Just got in from my first CO metal trip of the year. 6 segments, 4 upgradeable (2 were CO Connection Put-Put). 3 out of 4 were upgraded at the 5 days window. But the 4th, IAH-SNA was held back from EUA...8 seats out of 12 FC seats were still open the night before. Put on "waiting list" at first flight, NAS-FLL...nada. Checked in at FLL, nada...ditto with IAH at first. Checked with Red Coat upon landing at IAH, and she said all 12 seats were taken by Plats buying full fare tix...in last 12 hours, huh???

About 20 minutes before the flight, the angel at the PC printed out a boarding pass for 5B (bulkhead) and 3B came out...go figure!!! Anyway, I got the upgrade last minute.

I was greatful for the upgrade...and enjoyed every minute of it into SNA... . But, I really don't think a Platinum should sweat for it like that! Two years ago I got this upgrade as a Silver!

If I fly mainly intl., it's financially impossible to get intl. upgrades on CO, gotta deal with crappy domestic connections on CO, those "free" domestic upgrades are so "iffy" on CO, and CO Coach is so inferior to UA or AA, then what am I doing on an airline with a big western hole, and having to connect every place else???

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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

[This message has been edited by SemiElite (edited 04-09-2002).]

I dunno...maybe you ought to speak to JonNYC....he seems to have found his answer.

I can't help but think of that scene from the Blues Brothers, with all the white supremsists chanting:

"Scum, scum, scum, go back to where your from"

I think that might be the morning motivational chant down in Houston....

HAHAHAHA......

Uh oh, now you've got me worried... I'm doing a trip from SNA thru IAH soon. FC is wide open right now...as a Plat I don't expect to have to work at this!

Well, I had no problem getting the outbound upgrade. Got SNA-IAH at the 5 day window. It was IAH-SNA that was the tough one. It does seem that getting the upgrade out of the hub is quite a bit tougher than getting one into it. Found the same thing flying in and out of EWR as well, which is an even tougher upgrade.

The FC section looked like a Jaycees meeting...11 males out of 12 pax, all road warrior types, many in business attire, and many working on laptops. Even the only female looked like a corporate type. And she was upgraded out of Coach by the Red Coat...the same one who first told me when I first deplaned that my chances were near nil, as FC was full, and there were a bunch of Plats on the upgrade waiting list. If I had to guess, everyone was either Gold or Plat on a full-fare ticket, or Plat on a discount ticket. I'm sure there were Silvers, Golds, and probably even some Plats sitting in CO's enhanced 31" pitch Coach seats in the back of the plane.

And to think I usta get upgraded on this route as a Silver. I barely got upgraded on this one, and sat in the back on this route last October.

Times sure are different on CO these days!!! If you're not a full-fare flyer on CO these days, you just don't count for much, Plat or otherwise.

I'm sure some of the CO apologists here would say that I should be grateful for any upgrade I get, as I bought a discount ticket. Of course, I was reminded of this at the PC, in between bleatings about all the awards that CO has won.

Sorry, but I take a different view. Like you, I think flying over 100K miles on CO last year outta entitle me to anxiety-free upgrades most of the time. If they advertise 5 Day advance upgrades, they outta stand by their promise!!! But then, we all know how Gordo is about promises!




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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

Actually, I think that Jon has made a number of excellent points. But, let's face it, all of the airlines basically suck...CO, NW, UA, AA, DL, etc. They just suck in different ways. As consumers, we have to find the airline that sucks the least for our individual travel pattern. For Jon, that's AA. For someone who flies primarily domestically out of EWR or IAH, and flies to eastern destinations, you'd be crazy to fly anyone other than CO! Even today, CO is still clearly the best choice for that flyer!

And yes, I did give serious consideration to AA. IMHO, AA clearly has the best FF program for the intl. flyer! And the AAdmiral Clubs are really the nicest, if you can overlook the fact that you've gotta pay for drinks. And they have PC terminals, not just hookups. For me that's really nice, as I try to avoid lugging my notebook whenever possible.

But I finally decided to go with UA. They're the only U.S. airline to fly their own metal to SYD, which means I can upgrade them into SYD. And their partner NZ provides the best Coach seat into Australia!

UA's intl. upgrade policies aren't anywhere near as generous as AA, but they're miles above HoKeY! They're not the best...that's for sure! But they're far better than CO for upgrades. And they do give their top tiers 6 SWU's every year that will upgrade you on any published fare for free! And, if you fly mostly intl., you can rack up free 500 mile domestic upgrade certs fairly quickly, 4 for every 10,000 miles flown.

Add to that a route system that is the envy of every airline in the world. Only BA beats it! And a partnership that includes SQ and LH! Need I say more? And if you're a RCC member, you get to use their lounges internationally if you're flying on their ticket.

At one time, the free domestic upgrades on CO were so good that I was willing to put up with the regular connections at IAH and EWR. And, back then, CO's fares were competitive. But, with the loss of partner HP, a flight to LAS from SNA or LAX now costs me $1800. I think not!!! Well, times change, and now so does my airline.

Oh, BTW, yes, I'm booked for May 1 to SYD...on UA! That flight alone, will almost get me to Premier!



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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

I am beginning to wonder if the 3-hour EUA is running, or if it has been eliminated. I wasn�t checking ITN frequently but on some of my recent flights I�ve seen several people get the battlefield promotion.

I was one of those people on my first flight this week and there were 3 or 4 others that got it too. But today it was amazing... I actually got my EUA for this flight at the correct Elite window. Up until yesterday the flight was still listed as something like A8 (A7?) F0. Upon boarding in First, the cabin was virtually just empty with just a few pax.

They began to make the announcement about turning off your cell phones and the door will be closing soon, etc... and then all of a sudden there was a flood of people that were escorted to the front, by my count there were about 6 or 7 pax upgraded on the plane...

I�ll have to take a closer look at some of the flights in the coming days, but it sure seems to me that on my flights the A to F conversion didn�t take place and EUA may not be running at 3-hours... that�s just my take on this, I know others have noted that they�ve been upgraded at 3-hours, but I wonder if that was recently or a few weeks ago.

Last time I flew, which was March 12, I was upgraded 3 hours prior to departure at the airport...

Eric

SemiElite,

Well, actually, my trip is like this:

SNA-EWR (ugh, that's going to be a roulette game)
EWR-IAH
IAH-SNA.


The trip's in less than 2 weeks and F is still 9 or 8 for all segments. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

What time of day were you flying IAH-SNA? Just curious if it was a peak time or not.

And I know what you mean about the "Jaycees meeting" I always call it "Twelve angry men" because I inevitably end up being the only female!

I always fly out very early, between 6:45 AM and 8:35 AM. As I'm sure you know, there are only two cities that you can fly to directly from SNA on CO...IAH and EWR. So, no matter where I'm going, I have to connect through one of these cities, making for a longer flight that requires a very early departure.

And yes, this is definitely the busiest time of day at SNA. The John Wayne website mentions 6:45 AM to 10:00 AM as peak travel time there!

This is one of the biggest negatives flying on CO! For example, I have to leave on an 8:35 AM flight on CO to get into ORD at the same time as I would on a non-stop flight leaving between 12:00 and 2:00 PM on either UA, AA, or DL. And this is a price I'll gladly pay when I'm getting a free FC seat on CO. But this is something I'm not willing to do if I have to sit in a Coach seat with 2-4" less pitch than a AA MRTC or UA E+ seat!

Anyway, there's a very nice gate agent at SNA, a young woman in her late 20's or so, who was very helpful last summer. Seats were still A2 F0 on the EWR morning flight an hour prior to departure. And she was nice enough to get them released and give me one. See what she can do for you...she was great! I even ran over and got her a small box of chocolates to express my profound gratitude!

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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

I've had exactly the opposite experience. Several non upgrades until check-in. A couple of times pulled from the back. And zero emails.

Tomorrow may the end of the long run of luck. I'm in 8F and ITN shows A0 D0 F0.

My upgrades are not coming by e-mail either ....I just check my itineraries at co.com and I can see my class of service. You've probably been upgraded much earlier than you're realizing on some of those legs due to the fact that you don't see it until you get to the airport. Check continental.com.....click on "reservations and fares" then look at the top right and click on "my itineraries"....if you haven't booked on line...just add your itinerary with the appropriate link......after completion...you will see your class of service as well as have access to seat selection etc....when you get the upgrade..it will show there...and you can change your seat if you wish. I hope this is new to you...and that I've helped you....you may discover that you've been upgraded much earlier than your arrival at the airport. If you already do this...sorry to be long-winded.

[This message has been edited by IM4Travel (edited 04-11-2002).]

I just received my third upgrade, and haven't received any emails....ever....

I managed to call CO and get them to check, and they responded with a "yes, you're showing seat 3A and 2A".

I think the email thing just doesn't work all the time.

Thanks. Though in a slightly different manner I have done the things you recommended.

The string remains intact, however. At T-9 hrs. ITN showed A0 D0 F0. At T-3.25 hrs. it showed A1 D1 F1. Got to SJC at T-2.75 hrs. and had already been upgraded. Looks like EUA _is_ running at T-3.0 hrs.



[This message has been edited by ht_redneck (edited 04-15-2002).]