I hope we are never on the same flight...

-Vincent

Understand about flight time, day, and equip impacting u/g percentages.

What I am truly baffled by is your reported success upgrading (and EUAing, at that!!!!) out of DCA. (I'm NOT suggesting you are lying about your percentages; I'm just baffled because I am Plat, you are Plat, and our experiences are VERY different.)

Do you mind detailing your flight day/times, particularly for IAH. I occasionally score an u/g to IAH, but I honestly cannot remember an EUA coming through on that route in at LEAST a year. It seems to always be BF upgrades to IAH (not BusFirst, but "battlefield").

And on your 8/8 EWR-DCA: does that include DCA-->EWR, or only the reverse, EWR-->DCA? I am shocked by that one too, though I don't care so much about DCA-EWR. The flight is only 35 mins long, you can't get out of your seat for any reason (due to DCA restrictions), and its only a problem if I've got a tight connection in EWR or if we're running late to EWR and I've got a connection.

The reason I ask is this: if your flight times and mine look fairly different, I wanna know your secrets. If they don't, I wanna talk to CO and find out what is going on. We're both Plats; I've been a Plat since 2001, and Elite since 99. I wanna know if there's something else afoot here in the Elite upgrade game going on. (No, its not a conspiracy theory -- unless WASJETBOY's itins and mine are rather similar.)

If you do decide to share your info, Thank You in advance, WAS.

CALfly5

Fine by me. You keep thinking your entitled to upgrades, I'll pay for mine, and more often than not I won't have see you. ^

It's not realistic when F is cheaper than coach. It's stupid.

Again good for you.

Why do you post? You pay for f and you want them to do away with ff programs.

Sounds like this board would be of no interest to you. Why not try posting at www.ipayforfirst.com?

edited by moderator

Actually, I fly in Y most of the time. However, my head and my ego are not so big as to think that because I fly 30-40 times a year, I am entitled to anything but a Y seat.



Maybe its because in my earlier life I was a gate agent and there was nothing more than I loved to do than informing some card waving arguing a$$hole that there was no upgrades for him.

Treat the gate agents and all the employees with respect, even when your sitting in 37E and everyone will be alot nicer to you. ^

I'm glad you can draw conclusions. ^

Why would you assume the people on this board are like this. The posters at flyertalk nare in my experience the exact opposite.

Also for many of us 30-40 flights does is not so impressive.

I didn't assume anything about anyone... I was merely commenting on this following post.

"I gave up Continental (with whom I was platinum) because I _never_ got an upgrade out of SFO on transcon flights."



As for not being impressed with my number of flights... that's ok. I'm not impressed when people fly on someone else's dime.

If the upgrades were simply presented as a windfall perk, I would agree with those who say quit whining.

But they haven't been. Huge billboards and newspaper and bus shelter ads have been plastered up everywhere trumpeting to the world that you can get "Free Unlimited Elite Upgrades" on CO. I thought this was misleading even in the days when Elites did fare pretty well on domestic upgrades -- because it masked the fact that even Elites would have the devil of a time getting an international upgrade for love, money, or miles -- let alone free. (Yes, perhaps it is unreasonable for anyone to expect that they'd be upgraded internationally for free -- but I could find a number of posts on here where seemingly-reasonable people interpreted CO's ad campaign as promising just that -- and how much harder would it have been for them to say "Unlimited Elite Domestic Upgrades?").

Now that the UGs are in practice limited, in some cases severely, by:

(1) decreased FC capacity;
(2) Simplifares;
(3) Elite inflation;
(4) The linking of class-of-service, so now it is no longer just your Elite status that's required to get you the UG,

I do think it is inappropriate for CO not just to keep those billboards up, but to roll out new UG-themed campaigns ("Pardon My Back" just came out recently, so it's clear CO still exploits "unlimited free UGs" as a big selling point and strong differentiator from their competitors, when their FFP product as delivered is growing to be closer than they would admit to that of said competitors).

As I've pointed out before, the inclusion of fine print that explains why "unlimited upgrades" aren't really so unlimited, and purports to absolve the company, is not necessarily a defense even to a false advertising allegation (if the campaign as a whole would tend to mislead or deceive reasonable customers as to the nature of the product being offered, notwithstanding the fine print). Putting aside the possible legal ramifications, I think it is fair to say that the insistent advertising about "unlimited free UGs" is not terribly admirable or ethical when CO knows that UGs will in practice be rare for many, many of their Elites. I'd have no problem if they scaled back their promotions to match what they can deliver (basically, "As An Elite, You'll Be Eligible For Periodic To Occasional Domestic Upgrades, Space And Fare Basis Permitting!").

AA doesn't make any sweeping promises about upgrades, and while I may have gripes about them on other service grounds, I don't feel slighted or deceived on their UG/FF policy in general.

No Automatic Upgrade
 

4 Days out. 7 Empty FC seats. No Upgrade. Called CO and was told the seats have not been released. :confused:

I agree with 111.4%. But said advertising practices are not limited to Continental. As I mentioned, casinos do it all the time along with tons of other industries. It isn't in any way illegal and the overwhelming majority of flyertalkers know that (along with every other policy rule).

I just get annoyed when someone who flies nothing but $300 cheap Y transcons thinks that they are entitled to anything other than a Y seat. It's petty.

I buy about 50% of my first class seats. I know I'm not entitled to an upgrade, but if they are going to offer me one I am certainly going to take it.

Get off your high horse , it doesn't speak very well of you and your persona. You don't seem to get it, they offer us upgrades. Did I ask for them? NO Continental offers them to me in exchange for my loyalty...

-Vincent

The only one who rides around in a horse here is yourself. I responded to someone else's comment... you felt the need to chime in with your excellent name-calling skills.