justforfun

Hey all,

Wanted to tap into your experience in using miles for an upgrade. I will be traveling SFO-EWR one-way in January and was hoping to use miles for an upgrade. I have no status. Do I have a chance at this, or is it quite hard to upgrade on a transcon w/o status? Thanks for any insight.

fly co to see the yanks

get comp'd to silver by having at&t long distance service (or any other manner that proves that you have a heart beat) and then attempt it. there must be seats in the F bucket, i believe.

KebaNYC

You have a chance but there is a lot of luck involved. First, there must be upgradeable seats available. There are usually a few on weekends but I have never seen them during the week.

The second thing that you will need is a high enough class of service. This is where being elite helps because you can upgrade any fare. If you are not elite you can *not* be in V, Q, S, T or L Fare Classes.

Good luck.

Keba

bhatnasx

If you can get a status comp somehow, then do and hope for the best, otherwise, I personally wouldn't waste the miles to upgrade SFo-EWR (although it is long and my past few trans-cons have been in F, so I may be forgetting how bad a Y trans-con is). I would only use miles if i had them orphaned. Chances are the fare class that you bought costs 10K to to upgrade, find out what a Y-UP fare is (CO has those, I think) and maybe just pay for it. That's just my 2 cents...

bhatnasx

If you can get a status comp somehow, then do and hope for the best, otherwise, I personally wouldn't waste the miles to upgrade SFO-EWR (although it is long and my past few trans-cons have been in F, so I may be forgetting how bad a Y trans-con is).

I would only use miles for a domestic upgrade if a) I had a hell of a lot of banked miles OR b) if i had them orphaned and wasn't planning on flying that particular airline too much longer and wanted to burn them up (which could be the case her with CO given all the changes).

Chances are the fare class that you bought costs 10K to to upgrade, find out what a Y-UP fare is (CO has those, I think) and maybe just pay for it (if it is cost effective for you).

That's just my 2 cents...

justforfun

Thanks for all the replies thus far.

I'm looking at a $209(incl. tax) B fare. From my understanding, this is upgradeable for us lowly non-elites. If F inventory is availabe at time of booking, will I be able to do a confirmed mileage upgrade on the spot, or do I need to wait for some window? And yes, these are just some orphan miles. Thanks again.

hobokenkev

that seems really cheap for a B fare (it is usually the most expensive non-refunable ticket)..

but if it is B, they will upgrade the ticket with miles on the spot IF it is available. if it is not, they will waitlist you (but still deduct the miles). from prior posts, i assume mileage deducts are only below plat upgrades on the pecking order when waitlists clear. if the upgrade never clears, you'd have to pay $35 to redeposit the miles....

i've been having the same question with NW upgrades and waitlisting not be available, but didnt seem to get any clear answer...

jen80370

I am trying this on a flight from EWR-SEA on Dec. 26. No elite status...but hoping to surprise my husband with an upgrade. We have "B" tickets on the way out, "Q" on the way back. I am hoping to upgrade the "B".

Any advice on when is the best shot to get it? Sooner or later?

Thanks

JeremyZ

You should try early and often. Non-elites aren't allowed to waitlist for domestic FC mileage upgrades, so you'll want to keep calling until it works out.

jen80370

Thank you!

jen80370

Got the upgrade! Thanks!