Transcon EUA successes
 

Just a quick survey for all the Pt members out there... what's your success rates for EUA on transcons from EWR (to LAX, SFO, SEA, etc)?

I'm on a 'U' fare this Friday night on the last nonstop flight to LAX and there's 4 available seats up front on the seat map; however, nothing available on KVS. No 5-day advance EUA for a NW PE here (perhaps I'm travelling on a heavy route on a popular day/time).

Yes, perhapes you are.

I'd bring your own dinner... as you'll be enjoying Y.

NW Plat here traveling on a "V" fare PHX-EWR tonight. No EUA, no check-in EUA, and FC looks full so probably no battlefield upgrade.

I'd say your chance of an upgrade is extremely close to zero. That route is full of elites. :(

Friday night, EWR-LAX? That's a tough one.

The empty seats on the seat map mean nothing. Some passengers have no seat assignments. If there are zero seats to sell then there will be no seats left for upgrades. The route you are on is one with very little chance of an elite upgrade.

Anyone care to comment on upgrade chances on the EWR-DEN and the DEN-IAH routes? I'm a SkyTeam Elite Plus and am not sure if CO extends this benefit to KLM-ers.

General comments on the following flights?

CO 228
CO 642

thanx

With virtual certainty, you'll be in coach. I've never been upgraded from SFO to EWR on any CO flight, the red eye included. There are bound to be lots of Platinums with full Y fares in coach too.

Advice: If you want a nicer plane, a bag of free pretzels, fly CO. If you want to get upgraded more on a worse plane with the constant fear of how bad coach is if the upgrade doesn't come through, fly NWA.

Another thing about CO: They can't hold a schedule through EWR. If you have a connection tighter than 2 hours, you might well be sorry. This problem will cost CO a huge amount of my business this year.

And better yet, if you want to get upgraded on a premium transcon, which is much nicer than CO's F, get status with UA.

I only got an upgrade on one SFO-EWR redeye upgrade in the past 12 months. Every other CO transcon was in coach. However, I have successfully upgraded each and every JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO that I requested with UA in Premium Service. And I'm Plat on CO, but only mid-tier on UA.

CO will not extend elite upgrades to you as NW does. Only NW and CO elites are eligible for complimentary F upgrades.

when it comes to the Transcons I dont even think about EUA, I simply look to see if I can get an aisle seat on the Exit Row, and Grab it.

Dont ever remember even bothering a GA and asking if the Up cleared. I figure if for some crazy reason I was UPed theyd be paging my name or the scanner will beep when they run my BP thru it and give me the UP BP instead. Happened twice so far that way. This way the GAs can concentrate with getting the flight out on time and any real problems that someone might have.

That is unless when I checked the flight the day of,it should that 1st was empty, but I would also assume that those on "Y"s and not some El Cheapo tkt like mine will get the UP anyway, but Id ask just the same. If it was near full I wouldnt ask but let the scanner do its thing.

While I, of course, agree that upgrades are much more available on NW than on CO, I don't agree about your relative assessment of the two coach cabins. CO tends to fly newer planes but I find the 32" seat pitch and slightly softer seats more comfortable on NW than on CO. The 31" seat pitch and rock-hard seat on CO is truly dreadful.

The other issue--specifically concerning transcons--is that CO primarily flies 738's without mid-cabin lavatory on these routes. This means being cooped up with up to 141 coach pax who only have 2 lavatories for over 6 hours.

Of course, NW doesn't fly transcon at all so it's not possible to make an exact comparison.

I do believe, in my heart :), that premium passengers without seat assignments are more likely to no-show than passengers with seat assignemnts, all else being equal. I've seen it a handful of times on flights I was on that were sold-out in F with a few unassigned seats, and invariably a bunch of upgrades cleared at the gate.

Once the flight checks in full, it becomes much more difficult to get the upgrade. (Hope for a misconnect or a bad traffic jam...)

You are correct -- but given the number of platinums on Y/H/K fares in the back the chances of someone of lower status or lower fare class (in this case a U) getting an EUA is quite low.

bring your own dinner, regardless. that way, YOU get to choose what you are eating...not some beancounter from houston.