Any experience with Flight CO1002?
 

I need to fly out in a month from now from EWR to LAX.
I want to purchase a coach and hopefully get upgraded (I am a Platinum Elite). I know the chance of being upgraded is slim to none, but currently flight CO1002 is showing only one seat taken in first class. While other flights for that day are about half full already.
So I am wondering if anyone has any experience with that flight, if it usually leaves with empty FC seats, and if yes, what would be that chance of being upgraded if I am traveling on a "U" fare.

Thanks

From my experience, you would have difficulty purchasing a seat up front within a week of an EWR-LAX flight. I have ridden in back when purchasing a Y-up fare more than once. Upgrade chances are very slim.

Take a look at the upgrade standby lists on http://pda.continental.com/info

Yesterday's flight had seven people "upgraded" into first, now this includes mileage upgraders, non-rev, etc. so I don't take as hard solid evidence as you having a chance.

More to the point, it includes Y-ups as well. Chances of the non Y-up upgrade on the transcons are historically 1/flight on average. I'm guessing that a U fare won't get that one. I did have a transcon with empty seats in F on a Saturday mid-afternoon eastbound, but I assume those are rare.

When I traveled EWR-LAX almost weekly a while ago (2006 was most recent), 1002 was usually better-than-average for upgrades.

What does that mean? For a Plat, on a high fare, midweek, I'd say maybe 25%.

When I used to fly the route I would generally get upgraded about half the time, but I flew on a lot of Tuesdays, a lot of high-revenue fares, and used some strategic planning to make sure I had the best possible odds. These days, I don't think it's possible to enjoy that degree of upgrade success.

Luckily now the bulk of my business is EWR-TPA, which has consistently been one of the best upgrade markets I have seen, year-round.