I am a Platinum and I am flying to Paris from Newark in March and returning through Houston. I tried to use my miles to upgrade but they said all the seats were taken in the upgrade class, but they offered to waitlist me. I had never heard about this before for mileage upgrades (I don't travel internationally that much). Is there a point were they would just give me any BF seat available? Should I hold out any hope of actually getting the upgrade or will I probably remain stuck on the waitlist?

Thanks and sorry if this is posted somewhere else. I am just getting used to this site.

I can give you my two cents, but I won't be able to improve on all the other posts on the matter.

I have waited listed for BusinessFirst and have successfully cleared. March sounds like a promising month for CDG. If you want to fly BF, why not try. The sooner you get on the waitlist, the better off you'll be--higher priority. So, if you're interested in BF, get on the waitlist ASAP. If you're on an H (or Y) fare, you'll only pay with miles; any other coach fare has a co-pay. You won't have to pay any cash until the upgrade clears.

By the way, since you're platinum, you're able to grab choice seats in coach. I'd check out seatguru and select the seat you want--I like exit row window--and call to secure it.

Good luck!

Definitely not. The waitlist expires 24 hours prior to departure; if your upgrade award has not cleared by then, it will NEVER clear. That's how OnePass works. I do believe that CO tries its best to match remaining supply with expected demand, but they are not always 100% correct. Sometimes this helps you (when they upgrade you and end up having to forego a paid BF ticket sale), and sometimes it hurts you. There have certainly been instances of people here whose upgrades have not cleared despite there being empty seats (or nonrevs/employees) in BF upon departure, either due to last minute cancellations or because they didn't sell the last few seats they were holding back.

Why is that? Surely it can't be that hard to keep the waitlist going up until departure (especially with international check-in closing earlier than domestic) DL, AA, and even US AIRWAYS are capable of doing that. If US can do it (even in Philly) then clearly it can't be that complicated, I am constantly surprised they ever manage to get every checked-in passenger on the plane so this cannot be too hard. There is no reason that non-revs should be able to fly up front when there are people willing to pay miles and money to do so. I understand CO wants to hold out until the last minute to get someone to pay or upgrade using miles, but it seems that once check-in was closed they could go to the waitlist for any remaining seats. I know this has been discussed before, but has there ever been a satisfactory answer explaining CO's reasoning?

Because that's their policy. The waitlist used to end 72 hours prior to departure but was recently loosened to only 24 hours after much complaining.

Satisfactory? I guess that depends on who you ask...

There were apparently some purported phantom bookings trying to block inventory and game the system.

Last year, that's 2006, COInsider informed us all that the 24 hour expiration date has gone. The waitlist now stays open until the flight is ready to depart.

The post was interesting, because it gave a very reasoned explanation as to why they had the 24 hour window.

The waitlisting has always driven me a little crazy. I've been platinum this past year, and I've been waitlisted for an upgrade many times. I usually pay the lowest price and then if I clear, they charge me the $450 or whatever it is. Recently I was waitlisted CDG-EWR on the 767 flight at 2pm, and there was only 1 seat left until a few days before I few. I thought it was impossible, but I got a note 2 days before the flight saying I cleared the upgrade list and was sitting in BF. That was pretty exciting, and it all worked out, but it does add undo stress wondering if you're going in the back or front...

Most recently I bought a ticket EWR-DEL. I was told the upgrade seats were available, and paid the higher fare class price plus some fees exchanging an unused ticket to Europe I had from the summer with the same fees ($350 1 way, $200 the other) so they matched the fare classes. All seemed good until I got my itinerary online and it said WAITLISTED on both flights. Surprise! That's not what they had said when I got the new ticket. What really stinks is that my sister is on the same EWR-DEL flight, got her tix a couple of days before me using a complete reward ticket, and got a BF seat at 45,000 miles the one way. I paid, cashed in 40,000 miles, paid the upgrade fee, and I find out I'm in the back. She's not even Elite. I just hope I clear and get to fly in the front with her.

So yeah, you do clear, especially as a Plat, but it's not too much fun waiting around to find out. My friend who flys AA seems to always get an upgrade without much fanfare or stress, but then again, they suck, and she knows that. But at least she's in a comfy seat...

Rats, I was this close to waitlisting on AA (where I am only a Platinum). I was told when booking that this would be no problem.

AA has some interesting ways to upgrade. If your an EXP, you get upgrade on a large percentage of domestic flights--they're complimentary. They also give SWU's to upgrade on international flights: 8 a year for EXP's--that's four round trips. Not a bad deal.

Thanks again for all of your help. I just had one more question (well actually a set of related questions).

When it gets closer to the date of flight and assuming Continental starts releasing more seats do I have precedence over those waitlisting for a reward seat in BusinessFirst or are they two completely different fare classes. If they are different fare buckets, how do they determine which one to release the seats into and would they be more likely to put them into the total reward category or the upgrade reward category? This whole system completely baffles me.

Hey Continental Fan can you post a link to that? The website still shows that it is 24 hours and I searched and couldn't find anything. Would like to see the reasoning behind it.

Thanks!

That is incorrect. The 24-hour waitlist rule still applies for BF mileage upgrades. See, for example, CO Insider's reply to a question about BF mileage upgrades:

The CO website is correct: BF mileage upgrade waitlists expire 24 hours prior to departure.

I'd love to see that post too, because I don't remember it!!!