I've been debating whether to post this topic for a while now. A recent thread about a "denied" upgrade tipped the scales in favor of posting.

I find so many "elite" flyers, have this feeling of entitlement when it comes to upgrades. It makes me sick, all these people thinking that entire airline should revolve around them.


What I'm not referring to is the recent debate over changed in Intl upgrades, or the less filling vs. taste great debate of last year. I talking about the "somebody else got an upgrade and I didn't" or "I broke the rules how can I get away with it" type comments.

How many of us have received perks from Continental that they weren't required to give us? I certainly have. I've had luggage repaired when the damage was something they technically don't cover. A
PBI gate agent once upgraded my mom after she recognized the last name. How many of us, in the days of upgrade coupons, were upgraded without surrendering the coupon?
Guess what, in that last case, we probably got an upgrade at the expense of another flyer.

If you think you're some how entited to an upgrade then BUY A FIRST CLASS SEAT.

Tomorrow I'm flying EWR-MSP on Continental.

The only thing I'm entitled to is a plane ride from EWR to MSP and 3268 Onepass miles.
I bought and paid for a coach seat, that they are giving me a First Class seat is a nice perk , but certainly it is not something i'm entitled to.

What else am I entitled to?

A safe aircraft and a capable crew.
Timely and accurate announcements, yes I think I deserve that also.

An incident free flight? Yes I'd like that, but No I'm not entitled to it. Accidents happen, Weather happens, call them acts of nature or acts of G-D if you prefer.
Catman's friends can run under the plane I'm on.
Any airline is run by people and people make mistakes. It's called Human error, and I certainly don't expect an error free airline. I do expect to be treated with courtesy and respect. And if problems occur, like my bag misses the flight, I expect Continental to take every reasonable action to rectify that situation.

Oh more thing, I think I'm entitled to Continental following it's own rules. If I book a ticket under one rule then Continental should abide by that rule.

Sorry to get on my soapbox, but like I said, this has been building for sometime.

The only reason I fly Continental and their alliance partners are for complimentary upgrades. If that doesn't happen, there's greener grass elsewhere.

One does have a presumed entitlement to ask questions when his preferred business partner, such as an airline, inexplicably operates differently from the competition. One further may question when certain benefits which had been in place under a business agreement (I fly your airline, you give me stuff)are unexpectedly and unilaterally diminished. While a gentleman may not scream at the help, he may certainly dash off a stern letter to the Times.

"a business agreement (I fly your airline, you give me stuff)"

I don't see anywhere in the Contract of Carriage that includes terms of the OnePass Elite program, whereas the Contract of Carriage is the only "business agreement" that's in place when you give your money to Continental or any other airline.

Isn't this misunderstanding the very basis of the whole issue?

Perhaps it is because I appreciate that as a Silver, I am lowest on the upgrade list.

Perhaps it is because I typically travel on tickets < $250.

Perhaps it is because I've never felt CO "screwed" me out of anything.

Perhaps it is because I've always had the good fortune to be treated with respect and courtesy by EVERY CO employee I've encountered.

But I agree with Boomer - I enter a contract with CO to fly me safely from point A to point B - in a COACH seat.

If, by using the system they've established, I can enjoy upgrades and other perqs, terrific.

In my opinion, this is a healthier philosophy. If you start "keeping score" out of a feeling of being mistreated, you are just adding resentment and stress.

I keep track of upgraded segments not to see the upgrades I've missed --- I keep track of it to see the upgrades I've received.

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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

Do we not live now in an "era of entitlements"?

As Boomer notes, it certainly very often seems so.

And yes, we are, IMHO, easily somewhat spoiled!

I disagree with most of the posts so far.

The airlines offer space available upgrades as an additional inducement for us to buy tickets. The space available upgrades make it more likely that passengers will choose one airline over another, even if the other costs less. The upgrades also encourage Elite passengers to purchase less-traveled 2 p.m. or 8 p.m. flights instead of higher-demand 5 p.m. flights (allowing the airline to sell more tickets). Space available upgrades are more a calculated business decision than they are a "gift" from the airlines.

The space available upgrade rules are as much a part of the contract as is the sale price. If the airline offers the inducment, the airline should stand by the terms of its offer.

Some airlines do an extremely poor job of saying what those rules are. That's where the complaints arise.

What CO promises is unlimted "space available" upgrades. None of the complaints I've seen are about first class leaving half empty! No its a lowly Silver (which I was in 2000) complaining about not riding in First.

Yes, CO offers free upgrades to get more business. However, the first class cabins at CO are the same size as other airlines. At most other airlines if you are not in the TOP tier, you have to use electronic coupons/stickers to upgrade to first.

We OnePass members have a good deal, and should be grateful instead of whining like little children.

Not Continental, but according to themselves oneworld revolves around you!

More seriously, I agree with most of what you said.

"a business agreement (I fly your airline, you give me stuff)"
>>I don't see anywhere in the Contract of Carriage that includes terms of the OnePass Elite program, whereas the Contract of Carriage is the only "business agreement" that's in place when you give your money to Continental or any other airline.

Nay, the Contract of Carriage is a strawman under the present discussion. Rather, the topic is the offer by a merchant of certain amenities in exchange for one's custom. The offer and acceptance thereof constitute a contract.

Upon acceptance and upon receiving consideration for passage, the merchant is obliged to deliver upon the offer. The essence of covenant, of business agreement. For when my company flies me on business, it is no longer personal.

I'm with Boomer.

If I pay for a coach seat, that's what I expect.

As an elite flyer on CO, I do expect to get at least a few UGs along the way, since that is one of the benefits. But I realize that that is not guaranteed, and thus I try to pick my flights and obsess over F-class inventory whenever possible.

I enjoy FC as much as the next guy, but I don't find coach all that bad, mainly because that's what my expectation is, and I know that I'm certainly not going to pay for an F seat out of my pocket.

And the whole thing about "You took my upgrade" makes me sick. Especially when it was the whole platinums (lazy or not) complaining about gold and silvers getting ahead of them in the old call-in system. I'd bet nearly every platinum had a higher UG percentage than nearly every gold. Is it SO awful to fly coach for one segment out of 100?

Just keep it in perspective. I'm grateful that I can afford to travel as much as I do, let alone getting upgrades, when many people can barely get by. My life is easy.

ronin's got it right here.

CO has made offers of particular terms and conditions. The Contract of Carriage is but one of them. CO also has another contract (referenced here, but sent to the customer in paper form) that is essentially an addednum to the Contract of Carriage when the customer signs up with the OnePass program. As an additional addendum to the contract, Continental provides an additional set of rules for Elite-Level travelers.

Guess what? If you have signed up for OnePass, are Elite, and have purchased a Continental ticket, you are subject not only to the Contract of Carriage, but also to the OnePass rules and the Elite rules. And so is Continental.

Now, I have no sympathy for those who complain when the rules they agreed to (by joining OnePass and buying a ticket) don't work out to their advantage. But I do have sympathy for those who agree to the rules and are screwed by someone in authority violating those rules.

Boomer, I agree that many have come to behave like they've been guaranteed a seat in First Class. And they neglect to bring manners along with them. That's a real shame. But I'm not going to go so far as to say that they have no right to complain when the other party in a contract violated the terms of the contract, terms that, in fact, the other party wrote.

There's no entitlement to first regardless of elite rules and status. If CO started to seat me in coach I'd moan for awhile. Then I'd start flying other airlines. I wouldn't, however, feel "screwed".

ronin, mweiss, I concur. I think that analysis is accurate. Moreover, there is something of significant confusion which needs cleared up with this issue of ENTITLEMENT, which Boomer brings up.

Boomer, what you're driving at, I believe, involves TWO separate issues which EUA often makes difficult to separate.

1) ENTITLEMENT. If this means that the flyer has the guaranteed sense that he/she should be upgraded without due respect to his/her place in the elite pecking order or perceives that he/she has a god-given right to an upgrade no matter what, every time, just because he/she feels important and it's always happened in the past...I am in total agreement with you, and I think everyone here would be...

2) ENTITLEMENT TO AN AGREED BENEFIT. Let's presume we were in the old days of the "taste great" call-in system. You call in, the agent says sure, there's an F seat open, and it's your elite window for upgrading...then the agent says, "however, Boomer, I've arbitrarily decided not to upgrade you because that's just the way that I feel tonight." You certainly are not saying that you would simply say, "well, I paid for coach, I'll fly in coach..." No one would capitulate to that sort of bologna, despite the high-minded maxim which sounds so charitable. You and I would be fairly entitled to our promised benefit, but only when the provisions were clearly satisfied given the agreement. By not getting it, it would be very fair to say hey, you didn't hold up your end of the deal. What is wrong with doing this?

The PROBLEM is often that with the EUA system one cannot discern easily anymore whether he/she has been fairly given the promised benefit--whether CO has held up its end of the deal for our patronage. So what happens when someone doesn't get an upgrade; one cannot verify easily, as with the old system. two options: the system screwed up or the system worked...but lack of EUA verification leads to speculation.

Thus we get frequent posts about whether one was "missed" and being irked--just like with the recent thread about the crew in first. If we knew that he/she demanded the upgrade, beyond the accurate workings of the system, without appropriate respect for respective elite status, etc., then yes let's harp on their undue sense of entitlement.

When people presume that they missed the upgrade unfairly, this can be wrong, just as it can be with people who criticize them to presume that the person is demanding (1) rather than (2).

Thus, Boomer, it's much harder to say who is really guilty of the illicit sense of entitlement rather than (2) until we discern accurately between whether the system "missed" the upgrade or whether someone is just carping for fairly having to sit in coach.

The problem with people complaining frequently has to do more with not knowing than with undue self-importance.

JL2


[This message has been edited by JeffLewis2 (edited 07-27-2001).]

It seems to me the term "space available" negates the term "entitlement." We're not entitled to anything that may or may not exist.

And everything's relative. Go look at the UA boards and see how many 1Ks sit in coach the majority of the time... and wrestle with coupons or mileage deductions to sit in F the rest of the time.

Compared to that culture, OnePass rocks.