Sorry! I ahve a EUA question?
 

my girlfriend and I have an upcomming trip where we will have to try EUA. We are both silver and are booked on the same record right now. Here is my question:

Is it beneficial to be on the same record ? Does it not decrease our upgrade chances if there is only 1 seat in F vailable? Will EUA upgrade 1 person only if they are on the same record?
Should I split the record?

Experiences and ALL thoughts are welcome!

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Viele Grüße

Oliver

In the past, as I understand it, a split record would be of benefit when there is only one seat left- assuming that you'd rather sit separately of course! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Oliver,

First of all, is your trip trans-Atlantic? If so, your question is strictly academic, as all of those CO flights are BusinessFirst. And on overseas BF flights, you cannot get complimentary upgrades. If you want to upgrade those flights, you have to do it with miles. Currently flights between Europe and the U.S. cost 20K each way to upgrade if you're flying a discount ticket. And the very low promo fares aren't upgradeable. Check with CO to make sure your tickets are upgradeable.

OTOH, if you can't spare the miles, you can still Elite (no cost) upgrade any U.S. domestic legs of the trip. For example, if you fly DUS-EWR and then EWR-LAX, you're going to be sitting in the back on the DUS-EWR leg, but you can try for a free upgrade on the EWR-LAX leg.

Now, as to your original question, I know that if she didn't have status, and you were on the same PRN, you'd be kicked out of the EUA system, and you'd have to call in for upgrade.

But, if you both are on the same PRN, and there's only one F seat, I think you'd be passed over, but not certain. Check with CO on that. You might want to separate your records...one upgrade is better than none. And most FA's will allow you to rotate in the F seat, although that is discretionary.

But, the bad news is that under EUA, life had gotten increasingly harder for Golds and Silvers. Overall, Golds seem to be upgrading 1/3 to 1/2 of the time, and Silvers almost never. Obviously that would vary with the flight. Transcons and hub to hub flights get a lot of Plats and full-fare flyers, so ya just might as well resign yourself to a 31" pitch seat, and hope there's no one sitting in the center seat. Of course, your odds for an upgrade improve if you're flying on Sat. night, or you're flying to destinations where business flyers don't normally go.

IMHO, if you can afford the miles to upgrade, go for it! I've taken 3 trans-Atlantics in economy on CO this year, and a 9 hour flight in CO's economy is really hell! Besides, BF on the 777 is really nice, and you have a confirmed upgrade up to 30 days prior!

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"An upgrade, an upgrade! My kingdom for an upgrade!"

I was recently informed (by one Res Agent, so take that for what it's worth) that CO had recently 'fine tuned' the EUA so that Elites of multiple status rankings would be treated as separate passengers even when on the same PRN. Apparently enough Golds travelling with Silvers, or Plats travelling with Golds or Silvers, didn't want to 'wait around' for the upgrade.

She also claimed that if you do NOT want to be EUA'd, then have your OP number removed from the PRN until you arrive at the airport.