upgrading as gold Elite- is it automatic
 

i am gold and have never had to deal with upgrades before- used my centurion card to get this status. i have a reservation on continental metal next friday made on the web site while logged in . will the upgrade come through automatically if it does happen or do i have to call in ?
Sorry for the very elementary question but this is the first time i have had to deal with a domestic upgrade situation as gold and this would be the first place to turn.

Make sure that your status (gold) is noted in the "My Account" section of CO.Com. If it is, then depending on your itinerary, the EUA will run for you (at the earliest) very early Tuesday morning. If you have chosen to receive an email confirming your upgrade (E-mail Settings>>Elite Upgrade Notification), you will be emailed. You can search on this forum and find many threads discussing variations on that theme (e.g., EUA only running three hours before certain flights,etc.).

Welcome to the club, so to speak. Take a look at this site, it might help clarify some things: http://www.nonepass.com/

Free Gold Status???
 

They are giving GOLD away, when I have to fly more miles to acheive the status now? I would have been Plat this year if it wasn't for the change in Fares and having to use my company's travel website utilizing the 50% EQMs.
This is almost shocking to me. Why is the centurian card getting people free Gold Status?? This sounds a bit over the top for any airline. :confused:

It might be because the Centurion card has a $2,500 annual fee. :eek: Amex probably gives CO something like 10 bucks per cardholder to comp them Gold. :D

The Centurion Card (aka "the Black Card") gives the primary cardholder Gold Elite on CO plus the equivalent on US and one other airline (I forget which--maybe Delta?). It also confers status with a few hotel programs, among a number of other great benefits for folks who travel frequently by commercial airline.

But I'd hardly call it "free." I think the annual fee is $2500 now (maybe $3500?). And you have to be an AmEx Plat cardholder with annual spending in the 6-figure range for several years running before you can be invited to have the privilege paying the Black Card annual fee.

More info on the Centurion card can be found in the American Express forum. If you need to express outrage over this feel free to open another thread. It doesn't belong on this one.

Xyzzy
CO forum moderator

if anyone is in iah next Fri and would like to be our guest in the presidents club - at 1220 pm or so, drop a PM and i'll report on the luck of the draw on the upgrade. its on the morning 764 from lax- iah - we'll be taking a small pooch in the cabin with us so that probably diminishes our chances i suspect.
thanks for the advice.

When you say "we," do you mean you're travelling with a companion other than the dog? If you have a non-elite on the same reservation with you, you will NOT receive an automatic upgrade. You can either ask at the airport for both of you to be upgraded, or you can call CO and ask them to "split" the reservation so you'll be eligible for the automatic upgrade and can ask for the companion upgrade at the airport.

If the companion is also elite, you are both eligible for the automatic upgrade, but will only be upgraded automatically if two seats are available in First.

For more details, search this board for "EUA split".

A Maltese by any chance?

We are both elite plus a small pomeranian who is making a one way trip to srq as a gift. The boss- our shih tzu- has to stay home this time. he is not happy and we will have hell to pay when we get back.

AND his name is marble.

Fool's gold member
 

As a Gold on CO, I am 0 for 7 for upgrades. And my flight tomorrow seems a shut out as well.

Have you been flying mostly transcon?

I'll be happy to report my first experience trying as two human gold elites and a pomeranian travelling in the cabin. no 777 so we are not restricted by the pooch. lax- srq via iah. I' ve followed the instructions to be notified on- line given by all of you nice folks here so we'll see.

The Domain Name is up for re registration
 

Hey, NW Solutions says the nonepass.com domain expired on 1/16/05, FYI

-Hammer

Are you kidding me? 0 for 7 as a gold.....are you flying hub to hubs or has CO watered down their OP program to the point that only Platts have a chance at upgrades!

follow- up on upgrade experience- abject failure!!!
 

Her is my report on my upgrade as 2 gold elites travelling together-s class- 0 for 3- friday lax -iah on co 194 . mon day jan 31 tpa-lax via iah- leaving tampa at 3:50 pm arrving lax at 7:30 pm mor or less those 2 flights struck out too.
i think that gold on continental leaves on little chance of upgrades- platinum on AA which we also are- we are upgraded most of the time even on transcons . Talking to other passengers, another fellow said he was about 0 fo 80 and he was gold. !!!!!! Conitnnetal doesn't even attempt to deliver even occasionally what they promise. i mean, once would have been nice.

As NW silver in 2003 and early 2004 I think I was 3 for 4 on eligible CO flights.

As NW gold in late 2004, I was 1 for 2 on eligible CO flights (and I scored a companion upgrade on that 1).

As NW plat, so far this year I'm 1 for 2 on eligible CO flights (and I scored a companion upgrade on the 1).

None of these were transcons, but all were on very cheap fares. Both ug's with companions were EWR-IAH. The solo upgrades were once each on IAH-LGA, EWR-MDW, and ORD-EWR. The ones I missed were LGA-IAH and 2 IAH-EWRs.

No Gold Upgrades??
 

Wow, either you have a run of bad luck or you cheesed someone off in Houston ;)

I just had to fly out LGA=>OAK and back tomorrow, last minute booking for around $300.00. As it stands now I'm 3 for 4 on the FC upgrades on this trip...one of the reasons I'll take CO every time from the NYC area.

P.S. I'm actually 4 for 4, when I turned on my phone on landing in HOU from OAK, I got a text that I was upgraded, that was nice. I guess it's easier to get upgraded on a late Thursday night flight than on a prime time one.. ^

I'm a CO Platinum and it's a tough sleigh ride trying to get an upgrade on a CO transcon.

Gold has been good to me...
 

I am about 70-80% with my Gold Status.... since November 2004

DCA-CHI 4 for 4
DCA-ASE (on NW) 3 for 4
DCA-SAN 2 for 2

Its worth it to me to fly a bit more to keep the status...

Its all about the time of day, day of the week and where from flying from and to..

Tougher times will be between 3 and 7pm - M,T,Thur from a major city/hub - fly from Hub to Hub - good luck! Saturdays, Sunday, Wednesday's I notice are easier. A special event in that city will also lessen your chances...

As a Gold I usually did fairly well on CO upgrades unless it was at peak times going through IAH, transcon, or the direct flight to SFO. I was usually very careful at picking intineraries on CO or NW that I thought had better chances for the upgrade.

Can someone else confirm these recommended dates and times (for predominantly business markets like BOS-IAH or BOS-EWR - you can guess where I live)? Wednesday is better than Tuesday? I would have guessed that Monday morning and Friday afternoon were pretty tough, but is 3-7pm really worse than 6-9am? If you have complete freedom to book a trip in a cheapie fare bucket months in advance for a trip you can take at any time of the week, when do you try to book it? Wednesday at 10am? Saturday at 3pm (when fares are often $10-20 more expensive because of the weekend)?

For example, next Wednesday's three BOS-IAH nonstops are showing:

dep 10:05am: A4 D4 Z4 Y9 H9 K9 N9 B9 V9 U9 Q9 I9 S9 W9 T9 X9
dep 1:05pm: A3 D3 Z3 Y2 H0 K0 N0 B0 V0 U0 Q0 I0 S0 W0 T0 X0
dep 4:20pm: A9 D8 Z8 Y9 H9 K9 N9 B9 V9 U9 Q9 I9 S9 W9 T9 X9

suggesting that the 4:20pm flight is the likeliest to see upgrades, despite my guess that the other two would be less popular.

Checking a random Tuesday in March (3/22):

dep 7:50am: A4 D4 Z4 Y7 H7 K7 N4 B7 V7 U4 Q7 I4 S4 W4 T7 X4
dep 10:23am: A9 D1 Z1 Y9 H9 K9 N9 B9 V9 U9 Q9 I9 S9 W9 T9 X9
dep 1:20pm: A4 D4 Z4 Y7 H7 K7 N4 B7 V7 U4 Q7 I4 S4 W4 T7 X4
dep 4:20pm: A4 D2 Z2 Y7 H7 K7 N4 B7 V7 U4 Q7 I4 S4 W4 T7 X4

which suggests that, as I'd expect, the mid-morning flight is least popular (although yield management is playing games with the D1 Z1 availability this far out).

Which is typical? It would be great to hear some other people's strategies. Is Saturday better still? Or Sunday morning? Thanks for any help?

Can I trade your gold for my platinum? I'm only batting about 60% in recent months... :td:

I've obviously done something to anger the gods in Houston.