Continental really needs to increase transparency of the upgrade process
 

I know this topic has been discussed ad nauseum, but I really feel the need to rant.

/rant

Continental really needs to increase the transparency of the standby list for upgrades. I'm currently sitting in an IAH PC waiting for my flight to Las Vegas for the weekend. When I checked at the Austin PC just prior to leaving Austin, I was 3rd on the list for the upgrade. Now I'm 6th. I know it's possible for 3 elites to have purchased a Y fare in the last 2 hours, or someone to have changed their travel plans, but from an emotional standpoint it's hard to walk away without thinking that I'm getting screwed. Does CO really want their best customers feeling that they're getting screwed? I've seen too many flights recently when the EUA wasn't run when R invetory existed, and I've seen too many instances where myself and other Plats I know mysteriously drop precipitously within the space of an hour or two. I know intellectually that there are probably good reasons for all of this, but from a customer statisfaction standpoint, it doesn't make me happy. And the answer isn't to just not tell elites where they stand on the list. The answer is to show elites exactly what's going on.

/norant

Thanks for listening.

Getting emotional about an upgrade?...If you want it so bad..why not just Purchase a First Class Ticket..Its just a seat. @:-)

Keep us updated about Vegas, the chances of getting clarity with the card dealers or with (centrally controlled) slot machines could be lower ..

I have found the perfect way to take the emotion out of the process. No more sweating 5 & 3 days before your flight when you open your email, no itchy fingers as you check in exactly 24 hours before your flight hpoing for that message that you have been upgraded, no shortness of breath as you leave the house without the upgrade, no uncontrolable shaking as you sheepishly put your card into the kiosk for one last check before you get to the gate, no whispering those pathetic sweet nothings into the ear of the gate agent trying to score that last upgrade, and no ants in your pants as your boarding pass enters the boarding machine, hoping for those 3 magic beeps. The secret is to be a Silver like me. Then, you have absolutely no expectations and are therefor grateful for an upgrade, instead of wanting an FBI investigation when you dont get oneb

You checked in at AUS for both your AUS-IAH and IAH-LAS. When you checked in you were put on the standby list - maybe even OLCI at co.com - and was #3 in AUS.

It is possible that three other PLATs on higher fares or any elites on Y checked in for their IAH-LAS - originating in IAH - after you checked in at AUS. If one does not clear via EUA or Y fare upgrade - then you go on standby list at the time you check in - and it gets reordered as folks check in.

With all the new Trump style condos and high end hotels - F sells to LAS.

Don't forget all those big winners buyin' the big seat for the ride home. :p

LOL ! I have gone a step further. I just fly jetBlue. I always get a comfortable seat, right when I buy the ticket! No anxiety, no machinations, no subterfuge. And it's a bargain, to boot...

The secret to eliminating upgrade anxiety, as I've already shared on other threads, is never to ask your place on the upgrade list, and never ask a CSR what your chances are irrespective of your place on the list.

I'm fortunate enough that the EUA-able segments I've flown this year have resulted in a 75% upgrade rate as a Gold (I didn't take Y-up's into consideration in that statistic). Every time I fly, I see people hovering around the GA asking about where they are on the list or what their chances are. It's the same story every time - you can tell they're asking about the waitlist by the looks on their faces and the short duration of the conversations. They always walk away with either a sad or angry look on their faces. The last time I queued up at a gate to ask about standby on a flight, there were about six people in line ahead of me - every one of them asked about their place on the waitlist (it was a IAH-DCA flight, very elite-heavy). Each time I witness this behavior, I feel glad that I long ago chose not to subject myself to such anxiety.

If I open my email throughout the EUA windows and don't get the EUA notification, I wait until OLCI. If nothing comes through at OLCI, I check again when I reprint boarding passes at the airport. If I haven't gotten upgraded by then, I assume I'm in coach and don't bother asking the PC agents and certainly not the GA's. The process is sufficiently automated that if you get upgraded, they'll find you. I think some people are so paranoid that they think they won't get a battlefield if they don't ask a GA where they are on the list.

It would be nice if CO implemented DL-like upgrade waitlist displays at CO gates. But we all know that CO is not going to make that type of infrastructure investment anytime soon.

My advice is never to ask - just sit back, relax, go to the gate a few minutes before boarding, and hope for a battlefield. Why give yourself the anxiety of witnessing yourself drop on the upgrade list as more full Y's or misconnects get added to the list? The GA will find you if you've been upgraded.

This is SAGE advice - I adopted the same zen stance last year and I am working on the same frame of mind when it comes to delays.

I am afraid to ask - as I fear the GA will X you off the list. I only ask at the PC and then when I know the agent.

If you do not get EUA - then good chance you will not get it - unless Plat and on a high fare. Except when CO has held back F seats until the last minute - check seat map the day before. Example - EWR-DEN in evening. 10 of 14 seats were open - up to battefield - so lots of ups at the gate - so if Plat and seat map shows 10 seats open (this is rare) - good chance you will get it.

When I expect it and think it may occur - it doesn't. When I do not expect it - it sometimes occurs. Like on a 6 seat 735 last year out of DCA - at gate for me and battlefield for my Plat companion - flight was mostly full.

Agreed 100%.

To me the upgrade is a pure perk, something I haven't paid for and which is a terrific privilege if I receive it.

So I have never once in all my years of flying CO called or inquired with the GA. It is what it is and the system, however non-transparent and mysterious, will work its way.

The issue for me is, when I don't receive the upgrade, is the prospect of wedging myself into a CO coach seat, usually for over six hours, since I fly a lot of transcon.

Since my recent record for upgrades as an OP Gold is 1 for 26, I simply decided to stop spending so much money on my chiropractor and start flying jetBlue, where I know from the moment I've purchasdd my ticket that my seat will be comfortable and provide more than adequate legroom, two things I cannot say about CO coach.

It's not the seat, it's the process. If I really, really, had to have the seat, Mrs. Catbert10 and I would have purchased F or Y-Up fares. I knew in AUS that my chance of getting the upgrade was only slightly north of nil. That's not the issue.

I sometimes get the feeling that all is not on the up and up with the way the lists are processed, and what happened last night only feeds those suspicions. I've seen plenty of flights recently where there was inventory in the R bucket, but the EUA process didn't run. I've lost an upgrade because I was in the restroom and the GA waited 2 minutes for a response. I've lost an upgrade because I was in the PC when the GA called the upgrade 45 minutes before the flight (the flight was delayed). I've lost an upgrade because there was a gate change, I was at the new gate (I got the gate change news from the PC staff), and the GA called out the upgrades at the old gate before coming over to the new gate. I have had a number of occasions when I mysteriously dropped off the upgrade list entirely.

a real secret for upgrades
 

I'm silver but will be gold within a few days. I haven't had any expectations after I learned the truth about CO EUA's. But then, today, I'm sitting outside the PC South (free wireless here, but not at PC North!) at IAH and, joy of joys :) , I found I have 1A for IAH-SNA. So just as I've been debating dropping CO altogether (did they read my mind?!), I'm happy. And it's the new month so, possibly, a new movie!! O-joy! :p Here's a real secret for upgrades which I just discovered: fly on the weekends! (I shouldn't have told anyone; forget I said that.) Here's another secret which I had been formulating: buy refundable only and, if no joy two days out, cancel and fly other metal. :D

The process is transparent... it's based on Elite level and Fare bucket. What fare were you on?

I'm sure this works well for you but I have flown a lot of weekend and remain 1 of 26 as OP Gold.

More basically, I am very tired of what is for me a ridiculous game. I need to travel because I need to get somewhere when I need to get there and as affordably as possible.

I won't consider buying a refundable ticket just because I have an outside chance at an upgrade. I run my own small business and I'm not interested in spending that kind of money (one of the great attractions of the upgrade feature used to be that I could reasonably expect an upgrade flying on inexpensive fares).

Also, I won't book myself to fly on Saturday when I really need to go on Tuesday. What am I supposed to do Wed, Thur, Fri? Just sit around in a hotel room?

As I stated in an earlier post I don't expect upgrades, they are just perks. But I do need a more comfortable and spacious coach seat (even if only ever so slightly so) and CO just doesn't have that.

That's why I'm flying a lot of jetBlue and non-CO SkyTeam Alliance, and others. So far this year I've traveled on B6, NW, DL, US, WN, AC, UA and TZ. The only coach seat that I have found equals CO for lack of comfort is UA E- (although UA E+ is terrific and CO, of course, does not have this section in their coach).

The real problem is that CO has the least comfortable, most cramped coach cabin in America so that, if you're over 5'10" or so flying CO in coach over long distances is really phyiscally challenging.