I was reading a few old posts, and a couple of people said they usually track how many first class seats are left for upgrade before calling the elite line. Could anyone tell me which website you use to do that?

 

www.itn.com

You'll have to register as user, its free.
Then go into your preferences and set user options to advanced. Then when you check availability it will show you a breakdown of seats by class, With Continenal, the FC seats are Class F and Class A, only F's can be available for upgrades, A's are for revenue only.

 

Thanks a lot for your reply. I went to the site, and did the whole registration thing. For the flight I am interested, here is the availablity: A9 D9 F4 Y9 H9 K9 B9 V9 Q9 T9.
Does the F4 mean there are 4 seats that are left for upgrade?

 

You are correct. There are at least 9 FC seats still unsold (A), but only 4 are avaialble for upgrade now(F). Any "A" class not sold are converted to "F" and available for upgrade about midnight the day of the flight.

 

does anyone know if the "D" class seats are the FREE FIRST CLASS AWARD SEATS? - I believe they are.

thanks.

 

I believe that "D" class are "free" business class seats. Does anyone know about "Z" class?

 

I too am wondering what "D" class seats are but I find it hard to believe that they are non-coach seats. For one of my flights, the listing shows: A8 D7 F4

Or does this mean that 7 of 8 are available for "D" class? ...and 4 of 8 are available for upgrade?

I don't think that Continental has 19 first class seats on a flight from IAH to LAS.

--Ryan

[This message has been edited by SJSharky (edited 08-04-1999).]

 

The sad thing is that I do always enter my frequent flyer number when I make the reservation. But still it did not seem to make a difference. I am not saying it is always this bad. I have not had any problem until recently, 2 out of 3 trips I got stuck with bad seats, the first time it was next to the bathroom, the second time it was a middle seat. Now I have to call the elite line and make sure they move me to better seats. To me, it is pretty annoying to have to call them everytime to move me, otherwise I am automatically given a bad seat when I book travel on the Continental website. In addition, I prefer window seat, sometimes when I call the elite line asking for a move, I do not always get a window seat. On my flight from IAH to SFO this Monday, I called last Friday to check for upgrade, there was no upgradable first-class seat, which was no surprise. In addition, I had been assigned to a seat way in the back again. I asked to be moved to the front, and the agent said she could only give me an aisle seat, not a window seat that I prefer. I am going to hit 75k miles at the end of the month (already 65k this year). I just do not feel I am getting the so-called "elite" treatment when it comes to seat assigment in coach. I don't know if it is because the Continental website is having problems lately. Like I said before, everything was fine until the middle of July, and then I started getting assigned to bad seats.

 

I am told that D is a discounted F/C. A couple of months ago I was traveling on a F/C reward tickets with a segment booked in coach, three days before the flight ITN was showing availability in A, F and D, but when I called the elite line I was told that for a reward ticket there had to be availability in E class, which is not shown on ITN.

I called the customer care number to complain that since I had given the required milage for a F/C rewards I should have access to the seats before they are given as upgrades.
They were able to give me the seats, and said that if I had the problem in the future to call, that sometimes they can override an overzelous revenue management department!

The total of available seats in different classes may exceed the actual number of seats since discounted and upgrade seats would, of course, be made available to full fare paying passengers.

 

SJSHARKEY:
The example that you show does not mean there are 19 seats in F/C. Actually F is a subset of A. It means that while there are "x" seats avaialble ing F/C (Ths is the "A" part) only the number listed under F is availabele for upgrades, AT THAT TIME. While I am not 100 % sure, I seem to remember travelling on a reward ticket in KLM business class a few years back and it was "D" class. I suspect that the "D" class seats in your example are also a subset of "A". I would like someone to confirm and also tell me what "Z" class is. I think it is the number of seats available for upgrade in true business class.

 

But why would "D" be considered business class? There is no business class on domestic flights and my flight from IAH-LAS shows a "D" class available.

--Ryan

 

songr: I don't fly CO that much, but do you have a profile in their computer? If so, it sounds like something went screwy. I'm mostly a DL flyer, but my profile shows that I always want a bulkhead/forward aisle seat.
Call the elite line & ask, or if you can do it on the website, check it. May help..

 

If the plane is a DC10 or a 777 then it would have businessfirsy seats, they might show availability in both business and first class, even thought both are one and the same.

 

Z I think is a discounted intl business class. CO use it to designate the Virgin seats they consolidate.

(Good prices for VS Upper Class are possible this way, but hard to get hold of)

 

Indeed, D & F are subsets of A. I just verified this by checking ITN, and it said A1, D1, F1, for a flight I have. I called the Elite line and received an upgrade. Then I checked back on the ITN page and the availability was A0, D0, F0. Just to take the process 1 step further, I then went to CO O.L. and tried to get a FC seat for the flight and CO O.L. said that FC was not available on the flight.

By the way, "songr", Welcome to FT from one fellow Houstonian to another. "Everyone should get to TEXAS as fast as they can and enjoy the good life in the nation's only totally independent entity."

This is a flight on 8/5/99, which I booked on 8/1/99, and tried to upgrade at 12:01 a.m. on 8/3/99, and no upgrades were available. I called the Elite line at 12:01 a.m. on 8/5/99, and still no upgrades were available. However, by doing the ITN check at 5 a.m., I discovered the availability and called and received the upgrade.

[This message has been edited by JAWS_II (edited 08-05-1999).]