Bizjet, funny I looked at the timing issue totally opposite from you. They did not give 2 months notice, they gave zippo, the change isnt happening Jan 1, its happened already.

Also I wonder if they will give a free refund to anyone that has already booked a mileage run flight, since the terms of the onepass program changed after they booked the ticket.

I think these "october and november suprises" by continental are terrible customer service.

I agree that only time will tell if we are effected by this change. I suspect that I will suffer slightly, but thats just a guess. What I know for certain is my upgrades will not go up, I'm 95%+ and the only segments I missed were ones that were sold out of FC well before the 3 day period.

What I object to with the EUA system, is you have no way of knowing your upgrade chances on a given flight. ITN becomes useless, it might show the flight as A9 F9, but when you book your ticket you have no way of knowing how deep the autoupgrade list is. You could even up picking a flight that you have zero chance of an upgrade.

I have less information with which to make a decision. This doesn't help me.

Boomer says, "What I object to with the EUA system, is you have no way of knowing your upgrade chances on a given flight. ITN becomes useless, it might show the flight as A9 F9, but when you book your ticket you have no way of knowing how deep the autoupgrade list is. You could even up picking a flight that you have zero chance of an upgrade."

AMEN BROTHER!

Well, even under the old system, if you booked a ticket 2 or 3 weeks ahead, and ITN showed A9 F9, you didn't have any way of knowing if there were 20 platinums and 10 golds and 10 silvers waiting to upgrade, vs. only a few, right? So, if you were a platinum, you could jump in at the 3 day window to get the upgrade. But if you were a gold and silver you didn't have a way of knowing to "avoid the flight". Also, when it showed A9 F9 in the old system, who's to say that F class wouldn't get sold out or full of Y-fare gold/plat upgrades before you even got the chance to upgrade. Just playing devils advocate http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I do agree with your argument though, it would be nice to know how deep on the upgrade list you are when you call to make a reservation (especially if you are gold, or silver like me).

Cigarman: First you call me lazy, now you wanna be my bruddah? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Studentflyer, I agree under the old system you didnt know who else was booked, but it wasn't as important(at least for a platinum) to know. Gold and Silver always had this lack of information problem.

As for FC getting sold out before the 3 day window, I don't think anyone in this long running debate(whether they be on the Less filling or Tastes great side) had a problem with Continental giving FC seats to people who paid to sit in FC. This was always an exposure, but at least you'd get to see seat inventory and be able to make an informed decision.

Take the following situation:

Your considering 2 different flights:

EWR-PBI

flight 1089 shows A3 F3
flight 1085 shows A9 F5

Under the old system, you would probably book 1085 as it hasmore FC available and thus you most likely have a better shot at an upgrade.

Under the new system you have no way of knowing that 15 platinums or on the waitlist for 1085 and only 1 on the waitlist for 1089.
In this case an upgrade on 1085 would be extremely unlikely, while an upgrade on 1089 would be possible. With EUA in place, you do not have the information necessary to compare the relative upgradability of 2 flights, with the old system you did.

That was the major focus or my point about lack of information.

Welcome back from your trip Boomer. Glad to have someone else in the discussion who see's what's going on....