The complimentary (missing) upgrade
 

Hi, I'm a Plat flying from the east to the westcoast this coming Friday on a cheap fare. My understanding of the unlimited complimentary upgrade was that this was run around midnight five days out. Today is Tuesday, my flight leaves early afternoon Friday - still no upgrade. I called CO and was told there were six FC seats still available. What's gone wrong?

Ou est chasbondy?

tbpgart, I'd suggest you start practicing your flirting skill now - you're going to need them if you want that seat!

Besides that you may want to log onto co.com right now and select a nice exit row seat... while they’re still there for the selecting. And while you're at it, please allow me to be the first to welcome you to the wonderful world of OnePass where you upgrades can now fail to clear 5 days (well, 6 if you're technical about it) out.

Seriously though, ex EWR-transcons upgrades are tricky to score and flying on a peak business time where there's both 1) paid demand for FC and 2) competition from other high fare plats. If you get your upgrade on a Friday afternoon transcon on a cheap fare, think of yourself as being lucky and consider buying a lottery ticket when you land! ;)

To follow up on what my esteemed colleague wrote, EUA does run 5 (6 actually) days out, and every day thereafter. The problem is that Continental often sells all of its F seats on transcontinental flights, leaving none for upgrades. I can tell you now that the five F seats currently remaining for your flight not be released to upgrades until shortly before the aircraft door closes. At that time, any unsold ones will be assigned as per the published rules.

CO's complimentary upgrades for elites starts running 5 days out, but it doesn't mean it will upgrade all Plats at that time. There's no apparent pattern, and they may hold seats till the end. You may get upgraded at 3 days out, 1 day out, and quite frequently 3 hours out. Even if you're not cleared at 3 hours, you may still get it at the gate, or even after you've been seated.

What shouldn't happen is going out with an empty FC domestic seat. If you see that on your flight, then something IS wrong. But before that, just hope.

Those six seats are still revenue seats, meaning Continental has hopes of selling them. Slowly Continental converts them to upgrades seats. Upgrades happen on space available basis - if by friday those seats have not been sold they will have been converted to upgrade seats for you. If you are one of the six highest fares clases within Platinum, then you may get a seat.

Continental of course can convert maybe 1 seats to an upgrade seat tonight and when the upgrade program run - if you are the next person you will be upgraded, if not - well obviously not.

Nothing has gone wrong - Continental is just trying to maxamize revnue.

-Vincent

Depending on equipment, I'd give you a ballpark estimate of poor (753 34 FC) to terible (757 BF) chances of scoring this.

Upgrades from EWR to the West Coast are basically not available. In the last 14 months I was upgraded once in 28 flight segments out of EWR to LAX or SFO.

CO is maximinzing FC revenue, which is understandable. The other problem is that while they fly some wide bodies in and out of Houston, every transcon out of EWR to the West Coast is flown on a 737, except for one flight to LAX which operates on a 757 (but no wide bodies).

Some of the 737's have as few as six seats in FC.

Exit row is the best option as the 31" seat pitch and rock-hard seats in CO coach on one of these six-hour flights have been a boon to chiropractors throughout the NYC metro area...

Or you can just fly JetBlue, with 34" seat pitch, comfortable leather seats and a TV at every seat. Infinitely more comfortable than the complimentary (non-existent) upgrade.

There is at least one 757/day each way to/from SFO as well.Those have all been converted to have eight F seats and none of those aircraft fly non-stop transcontinental routes.More comfortable, sure -- but if you have to drive past EWR and sit on the Belt Parkway for an hour or two in order to get to JFK the shine of that option begins to wear off rather fast.

Welcome to Hell
 

I have the same problems. I have received exactly 1 upgrade out of 22 segments this year. The gate agents put anyone with a higher fare above you, regardless of silver/gold/plat. A gate agent in CLE absolutely bit my head off when I complained that she put a silver in front of me because he paid a higher fare.

Basically, other than the 125% bonus, your 'status' level means squat. If you aren't on a high fare then you can basically kiss your upgrade chance goodbye.

I'm particularly screwed because CO isn't a high fare market from Indy and the planes are rarely full. Also, I book my travel a few weeks in advance (what else should I do, I know when and where I am going).

Every attempt to reason with CO gate agents has been futile so I've just stopped trying.

I'm not sure what more they can ask from me. I fly with them 100% at a platinum level and pay them 100% of the fare they ask me for at the moment I know my travel plans.

This, evidently, isn't enough to warrant even an occassional upgrade.

Problem is, they have me stuck this year since I'm now in March. I have to ride it through to the new year and then slip back over to USAir and Star Alliance. I NEVER NEVER had this type of crap happen at USAir as a Chairman and didn't at CO other than this year.

What is the deal? They want higher fares from Silvers but less of them. Or 3 times as many mid-level fares from Plats?

Either way, there isn't anything MORE I can do. What am I supposed to do? Opt for a fare that is 3 times more expensive and try to push that through corporate accounting when there is a Southwest flight for $99?

The CO execs can never grab the concept of total loyalty from a customer. That means ALL fares, including the occassional walk-ups (which they also get) some biz class overseas and all other advance fares.

It's BS in my opinion.

I'm sure there are others who will defend the practice because they have the liberty to basically rip off the organizations they work for by purchasing higher end fares for no good reason.

A Silver should only been ahead of you if they were on a Y fare. Otherwise you may want to contact CO customer care. How do you know that gate agents are putting higher fare (less than Y) silver/gold's ahead of Plat?

I asked the CLE agent if it was a full fare because I know that rule exists. She just said it was a higher fare and wouldn't elaborate further. She was a nasty little cuss. She only stated that putting persons in front of plats based on fare was 'the right way to do business' in her opion, not that I asked for her opinion.

Unless there are alot of elites lower than plat flying on full fares, enough so to fill the FC cabins, then I can't see anyway around it. My upgrade rate has went from over 90% to basically zero since January.

Are you of the opinion that the plane is really stuffed with full fare elites? So much so that there is no room left for most plats?

Curious.

Thanks.

Regarding a/c flying EWR-SFO, here is the timetable for today 03/08/2006 from Continental.com (I haven't seen a 757 on this route in close to a year).

Currently CO is flying only 737-800's on this route (14 f/c seats. By comparison, AA flies exclusively 767s on this route with a minimum of 30 premium class seats):

Depart:
6:55 a.m.
New York/Newark, NJ (EWR - Liberty)

Arrive:
10:14 a.m.
San Francisco, CA (SFO)

Flight: CO448
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800

Depart:
8:40 a.m.
New York/Newark, NJ (EWR - Liberty)

Arrive:
12:07 p.m.
San Francisco, CA (SFO)

Flight: CO548
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800

Depart:
11:50 a.m.
New York/Newark, NJ (EWR - Liberty)

Arrive:
3:03 p.m.
San Francisco, CA (SFO)

Flight: CO148
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800

Depart:
3:45 p.m.
New York/Newark, NJ (EWR - Liberty)

Arrive:
7:15 p.m.
San Francisco, CA (SFO)

Flight: CO41
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800

Depart:
5:35 p.m.
New York/Newark, NJ (EWR - Liberty)

Arrive:
8:57 p.m.
San Francisco, CA (SFO)

Flight: CO348
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800

I think the issue for CO is that they have made a big deal of the space-available free upgrades for their elite OP members.

The problem is that they have made these upgrades largely unattainable by changing the rules of the program but also by using small planes with very limited f/c cabins.

Personally, I'm not the kind of customer who believes he is entitled to a f/c seat he didn't pay for, but if upgrades are going to be essentially unattainable I think CO needs to take a serious look at upgrading the quality of its coach cabin product, which currently has the industry-minimum 31" seat pitch, rock-hard seats, and only two lavatories for up to 141 passengers.

And on all these long cross-country flights on 737s, which are nearly always completely full, with their tiny, narrow aisle, the coach lavatories are at the back of the plane (with the exception of one model of 737-800). Often it is virtually impossible to get to the lavatory because the service carts are often in the way.

I think CO should consider creating an UA-style economy plus for its most loyal customers (OP elite) who now essentially no longer have any access to upgrades.

Otherwise, I think CO will quickly see an erosion in the ranks of its loyal customer base.

Finally, regarding your comment about JetBlue being based at JFK vs. EWR, this is actually much more convenient for me. So for me, JetBlue has been a terrific discovery.

I'm still flying CO internationally and on routes JetBlue doesn't fly, but I've found that there is very little advantage to going beyong OP Elite Silver with the new rules structure.

The problem is that they have made these upgrades largely unattainable by changing the rules of the program but also by using small planes with very limited f/c cabins.

Otherwise, I think CO will quickly see an erosion in the ranks of its loyal customer base.

I'm still flying CO internationally and on routes JetBlue doesn't fly, but I've found that there is very little advantage to going beyong OP Elite Silver with the new rules structure.

Here is a man with some good sense, reason, and a grip on reality.

AMEN!

Absolutely unacceptable! Agents are not empowered or authorized to re-write program rules on the fly based on their personal beliefs. If this is the way she feels, let her try for the job of Onepass VP.

Please...document every trip from CLE where this happened and the agent in question was involved, and get this information to Customer Care in a calmly worded fact-based letter requesting follow up. They will investigate and have the agent retrained if necessary.

The system is automated - while a GA could over ride it, its against the rules typically - I doubt any GA would risk disciplinay action over upgrading someone. I bet she just didn't know - but didnt want to say anything of that sort.

-Vincent