EUA Rant...
 

Rant on....

Everything I've always read on FT has led me to believe that as long as F is bookable, an EUA should clear at its designated time. I also know that CO has been known to take F availability away before the EUA runs and add it back...but I didn't think they did it so quickly!

Case and point.....I hit the 5 day mark on a flight from IAH-LGA at 5pm today. at 4:58 I priced out a flight w/mileage upgrade and F availability showed on my flight. 5:00 came and went with no upgrade. At 5:02, I logged out of my OP account, logged back in and priced out another flight....once again, F was available.

I know IAH is hard to get upgrades to from NYC, and I can understand revenue mgmt holding out, but A is only like 40% full and they are obviously more than happy to take miles for the seat....oh well, whatever...I suppose I'll have to wait to clear at the gate.

I can only laugh at the fare bucket shenanigans though....

Rant off.

The policy is pretty clear, upgrades are based on history for the perticular flight. the more popular the route the more likely you will need to wait for the upgrade. In addition there may have been other plats who have a higher fare class such as H who did get the upgrade.

I thought that too, but I printed out the seat maps and there were 4 people (including me) that were seated in exit rows before the 120 hour EUA run. I assume that to mean that there were 3 other golds/plats on the flight. All those were still full when I checked at 5:02, and they still are now. Also....I am on an H fare.

Where does it say in the policy that upgrades are based on the history for a particular flight? I've never heard of that before...

At least they haven't downgauged your aircraft. I have a LAX-EWR flight where it was A9 D9 Z9 last night when i booked the flight. I was all excited expecting to clear. I pull up the seat map and we went from 20 seats to 16, bam, they were down to A4 D4 Z4 and those are all gone now.

Why can't they freaking fly the 20-seaters on the transcons exclusively.

There must have been 200 threads about this, but once again, the only policy is that there shouldn't be empty FC seats on the flight when there are passengers eligible for EUA.

They can hold out all upgrade buckets till boarding time if they want to.

EUA runs at the published time points, but only if they put seats in those buckets.

Maybe I'm mistaken but I don't think the above is necessarily true. EAU is run from a different fare bucket than regular buyable F. I'm sure they hold some F seats back hoping to sell them. I'm guessing that certain routes have a higher percentage of F seats sold between 5 and O days prior to flight that would end up not being sold because they'd have been filled by Plats.

Although I'd love it to be true, I don't think it would be smart to give up all available F seats at 5 days prior to flight.

I could be wrong about this, maybe someone else can confirm or correct.

You are using 'F' to mean 'first class'; the previous posters meant 'the F fare bucket'. There's a big difference.

I may have misread the original post, but I thought that the OP stated the fare bucket was available.

If an EUA was not run when the fare bucket appeared, the upgrade wouldn't clear. As long as the upgradeable seat is available, the passenger would probably be better off calling the elite desk to see if a CSR can trigger the upgrade.

Yes, I was referring to F "bucket" availability at both 4:58 and 5:02 when the EUA was supposed to run at 5:00.

Thank you, rkkwan, for the lesson on thread availability as well as rehashing what I already know.

There have been many reports of CO making miles upgrades available via the F bucket but zeroing it out at the EUA runs. I haven't heard too many of them lately, but it sounds like that is what happened to you in this case. As for how quickly they can do it, my guess is that they have an option in the computers to do it so it is relatively instantaneous. What's the value of a computer if you can't leverage it for things like that.

By virtue of the fact that the other 3 exit row seats are still taken at least you know that someone wasn't upgraded over you.

In the mean time, CO will take miles, a Y fare or an F fare purchase and happily give away those seats. Or you'll get your seat at the gate. Or tomorrow. Or the next day. Or they'll sell out on higher fares and you'll keep your exit row seat. Hard to say, really.

Sorry for misreading your original post. My apologies.

Sorry, I misread as well.

My experience the past month (about 12 segments) is that EUA has been running a little late - maybe more like 3-4 minutes after the EUA time - not right at EUA. So if you checked at 5:02, just 2 minutes after EUA time, EUA may not have run - so the "F" bucket was still open and EUA had not run.

Did you check at say 5:05? 5 minutes after. I suspect that EUA did run and you did not make the cut and that "F" was then zero. "F" can reopen, but usually not at 2 minutes after - usually a few hours at least.

The same thing has happened to me. I checked at 1 minute after, then 2 minutes after, and I thought I missed the upgrade as F still showed. A few minutes later about 3-5 minutes after that EUA time I checked and had gotten the upgrade. If I missed the upgrade it was because they only had 1 or 2 "F" seats and I did not make the cut.

Best thing to do is check "F" before EUA, continue to check with more passengers to determine the number of "F" seats, print out the F and Y seat maps before EUA, then wait at least 5 minutes after EUA time. Check "F" availability and seat maps. I believe you will see that everything is OK - that the number of people moved up.

If is within your EUA time and you did not make then cut, I bet you will see "F" at zero 5 minutes after EUA time.

The system seems to be working . I suspect they delayed EUA a few minutes to allow autocheckin to clear, etc.

Some Golds/Plats may have selected non-exit-row seats. You have to watch the entire elite section and note any seats that suddenly open up at EUA.

Actually, I find that all I have to do is show up at the airport and get in whatever seat I have assigned. I love when the EUA happens in advance. I don't freak out when it doesn't. I'm a happier person for it. ;)

100%

I try and pick those flights that I feel Ill have a better chance that the UP will occur, but I also have in mind that it Wont. thusly I will book a flight where I can grab the Exit Row.

If the UP or Battlefield occurs Great , I got a bonus if not I got Exactly what I paid for a Coach seat. I dont expect the EUA to clear at the 5 day period or much before T-3. if it does Great

As usual if FC is needed then get it by either paying with $$ or Miles if possible. For a free UP just be prepared that if it happens it will happen on Flight date and a few hrs before the Flight. Then when ones EUA passes and you werent UPed no disappointment

I just booked a flight having already requalified for Plat I was hoping to jump Ship but CO had the best timing with the least layover times at a Hub and no MD-80s. Was gonna fly UA but w/o status and having to take 4 bags (2 each) that would have been an extra $260 for both of us for bags alone. So CO it wil be

"downgauged"
you've got to be in plastics or packaging industry ^

I completely agree with this attitude, and try to adopt it myself. It's a little annoying just before boarding when I'm unsure if I'll get the battlefield and I have to decide whether or not to buy some food to bring on board (which I'll want if I don't get the up). But other than that, no big deal really. You still get the upgrade with the proper priority, whether it's at T-5days or T-5minutes.

Frankly, as a plat it's often to my benefit that nobody got an EUA when I change flights using confirmed standby at the last minute, and still get the UP because I jump to the front of the list and nobody has been EUAed into the empty FC seats.

That said, it would be nice if CO could just be honest about this. State up front that there are 3 different classes of FC seats: paid and Y-ups (always available, A inventory), mileage ups (limited availability, F), and EUAs (even more limited available, in practice a subset of F), rather than claiming that EUAs are at equivalent priority to milage ups.

I don't believe this was claimed anywhere. It's actually to the contrary -- mileage upgrades will clear the waitlist/standby list first.

Not the best way to judge... I don't always take an open exit row seat, especially if I have a short connection... I'm a lot more likely to take a bulkhead or somewhere near the front of Y in case my upgrade doesn't clear in that case... I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this.

It is a subtle difference. Miles upgrades and EUA do come from the same fare bucket (F), but there is priority within still within that class.