Difficulty of Continental Upgrades
 

I'm thinking about flying more Continental because of unlimited upgrades. I plan on doing a status match to Gold if possible. However, how difficult is it to get an upgrade, especially if you usually fly restricted economy? My experience with United upgrades has been poor, and was hoping Continental would be better. BTW, I usually fly out of IAD with trips often to Chicago and to the West Coast. Thanks!

If you are flying out of DCA don't expect any UG's to the hubs EWR/IAH/CLE beyond maybe as a plat...as for status match I am not sure..

I'm sure you've takent he time to read through here for other people's wooes with our EUAs (Elite Upgrade Automation). Basically Continental's offers space available upgrades to elites in the following order:


Platinum's
You start getting your free automatic upgrade at 5 days out and up until 3 hours prior to departue,
You will be upgraded in fare class order [H, K, N, B, O, V, U, Q, I, S, W, T, X and L]

Gold's
Assuming all Platinums have been upgraded; you start getting your free automatic upgrade at 3 days out and up until 3 hours prior to departue,
You will be upgraded in fare class order [H, K, N, B, O, V, U, Q, I, S, W, T, X and L]

Silver's
Assuming all Golds have been upgraded; you start getting your free automatic upgrade at 1 days out and up until 3 hours prior to departue,
You will be upgraded in fare class order [H, K, N, B, O, V, U, Q, I, S, W, T, X and L]


For day of departures, if you haven't gotten an advanced upgrade, it will still upgrade until about 15 minutes prior to departure in the same afore mention method

So... What status will you be comped on? As that will greatly affect you're chances of ugrades... Out of IAD there are mainly ExpressJets with no FC... but if you are going out to the West Coast, you should try and connect through CLE VS EWR or IAH, I've noticed I have an easier time of getting upgrades as a Platinum...

-Vincent

If you fly full y fares, I believe that you are upgraded at the time of purchase.

Only if you are an elite and only if there are seats in that fare class available...


-Vincent

If you buy a Full Y fare you upgraded into any available first class seat (in other words any fare bucket of first class)

One Pass carriers, starting with Eastern then Continental were my primary carriers for the past 24 years. For most of the years I was at the top elite level and was a Platinum in 2004. I was Gold in 2003 and Plat in 2001 & 2002 an even as a Gold in 2003 I did way better for upgrades than in 2004. The upgrade experience in 2004 was poor as a Platinum, so now I am searching for the most comfortable coach seat on the most convenient flights.

The whole industry is changing and I think we are going to see fewer upgrades on all airlines. Now I am targeting convenient flights and nonstops.

PS. Continental probably offers the highest quality service in the US.

Beware the RJs out of IAD....
 

You might fare poorly, even given a PLAT elite ranking if you fly out of IAD. CO flys quite a few RJs out of IAD, esp to CHI (via CLE). You'll be on RJs to EWR, and about half the IAD-IAH flights are on RJs (that's a long-a** flight to be sitting on one of those tiny planes).

You'll fare no better out of DCA, but at least your chances of getting on a 73x airliner are much better than out of IAD.

PS> I'm a Plat, and fly out of DCA and IAD, and sometime BWI, and my upgrade percentage sucks; its around 60%, and that's as a PLAT. If you're gold out of Washington, you'll be joining me in back on a CO flight.

My husband (sliver) and I (gold) used to get 80+% upgrades out of IAH. Since the new rule, our upgrade is about 25%.

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

Continental Airlines would like to extend a sincere apology to you because you only received the service for which paid for. :rolleyes:

Fair is fair -
 

I do not think the complaint is receving the service he payed for, I think the complaint is that CO did not hold up their end of the expitation bargin. All other facts aside, CO heralds their upgrades and when they fail to deliver the customer feels let down as their expitations were not met.

Well said. And now, Northwest is even promising their Plats an upgrade guarantee, if they dont get upgraded, then they get 1,000 miles every time this happens. Thus, as a top-level frequent flyer, regardless of the airline, one would expect to get upgraded. Sure, CO has a better first class in comparison to NW, but I have a feeling that many of us are going to start flying NW more often.

Looks like the same issues are starting to affect Northwest: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=422652

Anything we can do to hasten the demise of Delta? It's these Simplifares that are killing everything...

Yes, Simplifares need to go the way of the Dodo, but don't you think the demise of Delta would make things worse?