That's because the flights in question were in Feb., and the upgrade procedure didn't change until mid-March.

12 segments to date -
3 ERJ's
9 possible upgrade situations
upgraded 9/9 (100%), 6 as Gold, 3 as Silver, all before boarding.

Upgraded Gold Segments:

CLE-IAH
IAH-SEA
SEA-IAH
IAH-CLE
EWR-TPA
TPA-EWR

Upgraded Silver:

CLE-RSW
RSW-CLE
CLE-PHL

My perfect track record will die this week, as I have 4 segments thru IAH as Silver. :(

Update
 

I will now be revising my stats downward:

39 upgradeable segments
24 upgrades

Total: 61.5% as Plat. :td: :td: :td:

That does it! From now on I'm upgrading myself to the rear lav!
 

Channa,

Sorry to hear about your stats... mine [knock on wood] have not been that bad... yet. I'd be interested to hear which segments you - or anyone else - routinely misses (e.g. Transcons, Hub-Hub).

My transcon rate (SFO-EWR) is a bit lower, but not substantially. SFO is a hard market. I have a few IAH-DCA's in there, another hard market.

But enough excuses -- we don't want this place to sound like the NW board ;) -- 61% for a Plat is pretty bad...

In my opinion, 27/29 is great. My wife is 29/32, 8/10 between IAH and LAX and 21/22 between IAH and PHL. I am 24/24, 20/20 between IAH and PHL and 4/4 between IAH and PHL. I am EXTREMELY pleased. Every trip but one was on a W or X fare making US true "riff raff" (self employed).

The point about exit row seat assignment available to Platinum flyers is one of the SIGNIFICANT improvements to the elite program that I have really appreciated. This benefit alone would keep me a loyal Continental flyer even if my upgrade success was not so great.

Wow - I truly am shocked at the percentages in this thread.

For points of comparison:
On AA this year as an EXP, I'm 100% - all flights - incl 2 south am. *
On UA this year as a 1K, I'm 100% of all requested upgrades (11/11) - incl 4 trans-atlantic. *
On NW this year as Gold, I'm 93% (13/14, only one hasn't cleared - MSP-SNA)
On CO this year as NW Gold, of my 16 flights, 13 have been RJs - blecch- but I'm 3/3 100% on the mainline planes (IAH-MID/Q, PVR-IAH/N & IAH-SAN/B)

The poor CO Plat percentages here are just amazing to me (though I have certainly been very lucky so far). You guys stay with CO again why?

[*- Also note that all of my UA/AA upgrades have cleared at their respective 100 hour marks or prior - none waitlisted after that window opened. All three of my CO upgrades cleared at checkin or at the gate, including the two Mexico flights that weren't even half full in First upon departure - is EUA just a myth @ CO?]

upgrade ratio
 

I'm a lowly Silver flying ONLY the least expensive fares. :rolleyes:

So far in 2005 I am 10/21 on upgradeable flight segments.

All upgraded in advance.

I have never had a battlefield upgrade since joining OnePass in 1993.

socref

What flights? I have zero upgrades as a silver this year - including no success waitlisting with miles.

Of the 18 segments I've flown this year on CO only one has been Express.

I'm 8 for 17 on upgradeable flights.

So, just about half the time. Not bad for lowly Silver. Several were battle ground, last minute ones. All short haul flights less than 2 hours. All on cheap advance purchase fares.


I've had 4 NW segments. All of them upgraded. Every segment had at least four empty seats in the F cabin.

By comparison, I'm 86% on United this year. Some of the ones I missed was because I opted not to upgrade for various reasons. I've flown 47 United/UAX/Ted segments. For some reason I've been flying a lot of United Express and Ted flights without an F cabin. But of the 29 segments with an F or Business cabin, I've been upgraded 25 times. I never use miles to upgrade. Always the complimentary upgrades that UA gives their elites.

heh
4 flights
3 ERJs (iah-cle, cle-yul, yul-ewr)
1 BF upgrade (ewr-iah)
1 lucky silver who got an upgrade on a hub to hub flight :D

Since I made Plat last week, 5/6.

IAH to SAN 5/8. I thought I had a battlefield upgrade on the last flight, but they ended up giving the last FC seat to someone who was double booked, even though I was 1st on the gate list.

0/4 for operational upgrades on transatlantic flights - BF seats were given for $10.00 to CO employee family members, but they were not willing to sell me one for less than $3K.

1/1 on NW as CO Plat

Maybe I should consider switching to AA.

say what? Can you give us more detail? CO family pass riders should not be upgraded into BF, especially if Elites are in the back while they are processing op-ups to free seats in coach.

CO flight 11 from CDG to IAH on March 13th. When I checked in at the gate they had 6 BF empty at 11:45 a.m. according to the PC available in the AF lounge in terminal 2A.

While at the gate 4 people were called up prior to boarding and in exchange for a $10.00 fee received seats 9A, 9B, 9D and 9E. Once boarded I noticed that 9K and 9L were empty - I was seated in 16D. Once the door was shut and the two seats were still empty I asked the FA if I could move up front. With a stern smile he replied that that is something that is decided by the concierge and he has no control over it. BTW, if anybody flies the IAH-CDG route, flight 10 is notoriously late to arrive and flight 11 is always late to depart. I usually give myself about 2 hours for a connection and so far I have yet to make one with my luggage. I either miss my connection entirely or I barely make it and my luggage makes in the next flight.

FLL-IAH
IAH-LAX (X2)
LAX-IAH
FLL-CLE
LGA-CLE
CLE-TPA
IAH-FLL
FLL-EWR
IAH-DFW

0/4 for operational upgrades on transatlantic flights - BF seats were given for $10.00 to CO employee family members, but they were not willing to sell me one for less than $3K.



You should always confront the gate agent about this procedural violation, and she/he will be forced to either take the BF seats back or upgrade you to BF as well.

WASJETBOY

So did you confront the GA? Is this really happening for employee family members?

Gold:
BOS-IAH W, I, I, XI (3 day EUA)
IAH-BOS I, I, XI (3 hour EUA)
CLE-BOS XT (1 day EUA)
NW IAH-MEM, BOS-DTW-IAH all upgraded on a K fare (3 days out)
plus two RJ segments and four DL segments.
so 3/8 on CO, 3/3 on NW, and six other ST flights. All off-peak (midweek during the day usually).

60 segments, 24 Rjs, 100% upgrade on mainliners (short domestic fights) I am very pleased!

Since becoming silver I have 4 segments (3 ERJ) and was upgraded on the mainline 1 day out.

Matt

I've never had to or been placed in such a situation to confront the agent, but sure would if I noticed this happening!! I've heard mention of this before in other threads.

WASJETBOY

While at the gate 4 people were called up prior to boarding and in exchange for a $10.00 fee received seats 9A, 9B, 9D and 9E.
*****

I love when people post with such authority about things that they have no clue about.

First of all, Employees, their partners AND their families are entitled to space available BF travel. It is an employee perk. They were not upgraded, they listed for, paid for and received an employee perk.

They list for the flights in advance, and they can list in either cabin for said flight. It is not an upgrade. That said, sometimes it feels like one when you don't know if there is going to be any open seats.

Employees, spouse and family members can travel for free in economy, or they can pay a fee for BF (assuming that there is an open seat). The fee is a lot more than $10, it is between $100 and $200 each way (I am not posting the amount as it is company policy not to make such things public).

The fee is usually payroll deducted, so you would not see it being paid for at the gate, secondly, employees get a certain amount of vacation passes (free for BF / F) and they also help standby list seniority.

The $10 fee you saw being paid is actually the departure tax for CDG. When you travel on a non revenue ticket, you have to pay this fee at the gate assuming you get a seat assignment.

So, despite what you stated, they were not upgraded, and as an elite, you should know the rules for International BF flights.

That said, If you did want to drop a further 3k, you should have done it at check in, not once you're at the gate, at checkin they can sell tickets, and if you put 3k down, I am pretty sure that they'd have taken it, but I can't help but feel that if it was no big deal for you to just drop 3k at the gate, then you would have done it at purchase.

21/22 including some really unexpected EWR-LAX and EWR-LAS and even an EWR-SFO trip! Knock on wood!

Where are you guys going?
 

I am 7/15, 46.67% as a plat this year, on eligible segments. I fly a lot between LAX and the hubs, especially EWR, but what else can I do? There's no other way for me to route the flights to improve my upgrade percentage. Also, I have done what they want me to do and bought increasing fare classes on my last two trips to EWR. The result? 0/4. For those of you getting upgrades EWR-LAX and EWR-SFO, please post your fare classes. For me, it seems as if they are selling almost all of the F seats on these routes since the introduction of Simplifares, but I'd love to hear from anyone who has gotten an upgarde. Also, were all of your transcon upgrades battlefield, or did you get an EUA email? I can't remember the last time I got an EUA email on a transcon, and I've been plat for about five years.

Bump

(hoping to get a reply)

Just got upgraded MCI-IAH for June 3rd. No EAU for the IAH-SEA leg, but I knew that one wouldn't come through.

2/3 on my mainline flights as a Silver this year.

Matt

50 % (B,N,K) - 16 Segments
2 -Z Segments.
2 - B Segments Operated by NWA - 100%

50%......2/4....Out of 4 segments flown (2 LAX-IAH) and (2 IAH-LAX) this year, I've received upgrades one time in each direction. Upgrades came through on 767s, but did not come through on 752s. Now it seems the 767s have disappeared.

31% as a silver (just missed gold last year).

4/13 on mainline flights (7 on ERJ's not eligible)... all 4 were before March.

most of my flying is in/out of DCA though, so there isn't much hope.

*sigh*

Update
59 of 69 on mainline CO flights with purchased coach fare.
85.51%
B - 7/10
L - 3/4
Q - 7/7
S - 16/17
T - 8/11
U - 2/2
V - 2/3
W - 4/4
X - 10/11

11 Jungle Jets

5 - Z Fares on CO
1 - C on NW
2 - J on EK

91 Segments and 83166 EQMs to date.

Bump!

jhawk,

I see you are in DFW. Do you fly any transcons? And are you getting upgrades on them (especially EWR-LAX)?

LAXPlat

I am 2 for 5 as a silver this year...at least on flights I can get UG'ed. I have alot of ERJ seg's this year.

Also a CO non-rev-elite here. The above information is in fact correct. International travel is completely different than domestic travel for CO staff, and their families.

I've only missed two on NW this year - DTW - LAS in April and DTW - SLC in Feb. I'm batting 95%.

Please log your upgrades at upgradesuccess.com. We are in the process of enabling views by elite level for each airline and will have search functions shortly (even segment searches). If you already have it in a spreadsheet or document, e-mail me and I'll get it uploaded for you.

Incidentally, I think that we should also post our fare classes if we're gonna post %'s...I think it helps compare apples-to-apples. If there's someone out there flying all over on N's, I consider their missing UG's to carry more weight than someone missing the U/G on a Q from EWR-LAX.

I thought it was particularly poignant when a certain CO exec was asked point-blank his thoughts on "Riff-Raff" platinums. His response: "The more a so-called riff-raff flies, the more money he costs us. He's taking up a good seat, consuming the product and getting a good bonus. He becomes more of a liability than an asset".

So I ask: If I'm booking nothing the other side of KNBVU, am I a riff-raff? Revenue Neutral?[/QUOTE]

Just cannot believe that CO reps get away with that. Was his "riff-raff" quote published anywhere? I mean, we're all thanked for our loyalty and choice in picking CO 3 or 4 times a flight.

That jacka$$ should get the can for that nonsense. Also, "props" to the stellar crew up front out of IAH on CO 62, 8 Jun 05 . Wow, what a job! :td: :td: :td:

7/8 on CO segs this year, including 4/4 this weekend (3/4 were EUA'd) on V fare.

No rhyme or reason to it - the PDX-IAH flights on Saturday have been very successful for me (3/3 this year), so that wasn't so surprising - but the Mon flights DTW-IAH-PDX sure were - and the IAH-PDX went out with 2 empties in F.

Just about to make Plat for next year. Most flights are last min bookings from IAH/ PDX or LAX, or DEN, or misc orther places. High ticket proces.

Upgrade percentage over then 85-90%

Scott

Just checked in for my flight to Seattle and was upgraded IAH-SEA on a 753 as a Gold on a T fare. I was not expecting that!

Matt