I just called to check on status of waitlist for end of June. Elite line told me still waitlisted, only 9 seats free (not just upgrade seats), couldn't tell me how many on the list and when I said last agent had told me he answered that it just wasn't possible. I've just looked on both biztravel and itn and they both show 28 free seats in Bizfirst - what's going on? Why does every CO agent I talk to have completely different info about a whole rage of topics. Sorry about the rant but it makes me so mad

Sounds about like what everyone else goes through. Not only do they have that 30-day rule, straight answers appear to be very difficult to get.

Ditto. I've been checking on upgrade (using miles) CLE-IAH-GUM-CNS for the past 4 weeks; each call, I get different information/answers. We leave Wed. I have a horrible (for me) waitlist story that will have to wait till I get back. Briefly, they upgraded me CLE-IAH, but say that IAH-GUM doesn't look promising. If I take the CLE upgrade, I automatically get charged the entire miles for the upgrade (25K). If I decline it, I'm taken off the waitlist, and I have 0 chance of upgrading at IAH. Its even more complicated that this.
Unfortunately, this type of thing seems to be very common.

Just because there are 28 seats unassigned doesn't mean that there are 28 seats open. Just an approximate number due to airport assignment, etc.

Sad to say Weez, but I'm in the same boat. I leave the end of June for London, and have been dutifully calling OP (even though they say they will call me)--only to be told, yes there are still seats available in BF, and yes I am #1 or #2 on the list, but no they have not 'freed' any up!!! I will let you know if I hear any sooner.

New twist to the international upgrady quandry--I called today and there are still 'saleable' seats so no upgrades yet, but just in case I do get the call I have to order my upgrade certificates now. They will only send them regular mail if it is 2 weeks prior to flight. If I had waited till tomorrow, they would have charged me $35 and if I waited till next week the charge would go up to $75!!!--Still with no guarantee of an upgrade.

They wouldn't put me on the waitlist unless I gave them the miles, and the 20k have already been deducted from my account. As its an eticket the certificate is also electronic apparently. I asked what would happen if I didn't get the upgrade, and CO said I could have the miles redeposited for a FEE!!!!!What a cheek.Anyway, called again today, still no joy, but better answer from the regular International desk than from the elite line BTW Mauld what day are you flying? I'm on 30 June,might see you at ewr

Well, I did spend the 20, 000, and finally did get an upgrade on a Virgin Code-share (after lots of problems). But now CO has no record of my flight and won't credit the 10,000 miles I earned! (Yes, I know, send in the ticket number etc). I'm surprised after all the letters i wrote that CO has "no record" that I was on the plane!

Just a word of warning about not being given an upgrade certificate. (Weez's post) When my husband and I flew from LGW to EWR in March, the agent at LGW almost didn't upgrade my husband because he didn't have one. Before we left the US, Continental had issued an upgrade certificate for me, but not for my husband. The reason given was that since the miles were taken from his OnePass account, he would not need a certificate, whereas I would. There was no problem on the way over, but when we returned, the Continental agent at LGW wanted a certificate from each of us, and didn't really want to hear anything else. However, after we explained the foregoing, he did agree to call OnePass. Since this was 5:00 AM Eastern Time in the US, I thought it was unlikely that he would reach anyone, or, if he did, that the person would give the correct answer. But, fortunately for us, he did, and we were ultimately upgraded.

This was culmination of a horror story of waiting for the upgrades. When we called the morning before the flight, we were told that though our upgrades had not cleared, seats were available. The CSR suggested we call back that evening. When we did, we were told that our upgrades had not cleared, and that while there were seats available in business/first, we would not be upgraded. Having learned from this board not to believe everything you are told, we called back on the morning of our departure from London. We were then told that we would find out whether we were upgraded when we got to the airport. We did, but not right away. When we checked in for the flight, we were told that we were on stand-by for the upgrade, and would find out at the gate. So we did, but again, not right away. One half hour before departure, after nearly everyone else had boarded, we were finally told we would be upgraded. Then we almost weren't because my husband had no upgrade certificate.

When we got back, I wrote to Gordon to complain about the entire upgrade procedure. After a couple of weeks I received a reply from Wendy Harwood, Manager, Customer Care Department, stating, in part, "I have shared your suggestion for changing the international upgrade policy with the appropriate departments to assist our management team as we continue to make positive changes within our organization." She didn't even address the upgrade certificate question.

In my letter to Gordon I also complained about the fact that CO didn�t' credit the miles to my husband's account; this despite the fact that they had taken miles from his account for the upgrades. They obviously were given his OnePass number when I made the reservation; just didn't bother to enter it in the reservation. Wendy didn't address this, either. I was so annoyed that I wrote back suggesting that the only explanation for such a lapse was gross incompetence and/or indifference. Then, she finally sent a letter of apology. Meanwhile, I had rounded up the receipt and boarding passes and sent copies to the OnePass service center - a major pain - and he finally got the miles.

I see that what was intended to be a brief caveat has become a major rant - sorry. I just don't see why it has to be this way on CO, and if they really cared the way they say they do, it wouldn't be.

Well still waiting for the upgrades, but haven't got certificate. As this is one way flight from US hopefully won't need it,any travel from the UK with an eticket is alittle scary, as they don't seem to cope that well with it. CO are so great with domestic upgrades, why can't they do something about the intl upgrades?and yes I'll now pay my $1 fine for further intl upgrade ranting!!

In fairness you should note that the the agent who told you that there were 9 seats available was looking at a computer system that only displays availalility with one digit,(as does ITN) he or she would not be able to inform you if more then 9 seats were available. As another post points out a seat may be sold, but not assigned, and therefore not show on a seating chart.

Weez, the cigarman copywrited $1 fine may be also paid in quality cigars. One cigar equals twenty rants, so feel free to gripe some more...

Cigarman: When I was in Honduras I bought a bundle of about 25 puros for about $1.00 US, that's a lot of rants for a buck!!!

Quality vs Quantity. WAIT THIS IS FLYER TALK let me translate...CO vs NWA. Need i say more???

Here's another twist on the interna1tional upgrade issue that affects flights operated by CO that are codeshared by other airlines. Some of these codeshare arrangements involve "hardblocks", where the other carrier buys a certain amount of seats in advance for each flight. I believe that the Air France codeshares with CO are this way. So, AF has already bought a certain number of BF seats on each flight. If AF doesn't sell them, and doesn't release them back to CO, they will go out empty, even if there are CO customers on the upgrade waitlist, as CO doesn't control the AF seats. Since the EWR-LGW CO flights have Virgin codeshares on them, many of the BF seats that show as unassigned on a seatmap will be under Virgin's control, and may not be released until day of departure. Reportedly, Virgin is much better at releasing unsold seats back to CO by day of departure than AF is.

Codeshares with other airlines may not use hardblocks, meaning that the other carrier pays the operating carrier for each seat as they are purchased. In this case, the operating carrier can release all remaining seats for upgrades at the time of departure.