CO should stop processing EUA in advance and upgrade only at the gate
 

This is not going to be a popular post, but it's my opinion. I love getting upgrades in advance as Gold member, but filling F with upgrades pax too early without leaving room for last minute premium purchases, changes and misconnects is really hurting CO premium revenue.

I just came back from MXP-EWR-SEA in cheap L fare. EWR-SEA was upgraded 3 days out - no complains there. At 24hr, there was still 1 seat remaining in F for sale, but it was gone on the day of departure. In EWR at the gate I met not so happy passenger who could not get F on EWR-SEA after paying for last minute business class ticket from Europe XXX-EWR-SEA. I felt bad for the guy, because I was in a similar situation two years ago - made last minute change and had to fly Y on expensive business ticket.

I think similar situations occur more often then you think. I usually buy cheap tickets and happy to get my upgrades in advance, but on rare occasions when I am in paid C/F, I understand that pretty much any misconnect or last minite change will land me in Y for domestic segment, especially if I am travel with someone else, because finding two seats in F on the day of departure is really much more difficult then finding one seat.

Not sure which system survives in the combined airline, but I have a feeling that UA leaves more seats up front until last minute. Same about AS - I have never had a problem of buying last minute AS F seat or changing F seat to another flight close to departure. But in all of my experience with CO, F is either zeroed out at 24hr mark or maybe there is 1 seat left, but it's clearly not enough.

I have a question for all Golds and Platinum member: is it really important for you guys to get upgrades in advances? Why even have T-5, T-3, etc. if you can upgrade everyone at the gate or on the day of departure based on status and fare paid? Is it too much work for gate agents? Too much streets for FFs?

Bu the way, it will also reduce call center load and continental.com from all frequent flyers, checking upgrade status every few minutes :-).

An alternative solution is to leave say 4 empty seats on each flight till boarding and upgrade remaining seats at 24hr based on status and fare paid. It will reduce load on gate agents and let the top few passengers get upgraded in advance.

You're right, it probably won't be a very popular idea.

For many people, I think that one of the primary benefits to being an elite member is for the upgrades. Everybody has different travel patterns. For example, I made Gold this year travelling only 10 segments. Six of those I paid for business class and on the other four I didn't get upgraded.

I wonder what others think.

As someone who used to but now doesn't fly on Y/B fares, I would be against this. If there are seats at the 5 and 3 day window, I as a plat have a good shot at those seats since I travel on mid to high fares. I'm always afraid a silver or gold will buy a Y/B and grab the seat immediately, or the seat is sold. The 5 and 3 day windows are definitely appreciated and an important part of the EUA/UDU system.

Revenue sales notwithstanding, EUA hierarchy could certainly be respected at battlefield...

Of course, to some extent, it appears CO has already implemented this system, whether intentionally or not...

If revenue/inventory management is doing its job, the number of cases where elites get upgraded when paid F customers have to sit in Y should be pretty minimal. My upgrades may clear at the window; they do not have to clear at the window.

When UA upgrades an elite at T-100h, UA is balancing the likelihood that they won't have a willing buyer for that seat versus providing a benefit to its elites. If upgrades at T-100h were costing UA droves of willing customers, they would scale back the upgrades (as they often do).

I agree with the OP - that is, not that no upgrades should be processed in advance, but that there should be enough empty F seats left to allow for last minute changes for those who actually PAY for the premium cabins. It has amazed me to see how a virtually empty F cabin on busy routes like EWR-IAH becomes liteally 100% full, almost entirely with upgrades, 24+h out.

I absolutely understand that upgrades are very important to keeping your elites happy. But surely that elusive few who pay for premium seats rather than getting them for free should be cultivated wherever possible - and in all probability it means the same elites will still get their upgrades in 99% of cases, just a little closer to departure.

Of course, I might feel differently about this if I were a CO elite myself and actually in the queue for complimentary upgrades - I've seen it from the paying passenger's side of the fence.

Just another topic where search is your friend on FlyerTalk. A thread about this very subject (doing away with EUA) comes up several times a year.

-RM

Once apon a time CO elite upgrades were only done at the airport within 2 hours of departure.

When advance upgrades were first offered they weren't automatic, elites had to call and request upgrades after midnight, x days before departure. Lots of us stayed up late watching the clock in the good old days.

The only thing that's constant about the airline elite programs is change.

Much like some stay up to check in exactly at 24 hours out?

Things change, but in some ways they're still the same. ;)

I think the term "likelihood" should not even be used. For example, what is the likelihood of misconnect or cancellation on a normal day? It may be relatively small, but CO should have enough F seats to accommodate most passengers.

Or what is the likelihood that a paying F passenger would like to take the earlier flight? Again, maybe it does not happen very often, but a premium passenger should have a choice of flights.

CO (and other carriers) already do this through sophisticated software which usually predicts needs. That is why CO, like other carriers, does not UG into all available F (domestic) seats, but does hold some to the gate. Once in a while they get caught short, but not often.

I do believe that it should be made clear that freebie UG's are subject to revocation should someone on a paid F ticket want the seat. While some refer to that as "downgrading" it's not: it's flying in your ticketed cabin.

The Other Part of the Equation...
 

Another reason for getting elites into FC starting five days out is freeing up Y inventory, to make it available for a last-minute relatively high-yield purchase.

Although airlines would love to sell their FC inventory before their Y inventory, the likelihood is that Y will sell before FC.

Therefore, freeing up a Y seat by upgrading an elite creates a revenue opportunity in addition to keeping the elite happy...

Good Point.

Wow, never thought of it that way, that's a really good point.

Whatever the merged company decides to do is fine with me, as long as they clearly communicate how it will work. That way we won't have to try and reverse engineer the process by looking at tons of "data-point" posts here on flyertalk.

I strongly disagree.:mad:

EUAs for Platinum and higher should continue unless UACO wants to lose more business from us.