Boomer: I wasn't really serious about passing up the opportunity, just curious about how it would have turned out. Still showing A8 F8 as of right now, so I'm sure I would have gotten the upgrade automatically last night.

To get back on topic,

Platinum Elite:

I'm curently 6 for 6 via auto-upgrades.

In actual practice I am 5 for 6 because on one of my segments, I decided to forsake a confirmed seat in first and go standby on an earlier flight whereupon I was lucky to take the last seat (coach) on the plane.

I am interested in hearing more commments from the silvers and golds out there as well as how successful golds and platinums have been with companion upgrades at check-in.

[This message has been edited by Flyingfool (edited 11-05-2000).]

I just bought a Y class ticket for MSP to DCA leaving tomorrow and returning Friday night. I am CO Silver and bought the ticket though CO, but both flights are NW codeshares.

The agent told me that he would upgrade me when ticketed, and sure enough, about 20 minutes later, they called me and told me that they had upgraded me on both legs.

NJDAVID - Sorry but I am wide awake - It is all about revenue - Let me repeat -REVENUE - I am awake because I see it very clearly - REVENUE - You can fight all that you desire, but I applaud CO for EUA and for their decisive actions to support REVENUE PRODUCERS- and I am quite certain that CO shareholders applaud the protection of the top revenue producers - As for those that wish to leave CO - don't worry you will be replaced - it is a simple fact of life - some customers leave and some new customers will join - I am sure that Gordon Bethune is not losing any sleep over EUA protests - Let's face revenue producing Elites will love the program - and CO wants to take care of these people - and my 2 cents - CO is right and I wish all of them sweet dreams as they sleep well through the night without the hassle of phoning for an upgrade - AH - REVENUE - kazman

kazman:

I agree its all about money, but its a lot more complicated than you indicate.

Continental has alot of customers that are stuck with continental, as an example the folks that fly EWR-CLE every week. They arent going to switch to united and connect in chicago, and CO knows that. They are the captive audience. Then there are the marginal customers, these are the people that might switch. If you lose them, you've lost revenue, even if the captive's pay more, it's those marginal seats that almost go right to the bottom line.

Yes, Continental is in business to make money, and Gordon should be focused on that. But he's focused on alot more than that.

They do lots of things that don't directly go to the bottom line, some of it is called good will. Often times good will in the long run will outweigh revenue in the short run.

Continental's handling of the entire EUA has not generated much good will, in fact quite the opposite.

I'm just about as far from a captive customer as CO could get.

I'm somewhat aggravated with the attitude of customer service. I'm not going to get killed by the change, but the elite desk needs to know that passengers can be rather particular about seating. MY BEEF is that they lied on Friday about changing my seat to 1B. No it was not the end of the world, but it just makes a person wonder what else can be misrepresented. Kinda like "no controlling legal authority"

FWIW on my two flights : 2 plats 2 golds 7 silvers 1 onepass. 1 plat 1 gold 6 silvers the rest onepass.

Sorry to off-track from the Revenue/Captive pax discussion (which, BTW, I'll be keeping an eye on, since it always brings interesting discussion IMO), but...

why would/does Continental release F bucket seats before the 3-day upgrade window. Y-Fare upgrades come out off the A bucket, and no discount F upgrades occur before 3-days. So why do -some- flights far in advance have F seats?

As a side to that question, if a Y-Fare Elite upgrade (Gold/Plat) is made within the three day window, and there are both F and A seats open, which would it go into?

F seats can be used for miles upgrades A seats can't.


Since F is a subset of A, they'd both go down.

In the process of upgrading my TPA-EWR-GLA into BF, I discovered that mileage upgrades goes into F. So I answered by own question. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Did not get the upgrade on the Monday IAH-BOS. Saw a lady got upgraded in the plane when they called out her name she was so happy that she said that she would give the FA a cookie. I saw a few Elites sitting around me, they didn't look too happy. Oh well hope the BOS-EWR on Sunday will do better.



------------------
Al

I am CO Silver and spent the past three weekends traveling PVD - IAH - SEA. All leaving PVD at 7:00am Saturday and returning from SEA at 11:50am on Sunday. Two of the tickets were NW codeshares, one a Continental E-ticket.

The first week (10/20)I called and went 4 for 4 on the upgrades.

Second weekend (10/27 -10/28) Called on first half and got the last two seats. On second half OnePass told me to wait for the computer. When I checked the next morning the EUA did not auto upgrade me, but I called and was able to get a seat on the second leg. According to the agent it was something to do with the paper NW ticket on CO flights. I was 3 for 4 on this trip.

Last weekend (11/4 - 11/5) I called Friday night at midnight and stated that the EUA would not upgrade the NW ticket last week, and asked them to do it manually. The nice agent did it on Friday, called on Saturday and was told to wait for EUA. Called at 8am to check and was told all seats were gone.
2 for 4 on this trip.

I guess I can't complain getting 9 out of 12 requested upgrades.

By the way the runs to SEA via IAH got me Gold on the last leg. Each trip also earned the following miles on a $198 fare:

6894 Flight Miles
3447 Silver Elite bonus miles
13788 American Express Triple Miles Bonus
2000 Why should you fly Continental bonus
-----
26,129 Total miles!

Regarding experiences as a CO Silver Elite:
I regularly fly BWI-CLE-SAN or BWI-IAD-SAN and have been 13 for 16 for confirmed upgrades (pre-EUA), which was better than I had hoped for. Post-EUA I am 0 for 4 (although I managed to get upgraded at the gate for one segment).

Thankfully I've now made Gold, which (hopefully) will increase the confirmed upgrade situation from last week's 0 for 4. I'm wondering why my percentage suddenly dropped--was it due to EUA as discussed at length on this board, or was it just a flukey high-travel, high-elite member weekend.

My first real bout with the EUA system and I am 4 for 4. The upgrade on segment 1 was emailed 13 minutes after the computer did its thing. Segement two 58 minutes after. On the return, segment 1 21 minutes after and segment two 38 minutes after. The odd thing was only one segment had a seat assigned. The other emails indicated seat assignment would take place at check in.

Got the upgrade confirmation for Sunday's BOS-EWR!!! but did not get the EWR-BOS yet.

Al

[This message has been edited by afang (edited 11-10-2000).]

Latest scoreboard as a gold out of IAH:

Before EUA, batted 92% (24 of 26)
Post EUA, batting 40% (2 of 5)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif