I am trying to get my arms around the issue of a closed waitlist. There's quite a bit of information scattered around the Continental Forum; I think the most interesting thread is this one. My focus is specifically on using cash and/or miles to waitlist from coach to BusinessFirst on international travel.

I've run into a closed waitlist now and again--most recently in March. I am trying to get my arms around the issue.

In the thread cited above, you'll see speculation that the length of the waitlist is fixed; once the waitlist is full, no more people can be added. There are also comments that if someone with higher elite status or a higher fare tries to join a closed waitlist, they're out of luck.

Can some light be shed on the waitlist issue so that I will know what I have to do to get on the list? I think planning a trip well in advance is the key, but for those of us that don't have that luxury, are we at a disadvantage--even if it means we pay a higher fare?

I've had an assistant call to see if the waitlist is open. Does it make a difference if the person had my record locator, OP number, etc.? My thought is 'no': a waitlist is either open or closed.

Is a waitlist run under FIFO--first in, first out? Or, if someone with higher elite status and/or a higher fare joins the list, do they trump others with lower status/fare that are already on the list?

Curious minds want to know!

Methinks it's somehow systems-related.

Either there's a max of people their waitlists will allow in their system, or it's a legacy rule from before they factored so many factors into the waitlists, and it was FIFO, so once it hit a point, it didn't make sense to keep adding people.

I'm just speculating, I'm curious to hear the real answer.

Thanks ContinentalFan, for reviving this topic. For the past month, I've been getting to the bottom of why we do this. Stay tuned, as I should have an update any day now.

To answer your other question re: how the waitlist is ordered, it is indeed ordered by Elite priority.

Thanks for the insight Scott! ^

Can you clarify if it's 1) Elite status, 2) Time placed on the list

Thanks

Yes, this is correct.

Thanks for looking into this. The whole waitlist issue is a bit of a black box!

Just wondering if any progress has been made sorting out this issue?

Thanks ContinentalFan for reviving this thread.
It would be very nice if CO could offer some more transparency on this issue.

FWIW, the 3 or 4 times I've tried to waitlist on CO's 46/47 (IAH-AMS-IAH) I've been hit with the "waitlist is closed" on every occasion. And I've typically been requesting the upgrade 3-4 weeks out from the flight dates. I guess a combo of popular route/high loadfactor in FC yields this result...

COInsider,

Allow me to throw this thought into your work: If we believe the basic management concept of "You can't manage what you can't measure", it would seem to me that by "closing" a waitlist, CO sees a much smaller pool of people that actully existed who were wanting to wait for whatever is in short supply. By doing so, CO is unable to see the actual situation, either at the time or later when reviewing service levels. By tolerating employees "closing" a wait list, CO is losing the benefit of seeing how many actually wanted to wait for this. The time savings of not putting someone on a wait list is not nearly as avaluable as the information that CO might be gathering about supply and demand for this premium product.

Just my two cents' worth.

--PP

If CO were to ask me what my #1 complaint against the airline is, I'd say that the mysterious waitlist is.

The 1)elite status and 2)time placed on list priority is extremely misleading.

A person buying a cheap fare with low elite status can easily get ahead of a Platinum Elite flying a full Y fare for an upgrade. This happens 100% of the time when the waitlist is closed and this has happened to me on several occaisions on CO.

As an example, lets say I book a full Y to go EWR-NRT; I'm Platinum. I call to use the 15k miles to upgrade the flight only to find out no inventory is available. So I ask to be waitlisted. And am told no. Why? Because a few weeks and/or months before I made my extremely expensive Y purchase, some non-Platinums clogged up the waitlist list with upgrade requests on lower fare purchases. As such, they will have a shot at an upgrade before I'm even able to get on the list.

Therefore, time to book and time to get on the waitlist superceeds Elite level and paid fare class. And this is something I have a big problem with. If there is truly a software problem at the root of this, then they need to not allow any non-Platinum from waitlisting. And/or not allow anyPlatinum flying on a non-Y/H/K fare from waitlisting. Or easiest yet, open up the waitlist to an infinite number of passengers ...and then sort out who will clear the waitlist by elite status, fare paid, and date/time booked.

That's my issue in a nutshell. I increasingly find that I have to buy tickets at the last minute--when only H and Y fares are available. I have this issue on transcontinental flights as well as transatlantic. I don't think anything can be done on domestic flight without a major overhaul of the entire process--I think changing what exists now would be a mistake as, for the most part, the wait list mechanism works well. Rather than buy a Y fare and sit in coach (usually only middle seats are available), I fly JetBlue.

International is a different issue. Increasingly, I am in position of having to buy a full coach fare. Since I know there's no chance of an upgrade on CO--and saw clearly that employees get preference over customers--I've switched to AA. AA has a much better way of treating passengers with last minute ticket purchases--it's easier to get into the business cabin.

All right. I've got some good news. Effective later this week (11-Aug), Continental will no longer be closing any of its First/BusinessFirst class waitlists. Starting then, if you're eligible to waitlist, you may do so. It'll be that simple.

This change is the direct result of comments made in this forum. Thanks as always for your feedback.

Great news Scott! This is great progress and I would like to thank you for listening to our constructive feedback.

WOW!! Show me another cpompany of any size out there that would change company policy as a result of internet feedback. Policy changes as a result of listening to customers. A CEO that returns E-mails and phone calls to customers. FAs that don't gripe in earshot of the pax. THIS is why I fly CO out of a non-hub city even though it guarantees me a double-hop wherever I go. BRAVO, SIR!!

--PP

Thanks for the update Scott; that's great news!