I know that its temporary, but I think Continental has come up with the worst of all possible situations with this random testing of the new and improved(yeah right ) auto-upgrade system.

With it in effect randomly, you have know way of knowing when you book a flight, if that flight will be an auto-upgrade flight. So, you dont know what rules are in effect for your flight.

This is bad, if I wanted to gamble I'd go to vegas.

I agree with you there, Boomer.

If anything, under the current situation I will be calling for an upgrade a little earlier than usual, trying to stretch the limit to beat the automated system, just to better my odds.

Well, you can still call in any time during your upgrade time window. You might just find that you've already been upgraded. Aside from people who don't want to be upgraded because they are traveling with others, or the fact that the Industrious Elite member now cannot get upgrades I don't see a major problem with the test per say.

I do feel CO's lack of communication to its customers is outrageous though. Equally outrageous is how the customers generally put up with this kind of thing from CO, and other airlines without taking much of any action (other example the DL L fare rule). There is no excuse for them not to note this test in the Onepass web site, via email, etc. I'm not a CO employee, but it seems they also might be giving little or no information to the front line employees who work with the customers. I've gotten much more information from Non-NonRev on this board, than any call inquiring to the elite desk, or from emails sent to Cust Care/Onepass to inquire about the status of the project.

So by and large I think the project is perhaps a good idea (time will only tell), but the communication to customers could not be done any worse than what they are doing. But what do I know, J D Power & Associates will probably give them another award.

I'm quite happy with many CO employees I've worked with at airports, etc. but as you can tell, quite disappointed (actually overall) with their corporate office infrastructure. This includes Customer Care, The Onepass Service Center, and often the Elite Line (especially for non routine matters). Per other threads on this board, say ten years ago, the Elite Line was really something to write home about (rather than just a different light that flashes on the persons screen). The elite reps would have personal interaction with a customer, and would follow-up on something until it got resolved.

Boomer FIVE personal upgrade threads??? I suggest going for 12. You know they are "cheaper by the dozen".

Boomer:

Try posting more using some new screen names, that way if anyone from CO marketing is reading they may think that there are more then a half-dozen cheapskates who think that they should always be flying first class, even on bottom dollar fares.

Be thankful for what you get, even if you don't get upgraded 98% of the time.