upgrades for a lowly silver...
 

I'd love to hear from other lowly silver members on two questions:

1) How often do you actually receive upgrades?
2) Is there better luck on CO vs. other skyteam members?

thanks!

I don't fly CO much (my CO status is mostly from VS & BR) but when I have been silver I have had some luck with UGs - maybe 33%. I have had better luck as a silver on NW though - more like 66%. However, that may be heavily influenced by the routes I fly.

I have had 12 Upgrades out of 24 flights since Jan 2008. Jan though Mar was a dry patch, Just one upgrade. April though Today, I had 11 upgrades out of 16 segments.

Check out The Definitive CO EUA Thread started by BlissWorld. This may give you a good idea of what flights and what days you can score an upgrade.

I am very anal about searching for flights. I try to book aircraft that has a larger F cabin, like a 753 or 764 when I see them on the schedule. I avoid 735’s when possible.

The key issues for EUA's for Silvers, although they also apply to Golds and Plats are:

Route - Day of Week - Time of Day - Fare Class. The more you eliminate your competition through these selections, the greater your chance of snagging an EUA.

My wife and I both became Silvers in March and have had identical results (all of our flights have been travelling together). We are 3/13 on CO Eligible flights and 2/4 on NW Eligible flights.

We will attain Gold Status on Oct 1 and see what happens for the remainder of the year where we have 2 NW and 12 Eligible CO booked. We attain Plat on Dec 30th and our first scheduled flights in 2009 are on Jan 8th, so we'll see what happens then.

As of today we each have 45005 EQM's and 41 EQP's, October 1 will be 50749 EQM and 49 EQP and December 30 will be 75610 EQM and 78 EQP.

MSY is and probably will be the last bastion of the 735's and we 're on them too much.

I'm doing very well for a Silver. I try to avoid peak flights by traveling on early Saturday mornings when possible.

As others have said, a lot depends on your route. I'm a Platinum, but fly almost entirely the SFO-EWR route (about once a month), and my rate is 1/10 at best - more like 1/15.

The key more than anything is the day you travel, and to a certain degree, where you travel. When I was a silver, I almost always got upgraded when I traveled on days that were NOT Friday or Monday (typical business travel days). Also, I gather from my readings here that more leisure routes are silver-friendly. Thus, I was able to get a EUA on SDQ-EWR as a silver. And I agree with people here that NW upgrades are easier to clear.

I have wondered the 'why' , do they have a higher % of F/Y seats? lower density of NW elites or what?

Higher % of F seats and supposedly fewer non-elites paying for F so there are more available for upgrades.

I only wish we can get more upgrades to/from the West Coast.

On my MCO trips, I'm running 50%. 0% on all others :)

As my signature reports, I'm currently getting upgraded on approximately a third of my eligible flights this year. The tips others have provided are helpful - picking the right day/time, aircraft with larger F cabins, and elite-light routes will help.

Though even with the best planning, it still may not pan out. I regularly fly BWI-IAH, and only occasionally get upgraded on the 735s and 733s that typically run those flights. This weekend, I flew BWI-IAH on a 739 and IAH-BWI on a 738, and was excited about the significantly larger cabin and expected better odds of an upgrade. Alas, I've rarely been LOWER on the upgrade standby list.

So basically - silver elites do get upgraded, but you can never really count on it. I am looking forward to reaching gold in the next month.

IIRC, NW has 16+ F seats on all mainline aircraft (and even F seats on their new regional e-jets). Plus, given their hub locations, they have less paid F seats as they do not have the flight lengths that meet the paid F requirements (such as EWR to/from the West Coast). Then again, given the recent "issues" with the financial institutions we may see fewer paid F tickets in the domestic system beyond those flights that feed international routes.

I have been VERY lucky including EWR-FLL, FLL-EWR, MSY-EWR, LAX-EWR, EWR-TORONTO.

A coworker of my was on a Delta Flight last week (JFK - Dublin) - She is a DELTA Silver and on a discount ticket. Both she AND her traveling companion were upgraded!

MSY gets everything. just depends on time of year. i believe CO's is MSY's second largest carrier (depending on LUV's schedule). lots of flights per day.

ive flown every AC type except the 777 in and out of MSY. 764 and 762 were due to IROPS. 757 is pretty common.

the worst route is IAH-MIA. ive never flown it on anything but a 735.

as a silver out of PHX, i rarely fly Y on the way out. for some reason, getting back is a little more difficult. the 5am outta here is a shoe in and the PHX staff is just awesome.