I booked a 4 segment trip last light on co.com for travel next Monday/Tuesday in V class, and as of tonight (4-5 days out) , I have received email upgrades on every segment.

I guess the speculation that all upgrades would be going "battlefield" isn't panning out...

Well, not so fast...
It all depends where you fly from and to. I fly from DCA thru IAH enroute to wherever, and I absolutely CANNOT get an upgrade, either EUA or Battlefield, to save my life. Similarly, DCA-EWR flights are upgrade-less, save the stray gate upgrade.

So, for some of us, upgrades are still very often battlefield. Consider yourself lucky to not be in this situation.

From the coach section, where I'm turning in my free booze certs given to me with my new 2005 Platinum Elite packet to suffer a little less in cattle class,

CALfly5

I'm a Platinum and getting a transcon EUA is next to impossible.

Personally, EWR-DCA is not horrible in coach.

As a plat if I were to recieve an upgrade on that route it is nice however, it is no big deal.

Dan

Im 14 segments to date and 14 upgrades by email all on the beginning day they woud be available.Routes are IAH to PDX, LAX, VCR, EWR,ONT all on discount coach purchased at CO.com

IAH-DCA is another story!

I have been connecting through IAH to LAX, SAN, SAT, AUS, TPA, OKC, EWR, ORD and BWI. And considering the vast base of Plats in IAH I have compete against, the EUA policy seems to be working - for me!

The only time I did not receive an upgrade so far this year was when I booked a flight the day before the trip, and F was already full.

I totally agree that DCA-IAH is a different story.
Dan

I have spent as much as 5-6 hours on the aircraft of a EWR-DCA flight, and one time in the air for 3.5 hours. Even though the flight is only 37 minutes, the taxi and wait time can be an hour at times. The wait times are due to traffic at EWR and all those RJ's with 50 people which are tying up those valuable slots at EWR.

There's a reason you don't get the EUA on EWR-DCA as a platinum...I'm in your seat

This is a big business market, similar to the DL/US shuttle markets, but for the people who use CO or the EWR market, this is the better option (I live in Manhattan, equidistant between LGA/EWR, but fly CO as my primary carrier, and I like the upgrades). The majority of the seats sold to these business travellers are Y, with a smattering of N mixed in (these are the only two fare classes I've seen on the route for non-saturday stay itins). Booking 3 weeks out I can get W fares with a saturday-night stay, but my travel plans for work aren't concrete enough to book that. I buy my Y fare and take my instant elite upgrade and plop down in F when I get on the plane. I only get them on the DCA-EWR segment; the 6:50am EWR-DCA on Monday morning is always full by the time I get to booking.

Sorry for taking your seat, but I'm paying more, and CO rewards me for that. Knowing that this is such a business/Y fare last minute market, CO doesn't release too many seats for EUA. It is a business game. If I wasn't getting the F upgrades, I'd probably switch back over to DL (crediting the points to CO). The schedules are tons better, and there are no RJs on the route.

S.

The EUA is not working as well here.

Last year: 50/51 on CO, only 2 battlefield.
So far in '05: 4/7 on CO, 2 battlefield.

Of course this year's total includes CO50 on an L fare, hoho. I suspected that wouldn't work and it didn't.

Overall my fare classes are low, usually, so I can't complain too much about this ratio. But the battlefield u/g really do diminish the benefit: swimming upstream from midway along a 752 or 753 is no fun at all. It's much different from last fall when I hit almost every possible u/g.

RTS

In fact, I am not sure if CO ever releases EUA seats from DCA-EWR. Many of the flights are RJs, and the other half are mostly 735 - now with the new reduced F cabin. So it will be even harder.

I agree, most F seats go to instant Elite Y's and to BF customers in the afternoon. I have seen BF customers complain about not getting a F seat, and they are told that BF does not guarantee an F seat domestically - which it does if available. DL has not FC on the DL shuttle - but better seat pitch. US did add FC to the shuttle.

I'm plat and on H bucket and I still don't have upgrade to CLE this sunday.

We'll see.

Actually, my company buys "A" fares on most routes and thus I am always in FC without the need for EUA. However, when I am traveling on my own dime, I really would not care about such a short flight where the only benefit to flying FC is free drinks served in a glass and a large seat.

Granted, if it were to go over the bookd flight time FC would be of a benefit but that is the exception rather than the rule.

Dan

If you can get DCA-EWR in F, it's usually a nice ride, as there are sometimes even a few empties around the F cabin. Those jokers in DCA never like to do gate upgrades, and fly them empty instead of running battlefields. Beware of DCA: you need to watch the staff like a hawk!

I really with CO would run a report on empty F when Elites were on the waitlist...