours before the flight?

Thanks for the help

The list starts appearing as people check-in. Many will check in at 24 hours before, but some can check in prior through connecting flights.

Interesting. Thanks for the answer. Does that mean that lower elites / lower fare classes can get upgraded ahead of a higher elite / fare class because they can check in earlier ?

No.

Nope. That loophole closed a while ago.

The list you see there is used by the agent at the gate to handle any last-minute upgrades that the computers don't process in advance. Prior to the agent taking over and doing that the upgrades are processed based on the actual EUA priority which is effectively what the list would be if everyone were checked in and did so in the order they bought their tickets. There is some room for variations between the list you see and the EUA list.

The list you can see is never acted upon until the GA processes the flight (about 30 minutes out).

It really should not be used as an authoritative indicator of your upgrade probability. It should only be used as a rough guide, since as sbm12 pointed out, EUA uses a different prioritization, and EUA processes most upgrades.

The key differentiator is that tie tiebreaker between Elites of the same level and fare class is different between the two rankings. EUA uses the ticket purchase date, while the gate upgrade list uses checkin time.

It you watch the list closely you can see interesting things like #1 remain on the list while #2 gets upgraded. While it may appear that this is happening out of sequence, it really isn't -- #2 may be higher than #1 for EUA purposes, but not for gate upgrade purposes.

No and trust me when I say that. I'm a silver elite and I have seen my name on the upgrade list a few days before the flight on a heavily traveled route IAH-EWR on a Friday. Sometime it'll say I'm #3 but when it comes to 24 hours before I'm usually number #17. Higher elites ALWAYS get priority over lower elites unless you're roped into some group reservation.

Im currently doing some flights on Sunday, (ORD-IAH-SJC). Currently, I have not been upgraded and when I originally booked this flight I had my united FF number in the reservation but I did change this once I was match to CO gold. For one of the flights it shows that 2 people have been upgraded, 4 booked, and 12 first class seats are available. Should I be worried that maybe Continental is not recognizing my CO gold number? New to CO so Im not sure if I need to do anything regarding this.

Depending on lots of factors I've been cleared 5-6 days out frequently but sometimes not til check-in also. I really wouldn't sweat it and if you want to check just remove your FF and reapply.

If I go to my reservation and click on upgrade, it displays that 5 seats are available for an upgrade using miles. Does that mean they are available for EUA? The one segment I have on United cleared for 1st but the ORD-IAH-SJC have not.

I believe that mileage upgrades and EUA upgrade both come out of the R bucket at the moment. It's hard to keep track since CO does at times use different buckets depending on how you upgrade.

But even if it's available doesn't mean you should have it. If it's available means it will be allocated at the next EUA sweep, which could be whenever. Unlike United, where there's a waitlist for upgrade space and upgrades clear whenever there's space, CO's EUA upgrades are a function of the ancillary sweep process that happens when it happens.

Good luck!