True that there is a 3 hour EUA but you are not correct in saying "everything will dump into F." CO does not release all the A inventory to F at the 3 hour window. They keep some for walkups - and my experience is they keep most of it.

Now, if there are no walkups that inventory will go to elites onboard - on the battlefield - but, by this time a late-ckecking-in-platinum ("Platinum X") can get on the SB UG list behind Joe Blow, if Joe Blow is a platinum companion who has checked in with another platinum earlier in time than Platinum X.

That's great for me because I often bring non elite companions or silvers, golds...but I have jad these people be input as platinums onto the SB UG list and seen them get the UG ahead of other platinums quite regularly - a good example of this is when we fly eastbound redeyes connection to early morning flights on the east coast - because we will almost always have checked in earlier than everyone else.

I used to think the CO system prioritized platinums and then platinum companions, to avoid this situation, but within the last few months after getting literally 10 or so non elites upgraded ahead of other platinums on the list, I have seen that either this is not true or agents simply just use the regular-platinum code to put companions on the list.

This is why I asked the question a few months ago, re: does the computer system troll the UG list to correlate people's actual elite status with the list. The answer is no - if Joe Blow is put on the list as a platinum, he stays on the list as a platinum even if he is a non elite, a gold, etc. I've now confirmed this because I have in my possession a FC manifest printout showing a nonelite companion of mine as "platinum."

I haven't looked at it recently, but a fe months ago I did follow about 6 flights and ALL of A inventory was dumped to F at about 3 hours. It may have changed.
I have received private emails from OP employees that confirm even they don't know how EUA works.
And it might also be true that CO staff have found ways around EUA just to make their jobs easier. They gnerally do have ways of doing things that "can't be done". They just have to want to.

I havent had much luck with EUA either on CO. Granted, I'm only silver but of the last 15 segments on CO, only 2 were upgraded within the 1 day silver window. The other 5 I was eventually upgraded on I had to beg/ask the gate agent/pc/wc agent if my upgrade cleared. Overall I'm about 50% on CO which isnt bad for a silver, but I feel like I actually have to "work" to get the FC seat rather than have EUA do what it is supposed to do!

Refunded, Picked a better flight time, then bought full "Y" then upgraded. Made note to self... stop flying CO completly. I wanted to re-earn platinum to be able to actually redeem my CO miles next year. I'm working hard at it, and I am down to 800,000 or so miles. These pinheads don't know how to treat their customers.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm facing A2F0 on a houston->west coast flight today and am hoping for an airport upgrade.

Luckily for me, this situation is generally the exception and not the rule. I booked late on a popular sunday night flight.

It happens, and you're not alone.

I'm facing A0 D0 F0 on Wednesday, but I'm still hoping...

I believe Vulcan's results posted above, but there's no question that right now on some routes they do not dump all of the As into the F bucket at the 3.5 hour window for EUA at 3 hours.
The difference is that they seem to have pinpointed some of these routes and changed their procedure since the first few months after they instituted the 3 hour EUA, when it did seem to me that all the seats were dumped.

I have a 5:15 p.m. flight IAD-IAH on Wed (11/20) its A3/F0 now and has been for a long time

I work very close to IAD; close enough that I can run over and check in at anytime and be back to work in less than 30 minutes; still park and be out of there before the 20 minute time limit on free parking expires

With a 5:15 flight (I'm Plat) Would I be better off checking in then at 2:15 p.m. exactly to catch the dump?; at 1:45 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. if the F dump is at 3 1/2 hours or to catch the 30 minute lag if the dump is 3.5 hours but doesn't hit EUA till the 3 hour window?; or wait for the EUA to run at 3 1/2 hours or 3 hours which ever it is?; or after 2:15 p.m.? I can watch from my office and run over as well?

I'm so confused now!!!

Edited to add after rereading the thread that after figuring out which of these times to check in; regardless I should go there early; check in; go back to work and then come back later so that If EUA does not dump all seats or any seats at the magical 3.5 or 3.0 hour mark that I'm first on the Plat u/g list... would this be a correct assumption?

[This message has been edited by TrojanHorse (edited 11-18-2002).]

First, I would monitor that same flight today and tomorrow to see what time all of the seats (if they all are) are dumped to F. You might see this happen at say 3:15 before the flight.
There is no guarantee that if you check in 5 hours before the flight that you will be on top of the list. Someone connecting could have checked in 6 hours before. Plus, I believe that the 3 hour EUA dispenses F seats according to normal EUA rules, menaing status, date of ticket pruchase, etc., so you still might not make this last EUA run. Then there were reports that the final computer run at the gate was somehow not picking up people that were checking in before the 3 hour EUA run. This may have been corrected. It's still a mess.

This brings up one thing I've never understood. I fly almost exclusively on 2 or 3 week in advance discounted tix. Why would EUA stick me ahead of someone else with the same status who bought his ticket the day before the flight and who paid 5x as much? You'd think that the EUA program would put revenue or fare class in there somewhere, no? I mean I'm not complaining. I'm just curious...

If the person bought the ticket on a Y fare they would have had the opportunity to upgrade at the time of ticketing providing that A seats are available. Theoretically those passengers should have already be upgraded before the 3 hour EUA.

Keith

Trojan Horse - A point of information. As of last week I believe that CO was in fact dumping all of the As into the F bucket at the 3.5 hour window on every flight from DCA and IAD.

As already written above if one pays full fare they get an upgrade ahead of everyone else as long as there is a revenue seat is available. As far as the other discount fare buckets are concerned within which there can be considerable spread in dollars, I am sure that is what CO would love to do (i.e., prioritize based on fare either within status or better for CO across status), but that would be against the marketed program benefits so at least they do not do this publicly.

I suspect there will be quite a backlash against making this a published policy, the unlimited domestic upgrade based on status being their #1 (and in some cases the only) markeing advantage. Although low-fare riff-raff (plat status notwithstanding) may not be contributing much to the bottom line, they are needed to keep the load factor numbers hight for PR and investor purposes.

As to what is going on behind the scenes based on fare, who knows. There is no easy way to verify. Any evidence is anecdotal.

If you do get to the airport between the 3.5 hour dump and 3.5 hour EUA, make sure you go to a live agent and request an upgrade. If you use the kiosk, its anyone's guess what will happen.

I'm just picking up all the posts since this a.m. and at 2:02 eastern time; todays 5:15 p.m. flight was A3 F3 so it appears you guys are correct about the 3.5 or 3.25 F dump. Tomorrow Tuesday 11/19 is A2 F0 and Wed is A3 F0; I will follow Tuesdays dump much closer;

Assuming I was flying today Monday; I'm guessing I would be best off checking in right at the counter (as opposed to the kiosk) to try to get one of the F3's rather than wait for the EUA to run at the 3.0 hour mark. One more question; would the CO agent tell me that she can't manually upgrade me at this point in time? like they do more than one day out (but within your 5 day "for plats" window )when you see F1 and call to get it; they usually say I can't do that we must let the EUA system give you the seat.

Edited to Add: For todays (Mon)flight at 3:15 p.m. two hours prior to the 5:15 p.m departure it was A0 F0



[This message has been edited by TrojanHorse (edited 11-18-2002).]