I went through five Elite agents before I received a straght answer. I just wonder if it is the correct answer. I paid with miles for first class; one leg had no F seats. I was placed on standby (by the THIRD of the five agents; the first two did not even do this). My question was (finally answered by the fifth agent) what is the order of standby upgrades if you paid with miles:

1. Plat used miles

2. Gold used miles

3. Silver used miles

4. non Elite used miles

5. Plat no miles

6. Gold no miles

7. Silver no miles

True? Thanks.

AFAIK and have seen:

1. Anyone who paid $$$ for an FC ticket

2. First come/first served for FC upgrades paid using miles.

5. Plat no miles (complimentary)

6. Plat Companion (complimentary)

7. Gold no miles (complimentary)

8. Gold Companion (complimentary)

9. Silver no miles (complimentary)

Library : Airlines : Continental Airlines (CO) : Upgrade precedence at the gate


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daniel baker -- [email protected]
Reliable, fast, and unmoderated forums at ITYT.

OK, more specifically, I am interested in the pre-gate situation. Does a computer at CO pull any F seat that becomes available say, two weeks out, and apply it to the standby list (and in what order) or do I have to "keep calling" as one agent advised.

No matter what they say, you need to keep calling.

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daniel baker -- [email protected]
Reliable, fast, and unmoderated forums at ITYT.

Actually, I just had myself and two friends put on a reward upgrade waitlist (no F inventory at booking). I was monitoring it, and when I saw some F seats open up, I called, but was told that we had all already been cleared off the waitlist.

FWIW, I'm Gold and my friends have no status, and this occured about 2 months before the flight (i.e., no competition with elite upgrades)

In my own personal experience, When you use miles to upgrade domestic legs, and there is no inventory in F on one of them, there is no waitlist system in place that functions correctly. In addition, I have never seen someone with a mileage upgrade award that did not clear even get on to the day of flight airport waitlist.

dbaker is right when he says you have to keep watching ITN, and keep calling yourself.

As far as I know mile upgrades and complementaries use different inventorys. I used miles for upgrades to BF a lot, before they startet HoKeY. Thats E using miles, I believe. You can waitlist for E seats on the domestic portion if it's not available at time of ticketing (on international flights only after the international segment cleared), and as elite still be in the automated UG cue or upgrade at the gate. If no E seats open up but you're elite you might still be in first. I don't know the free upgrade inventory - but I know they usually hold two seats for walk'ups that are then given out at the gate.

If you referred to standby as gate standby and not waitlist, this is how it works: No standby using miles unless this one segment was paid with first miles but could'nt be comfirmed. Then the priority is correct the way you put it, except that paid first or even full Y flyers will probably still have higher priority.

(Edited for added info ...)

[This message has been edited by ch_usa (edited 01-27-2002).]

With respect to what NJDavid said, I have to say that actually I just had some seats clear "correctly" off a waitlist in this situation (miles redeemed, one segment clears, no F seats on CO 348 EWR/SFO, waitlist system works correctly and clears us into seats as they become available).

However, I have no doubt that this system sometimes does NOT work...I'm just saying it has worked for me at least sometimes...