So, what you are saying CO Insider, is that there really was never a valid reason for this closed waitlist business? You're just going to change the policy, like that? While I truly think that's great, how many other CO policies are in place that make no sense?? What about the 72-cum-24 hour rule for BF upgrades? I realize it's been discussed ad nauseum over the years, and some progress was made with the change to 24 hours, but it's still an uncompetitive and customer-unfriendly policy.

Just trying to keep you guys honest...

Awesome, this is a very welcomed change. Thanks Scott!

I wish it were that easy, ijgordon. But after 11 years with Continental, I've found that just about everything we do has a pretty good reason behind it. When it came to reconsidering our closed waitlist policy, we had people from at least 6 different departments working together behind the scenes to make it work.

There were two key reasons why we ever had a closed upgrade waitlist policy in the first place.
For us to be able to lift waitlist thresholds, we needed some foundational solutions in place. First, we needed to remove the element of surprise for those customers whose waitlists don't clear. Starting this month, we're going to be proactively contacting customers as soon as their their waitlist expires to make sure they know in advance that their upgrade did not and will not clear. Our belief is that our customers at minimum appreciate some advance notice when the news is bad. It seems to be 10x worse when customer hears about it for the first time 1-2 hours before departure. Second, we needed to clean the waitlists out of the reservation so that the customer could at least use online or kiosk check-in. It's a minor point, but it's one of those that compounds an already tough situation. Third, we needed to ensure that we re-deposited any unused upgrade awards at the time of waitlist expiration.

So, in the end, we made all the needed changes, and our upgrade waitlist threshold policy is no more. But it was hardly just like that!

We actually do have reasons for our 24-hour waitlist expiration, and I don't see this changing anytime soon. First, we have the challenges outlined above about managing customer expectations too close to departure. Second, and most importantly, we're not willing to do anything that could jeopardize our demand for premium cabin fares. Making it easy to stand by for upgrade awards at the airport would potentially risk our ability to sell these seats at their intended retail value. And that's not a risk we can afford to take.

Bravo, the eloquence and absolute correctness of the statement by COInsider is unprecedented on this 24 hr BF upgrade subject. I would rather see CO sell these seats for the price that the market demands, rather than turning the whole process of BF upgrades into a carnival which could adversely affect revenue maximization. I'm perfectly content with the policy and glad that CO is holding the line on this.

Agreed - but I would suggest there's a finer line which could be walked. Bear in mind that CO is so determined to keep phantoms out of BF (for good reason!) they were willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater in terms of a solution. While I too applaud the 72 to 24 hour rule change I can say few things are more frustrating than having to watch a BF seat fly empty when I and others were willing to pay miles plus cash to sit there.

In turn, such policies, among other things, drives my international business to others and I'll even go out on a limb and say I'm not the only one who's been frustrated by this.

I still do firmly believe there's a middle ground that can be reached but until such a compromise is found I refuse to tolerate the rules that CO has in place over this area. However, while I may not personally care for the rules, I do respect CO's position regarding them. If they feel that such policies are required to keep phantoms out of the cabin than so be it. J fares are CO's bread and butter, and it seems smart to protect them.

As always, thank you CO Insider for sharing CO�s perspective on things. ^

The only thing bad about this change is now I don't have much to talk to Scott about tomorrow when I see him in DFW.

But I'm sure I'll think about something.

Ask him to prioritize the standby list by Elite status, as AA does!

He's a step ahead of you, bonehead

Indeed! Let's not all of us forget that while we love the front of the plane, there's a reason we love it, it has a cash value and the company really must be allowed to try to GET that price for it. I myself and shocked at hte amount of upgrades I get domestically (I realize we're talking BF here but the same argument still applies) and it is clearly a SPACE AVAILABLE product. I have gotten upgrades on $250 transcons and I am hugely grateful for each and every one of them but I know it would be far better for the airline that treats you like they actually want your business to be SELLING that product. The upgrade is a way of taking what on other airlines would be an empty first class seat (used to see it all the time on AA) and letting a frequent flyer have it instead of it going empty, which is great business accumen. But all that would be wiped away and made useless if they didn't give themselves every opportunity to sell it away first.

I think CO might actually see more purchased upgrades as a result of letting people know that they aren't going to get upgraded 24 hours out. Keeping the company with good revenue is he only way we're not all going to be flying on one of the airborne cattle cars.

--PP

--PP

Alright - I concede! Thanks for the in-depth explanation, makes things clearer now.