Upgrade Question
 

If I am in the Presidents Club and they call my name for an upgrade and there are many on the list, will they just skip over me if I am not there? Let's say I like to stay at the club until late in the boarding process because I don't like to sit on the plane very long before liftoff. Will they skip over me because I was not at the gate to pick up the upgrade or will they just have to wait until I go to board to alert me of the upgrade? What happens here?

Well, I was late connecting from AMS to DEN (delayed flight), and when I handed my coach BP to the GA at EWR for the 738 flight to DEN, the system indicated a duplicate seat. I had been upgraded and my coach seat was given away, as was my FC seat because I wasn't there.

This was about 1.5 years ago; now I am always in the gate area 30 minutes before every flight if I haven't been upgraded, just in case.

Earlier this year on a EWR-DUB flight as I got to the gate for my coach seat, I was greeted by a CO agent, with "Here you are! We've been paging you in the PC and we've upgraded you to BF":) They then handed me my new BP and tore up my coach one. So, in that case, they did not give it away when I didn't respond to the initial page.

I also like to board toward the end... several times at DFW, the PC agent has brought the upgrade over to me... I've always assumed the agent made a note and checked for me closer to board time...

Perhaps in my case they assumed that I would miss the connection, but OJ has nothing on Bonehead when I'm trying to make the last flight out to get back home...

Be careful. If you wait too long they could de-board you and mark you as a no-show.

Conventional Wisdom is that the upgrades that are driven through the departure management system (standby upgrades, elite upgrades, etc.), which are computer-processed based on priority/fare/elite status/checkin time, etc. are "safe" regardless where you are (PC, gate, etc.). As long as you've checked in.

However, "battlefield" OpUps may be a different story ... if it's a full flight in Y and you sense that there might be opportunities for OpUps, I think you're best off being at the gate early, perhaps making a courtesy check with the GA to see what loads are like in front and in the rear, is best. I don't believe in giving "The Speech" as any good GA will see right through this.

Unless (I theorize), the GA decided that I couldn't make my connection?

I've had at least two experiences in this area. Once traveling IAH-EWR-MAD in Y, the Houston -Newark flight was very, very late coming in, and several of us literally ran to the MAD gate. All boarding had been completed but the GAs were waiting (there were 5-6 of us off the IAH flight). Panting and fumbling for my OP Plat card, I asked "Is there an oversold situation? Are you upgrading any Plats?" You would have thought that any battlefield upgrades would have been already given out to speed the boarding process. "Oh!" said that GA looking at my boarding pass. "Mr. Spainflyer, you've already been upgraded." And off I went to 1B.

Another time at EWR I left the PC and went down to the gate early because the MAD flight was clearly oversold, and the agent in the PC had confirmed it was. I approached the counter very quietly and asked in some innocence: "Would you be needing a seat in coach?" "I've got one!" called out the GA to the red jacket -- who was wearing grey as I recall -- and they seemed very happy to start the battlefield upgrade process with me. Don't know what would have happened if my OP card had been Silver instead of Plat.