Standby upgrade for silver elite
 

I posted a question a while back as to whether silver elite members could standby for an upgrade, and I got a reply saying that I could, yet when I wrote to Continental, I got the the following reply:

Silver Elite members are only able to be upgraded by calling their Elite Priority Line. If a Y class ticket is purchased, call two days prior to your departure. If another fare is purchased, you will need to call on your day of departure to confirm the upgrade. Silver members are not able to standby for an upgrade at the airport.

What do you make of it? Does that mean that if a seat opens up, and there are no other elite members, that the seat goes unfilled? Also, does it mean that those who have those space-available certificates will have priority over silver elites?

The wording of the reply you received seems quite clear.

And yes it seems thats space available certs will get seats at the expense of silver elites.
As for empty first class seats, I've been on 2 flight since March 1st that have had empty first class seats.

Of course this is good news for late checking in platinum elites, as they might get some extra upgrades, again at the expense of
"lower level" elites.

As has been said many times here in the last few months, the elite changes seem to provide more upgrade seats for the platinum's at the expense of golds and silvers.

That being said, I am glad I will be earning Platinum within the next three weeks, which is not only valid for the remainder of this program year, but also well into the next millenium (through February 2001) as well. See you on board!

Are upgrades allowed for trips to and from
Hawaii?

Chauming:

Hawaii travel is not eligible for elite upgrades.

see: http://www.onepass.com/elite.htm
Confirmed and space-available one-class Elite upgrades are valid on flights within or between the 48 contiguous U.S., Alaska, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

But, you can use miles to obtain an upgrade (look at the column labeled series 2):

see: http://www.onepass.com/northwest2.htm

Sometimes when FC is not very full, the agent will wait list me anyway just because I give a nice smile! That has happened to me a few times, and all you have to do is ask!