I posted here the other day (for the first time!) regarding upgrading with mileage on an EWR - SAN flight. The flight is listed as F0... Well, since I did not know about FT and seatmap.com before my company purchased my tickets, I did not know about all this nifty information!

Anyway - what I am getting to is this. I really don't want to be stuck in cattle class on the outbound - I have already secured f class seats on the return. I found this little paragraph on CO's site...


"Capacity-controlled seats are limited and may not be available on all flights. Reward usage, including upgrade travel, is subject to capacity controls, and seats may not be available on all flights. --> If seats in the special fare class designated for rewards are not available, you may request an alternate flight or date."

The key is the last sentence. Since I purchased an upgradable fare, they should allow me to change the one seg. to another that has F available at no penalty. It does not specify "after purchase, or before purchase...". I bought them online, so how would I know!

Let me know your thoughts!

Thanks!


[This message has been edited by Technobie (edited 09-08-2003).]

Well - so much for that! I called and it seems I put Continental into a tizzy over this wording! Spoke to a bunch of people (some nice and agreeing with me and some totally unhelpful). Apparently, not many people even knew this line existed on the website and really caused a stir. Of course, they were unwilling to change my flight, but they need to either change their wording on the site - or make information available at time of online booking that says if F class seats are available for upgrade.

Obviously, there is no "Customer is always right" here. In fact...well...I almost expected the Soup Nazi to pop up and say "No Upgrade for you!!!"

One "can always request alternate days or flights". Unfortunately it will usually cost one many mega-bucks to do such. Good luck!

MisterNice

Yup - on my fare class, it will cost $100 to change. Argh!!! I guess I will resort back to watching seatmap to see if F0 changes to anything else. I doubt it since it is such a popular flight.

AMAZINGLY......a seat opened up!!! After vigilant eyeing on seatmap, F1 popped up this morning...4 filled seats changed to 3. I guess someone changed their flight!

The bad news is...because I had NW upgrade my return trip and am now asking for an upgrade on the outbound, they are charging me $50. What's the diff. if they change it once at no charge???