Inquiry about, Current state of upgrade system
 

All the flights from LAS to IAH on monday are F0 . And there seems to be no movement toward any seats moving to the "F" bucket. I'm behind on where we are at on the system. Is it still screwing the Platinums if a silver checks in at some early hour? I recall something about a 3 hour window/run. But I'm not sure what that was about. Basically, Am I going to be okay? Or do I have to get to the darn airport at the crack of dawn??? P.S. this stinks. NJ David, was right. It is a scam if they never open the window.

EUA still runs every night to catch anything if seats move into F. Otherwise, everything will dump into F and 3h EUA will catch you. No sweat.

Well I'm not sure about the no sweat; there is plenty of sweating right here; I've been sweating the IAD-IAH leg every time I book it; for some reason BWI-IAH clears five days promptly; but IAD-IAH is ALWAYS F0 until the 3 hour window then I have to fight for the gate time upgrade

Threr is a theoretial "gap" at around 3 to 3 1/2 hours before flight time. At 3 to 3 1/2 hours, the seats are dumped to F. EUA runs at 3 hours. So if you can monitor when the dump occurs accurately, and get to check in counter before EUA runs, you should be able to snag a FC seat before EUA distributes them.
As an example, my wife was recently in a situation where it was F0 and she made friends with an agent who told her to come back at 3 hours. This particular agent monitored the flight to see when the dump occurred. At that point she grabbed an F seat for my wife. I wish I had the agent's name http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif


Note that one way to do this is have a friend monitor ITN or whatever at home ona a PC and call you at the airport as soon as the dump occurs. I have done this once succueessfully with my wife, but it is a pain.



[This message has been edited by Vulcan (edited 11-16-2002).]

Actually, there are not many elites who check in between 3 1/2 and 3 hours and the system usually upgrades all of the Plats.
When it hasn't, especially to and from destinations such as Florida and Vegas, there are quite a few 15 minutes before at the gate upgrades when the agent calls for the Plats and also battlefield promotions after you actually get on the plane are very common on those routes. If EUA hasn't got you and the class availability shows as little as A4F0 when you head to the airport, you're just about a dead lock cinch.

So you have to be at the airport 3 1/2 hours prior to your flight, have a friend monitor ITN or have a wireless device with web access, monitor the lines of check-in so when the seat is cleared you'll be the 1st in line ... Good luck!

Elites might be able to catch this by accident for their second segment if they have a connecting flight, especially if the first flight is a short hop.

I have a flight this Mon 11-18 to LAS and was looking to upgrade to FC with miles. No F bucket seats have been released yet; Will my only chance be *at* the airport? So many times before I have upgraded to first with miles weeks in advance - no problem, sometimes with multiple guests (always to LAS).

As Per Infiniteflyer...I am traveling from EWR - LAS

[This message has been edited by abev107 (edited 11-16-2002).]

Where are you flying from?

Despite what most of us think, myself included, thousands fly coach everyday and they survive. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif



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Friends don't let friends fly RJ's
I am not real smart, but I can lift heavy things.

Thousands fly coach. Cigarman does not. I seem to remember DL giving away his F seat and feeling the wrath.

As we speak I am preparing my back up full fare ticket in First on another airline. Suffice it to say, I will fly even less on CO in the future. I refuse to play this absured rigged game. The "rules" just seem to be whatever the heck CO "feels" like at the moment. And at 6'5 , 325lbs... darn straight I don't want to fly in the 15' pitch CO coach. Here we are one day out, and NOT ONE SEAT leaving LAS on ANY flight has been put in the "F" bucket. From WORST to FIRST... and back again!

They sell all the A seats to people who win big and fly home in style. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Although things seem to be getting better overall, it seems that there are still a few bugs in the EUA system.

A friend of mine (he's a silver on CO) was flying BOS-EWR last Sunday and no EUA upgrades went through for him, even at the three hour mark, although I knew there were seats that were dumped into F class by checking online. When he checked in, they were able to upgrade him, but it hadn't been automatic, since I saw that they had to print out a Y-class BP before they printed out the F-class BP. Oh, and he was EUAed on his outbound flight the previous Friday, so his status was definitely in the record.

In this case, everything worked out OK, so no complaining, but still strange...

Cigarman, here's a little tip a bird told me...if you want EUA to go through, book on NW. You would have to make a connection, but... on Nov 18, DTW-LAS, here are your possibilities

Flight: 1193 Cabin class: P7 F4 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 K9
Flight: 1191 Cabin class: P5 F2 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 K9
Flight: 1199 Cabin class: P8 F4 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 K9
Flight: 1195 Cabin class: P5 F0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 K9
Flight: 429 Cabin class: P9 F9 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 K9