To those of you who have waitlisted before,

My flight is on the 16th of December. I have less than three weeks. If I'm still on the waitlist, should I just give up hope, or do most waitlisted upgrades clear closer to the day of departure?

Thanks,
Scott

Anytime up until 24 hours prior to departure. When exactly it happens will depend on how full the flight is, among other things. But I would certainly not give up hope yet, unless the flight is completely sold out in BusinessFirst. (And even then there could be cancellations).

Ok. Thanks for the response. I'll try to remain hopeful. When I went on the waitlist - in May - I really had no idea I'd be kept waiting this long.

Scott

Please tell us if you clear, what fare you are on, and what is your elite status?

3 weeks are too early to give up, because they won't process clearing waitlist until close to the departure date - there is a plenty of time for them to sell BF seats.
In the past most of my upgrade happened about 3 days prior to departure. (last one was past August, so it was before waitlist priority change, I guess)
I have both experience: 1) upgrade cleared on one day before with almost BF-soldout flight, 2) didn't get upgrade with half empty BF seats when I checked 3 days before flight.

So you never know - don't give up the hope but don't be too optimistic.
BTW which flight on 12/16 ?

Don't feel too bad about being on the waitlist so long. I bought tickets (I fare) in February for our family of 4 for a mid Dec. flight SAN-EWR-LGW and back. I then waitlisted using miles and $. Got the upgrade to BF for EWR-LGW-EWR in September, the day after I hit Gold. Still waiting on the transons to come through. Availability still looks good, so I'll post if we get lucky.

Where are you going? What city pairs? That makes alot of difference...

Well, I can tell you now that I'm Silver flying on an H fare. However, when I went on the waitlist, I wasn't elite; I'm under the impression that it's one's status at the time of reservation that determines the pecking order, not one's status at the time of departure.

I'm flying PEK-IAH-PEK, by the way. To IAH 12/16 and back to China 1/3.

Scott

Two components of the waitlist are the date/time you were placed on it and elite status level. You should probably call to make sure your status is properly reflected as being elite along with the date/time you entered the waitlist.

It's showing as J1 (one BF seat left on the plane) for the 16th, so I'd say no chance on that... showing a little better on the return, but anything can happen in a month...

On second thought, calling in may not matter for the first part of your trip....

While you are most likely ticketed PEK-IAH on flight 88, the flight is actually served PEK-EWR-IAH. It appears that there is only one BF seat left for sale on each of those two segments on December 16. For the return, there are currently more than 9 BF seats left for sale on each segment.

Thanks for the information. I guess I won't die if I sit in the back; I've done it many times before. At least I know some colleagues on my flight to the US, so I can talk to them and there is some hope left for the return to China.

On a personal note, what does annoy me is that I paid more for the H fare hoping that it would increase my chances. Since it looks like I'll be in the back of the bus - for extra money - I'd say I made a bad gamble. Won't do that again.

Scott

Yes, but if you do get the upgrade, you won't have to pay the hefty co-pay and you'll get 150% EQMs for the H fare.

I can't recall seeing anywhere where fare class comes into play on the international upgrade waitlist. And further, CO.com indicates that it's only status and then first-come: Waitlist is processed first by Elite status (Platinum, Gold then Silver) and then by time of upgrade request.
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...e/default.aspx
Probably should have done your homework...

Of course, there's no co-pay on the H fare, but you should always do the math comparing the various all-in costs of upgrading. If the H fare was less than, say the W fare + $900 r/t copay, then going for the H fare was not necessarily a bad gamble. Just turns out you probably lost this time.

If the H fare was still more expensive than the lowest fare + copay, then you made a bad decision based on the mistaken belief you'd have a higher priority on the waitlist. Certainly there is some value in a higher priority that may be worth paying for (e.g., domestic EUAs), but not in this scenario.

I did do my homework. Somewhere I got the impression that the fare class made a difference. One way or the other, I'm most likely not going to get upgraded, so it really doesn't matter. I'm just disappointed. However, as someone mentioned, at least I'll earn the extra miles for the H fare.

Scott