Flying CO29 LHR-EWR in a few weeks on a B-Fare. As a plat, I put in the miles for the upgrade. Looks like there are about 25 seats sill open. Any idea when they start opening those up? This is my first time on a BF waitlist. Thanks!

There's really no rhyme or reason as to when upgrades clear, but if I can't confirm at time of ticketing, I don't expect to until much closer to departure. Usually, it's inside 3-5 days of flight, with most of my upgrades occurring just before the 24h OLCI window.

Inside 24h, your upgrade request gets transferred to the airport standby list. If this happens, I always put in a call to make sure my name has carried over properly.

:-:

Yes, it will clear whenever the revenue management Gods decide they want to open seats for upgrade requests.

Mine have all cleared before the T-24 OLCI....I have not yet had experience of my request transferring to airport standby.

I'm flying phx-ewr-lhr tomorrow. I bought the ticket 3 months ago, applied my SWU for the upgrade, and it wasn't until 30 minutes ago I received the upgrade confirmation email for CO 28. Go figure.

I asked a BF upgrade (via miles) from HNL to EWR 3 months ago and i'm still waiting.

I'm guessing it won't clear until 24 hours before the flight (i.e. 3 more weeks). Bleh.

start praying real hard if you want that HNL EWR upgrade...those seats usually sell out for $$$.

I have been

^
Good luck!

At the gate.

As others mentioned, it really depends on the route and how many BF seats CO decides to keep open for sale, rather than upgrade. I've been flying EWR-HKG for the past few years, and have about a 75% success rate as a Plat elite so far. I've been upgraded right before OLCI begins - lately this has been my experience, they make even their highest elites sweat it out - and I've been upgraded a day or two after I book my ticket. Most recently I've even been upgraded after boarding. A concierge came to my seat as I was settling in told me, "your upgrade has gone through, here is your new ticket." On some of the TPAC and TATL routes you can also count on BF passengers missing their connection or for some reason or other not checking in, even though it might seem that BF is sold out. If you're Plat and there are more than 5 or so BF left right before OLCI begins, especially on a 772, you probably have a good shot

Good thoughts!^

It just cleared- 3 weeks out

Yeah - enjoy!!

I am traveling the night before Thanksgiving EWR-LHR and was able to clear myself and 3 other pax into BF. I noticed that it said there were 9 'R' seats available after i bought the ticket but before requesting the upgrade, clearly this is not a busy period for business travelers so not too surprising. Guess it depends on route and seasonality/holidays. As a contrast, every UA flight I look at on the 23rd of November had NC0 so maybe CO is a little more generous.