mauld:
Yesterday, she was A5 F0. As a Platinum on the $1,800 H fare to SAN on Wednesday, she did NOT get an upgrade last night and we are now at A2 FO. She is not a happy camper, to say the least. It looks like things are totally out of control.

Got my EUA for Friday on a Q Ticket in this morning's email 19/23 EUA through March 22, 2002 82.6 % ( Must be the Route )

3/21/02 Additional Comments
Got another EUA on 3/20 for a Q flight on 3/25, 20/24 EUA 83.333 % 23/24 Total Upgrade Percentage YTD 23/24 95.8333 %
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"A Southwest line never gets longer, It only gets wider"

[This message has been edited by dcwcce (edited 03-21-2002).]

Vulcan, This is one of the situations that worries me.. Mr Fish (like your wife???) is required to purchase the lowest fare available at time of purchase, and it is very often H instead of Y. Of course, this places them $$wise just slightly below the Y fare, but much farther down benefit-wise as Plats with little chances of upgrade.. His recent upswing in upgrades on Y and H fares has been phenomenal, but he hasn't done a CO transcon since Mar.1. And the worst has begun to happen (for a CO loyal): CO has overpriced themselves this week in the EWR-SFO market (between pricing and aggreements with his travel company), and now he has no choice but to fly UA (for about $500 less).. He even considered paying the difference from his own pocket, but there was no A avail (from Y) on his outbound anyway, so there is absolutely NO reason to retain his loyalty on this trip.. (And if he was on a CO H fare, there would be no doubt he would remain in back). This is becoming more common lately (both DL and UA seems to be pricing much lower than CO on the many routes). Similar is the CO/AA situation EWR-DFW; same Y fare, but no A avail.. (AA has a better flight schedule besides). If he's probably going to sit in coach, why not choose MRTC? He has actually been making a lot of comparisons lately in CO-F vs. AA-MRTC, and they aren't too far off. He has, in fact, stopped using stickers on most flights, as he finds AA MRTC very comfortable (he's 6 ft, very long legged, and uses his laptop through every flight).. Neither airline/FF program is perfect, but CO is certainly no longer superior for him... I am hoping that Ms. Vulcan has better luck with the "new" way EUAs seem to be running.. Mr Fish's Y and H EUAs have been coming in very close to flight date (1,2,3 days off), so there is still hope!! Let us know what happens...

That's my argument entirely.

It looks like there's a new One Pass slogan:

Continental - no point to staying loyal

How about

Continental - Pay hard, fly right

Continental - You pay, we loyal

OnePass - the most talked about airline program on the web

OnePass - the program that will let you accumulate miles in your account like no other airline

OnePass - Let us take you for a ride



All are literally true, of course!

I'm not sure that CO has completely changed its policy. I just got upgraded on two flights on CO at the five day window last night as a NW platinum, but I did not and still haven't been upgraded on the two flights that are 2 days earlier. The ticket is a T fare that I booked months ago when airfares were running around $100.

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My Dad was booked today on the 2:50pm from EWR to TPA on a Q ticket originating in LHR. He is UK gold (free PC club membership I might add) but did not receive an upgrade prior to today. He went to the airport early to standby for the earlier 11:30am, which looked full. He also checked in for the 2:50pm. He asked for the upgrade (we had checked and it was wide open) and he was told the following "those seats are reserved for revenue passengers and you are flying on a very low fare code". As it happens he made the 11:30am so it became a mute point but it sounds to me like she based his "upgradeableness" partly on his Q ticket.

I am not sure what you mean by wide open. if all the FC seats were in A bucket, then what they told your father was correct. Only full fare coach seats can be upgraded to A bucket seats. On the other hand, if there were indeed F seats available, then the GA may have inadvertantly "let the cat out of the bag" so to speak. But I suspect the former is the case.

This thread is very detailed, I suppose I could get status on HP and e-mail copies of all of the lost revenue.

This seems to be an intolerable situation, LUsers drove me away from Delta, and I only consume TurQueys once a year.

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"A Southwest line never gets longer, It only gets wider"

Get this -- I was told the other day by an "Elite Line" agent that not all F seats are for elite upgrades. I'm 95% sure she didn't know what she was talking about.

And I hope you take anything the CO "elite" agents say with a gain of salt... I sure do! When they say "No F available", switch to my conversation 1 min later with a NW Elite agent, and they say "Mr. Zipper, Would you like aisle or window?" Makes ya wonder...

I have been flying American more often this year than in the past, and I have to admit that if the virtual automatic upgrade for Platinum elites in Continental ends or declines dramatically, the additional pitch on American aircraft makes flying in coach much more pleasant than Continental (plus the blocking feature for elites in the American program)
It does seem to me that Continental is believing its own rhetoric about being #1, and in doing so, making a series of decisions, particularly the international fiasco, that will drive away many of their most loyal customers. In the first three months of this year, American has received revenue from six flights that would normally have gone to Continental

I have been monitoring today's CO 1726 EWR-SAN as that is the flight my wife is on tomorrow with an $1,800 H ticket. That flight is now A2 F0 and she has NOT ben EUAed.
FOR TODAY: 3/19

3/18 10 PM A4 F1 ???????
3/19 6 AM A2 F1 ???????
8:40AM A2 F2 This is the 3.5 hour dump at 3.5 hours before 12:10 scheduled dep.
Note that it remained A2 F2 until 11:50 (20 mins before flight time). You mean that there were no silvers or companions?????
11:50AM A4 F4
12:10 Departure A0 F0

It kind of makes you want to scratch your head.

It kinda makes you wish you were a NW elite and could just call up and say "Show me the upgrade!!!"

Well....did she get the upgrade??