And this will be a problem when CO leaves SkyTeam and/or ends the DL relationship -- J on UA transcons can be significantly more expensive than CO F, particularly for close-in bookings.

I am at better than 50% upgrades on the year as a plat on ewr-sfo and sfo-ewr. obvious rules apply: avoid peak business travel times, hope you get lucky.

It would not surprise me to see a price increase for CO.

On certain routes, such as EWR-SFO and EWR-LAX, one would have thought either a major increase in capacity or an increase in fares would have been implemented a long time ago, as demand has been vastly outstripping inventory at current cost.

Yet, in fact, the opposite has occurred, with CAL implementing the B-urp fares, thereby in effect reducing the cost of FC.

Need advice for SFO-NYC
 

I need to fly SFO-NYC leaving on Sunday night in about a month. I checked upgrade availability and found nothing on CO or UA nonstop flights to EWR/JFK (I'm willing to use miles to UG - not EUA).

I am a CO plat, and usually fly CO in such cases due to the slight chance of EUA. However, in this case, if I assume that my UG chances on CO are slim to none, does it make more sense to book the UA PS flight? I can also waitlist myself for a UA upgrade using UA miles (although I have no status with UA). My logic is that if I assume UG doesn't clear on both carriers, UA is a better choice as I will get to sit in UA Economy Plus. Does that make sense?

Thoughts?

I think there's a copayment for using UA miles to upgrade on UA as a non-elite -- 100 dollars or more.

If the flight you want has an exit row avail in advance, CO will give you more room than Economy Plus. I'd suggest using your CO miles to waitlist. You'll have airport waitlist priority ahead of most complimentary upgrades so your slim chance is somewhat less slim. And if it doesn't clear no miles are deducted.

IME (LAX-EWR), the only real chance of an upgrade is a Y- or B-up, and, occasionally, M-up, on some evening and red-eye flights.

Not sure they'd let it clear with miles if they're not letting Y's upgrade automatically.

I agree on this - exit row on CO is way, way better than any coach seat UA offers between SFO and JFK. If you can buy into E+ on SFO-EWR (often a 319/320, which are fantastic aircraft in E+), however, that would be a good choice. I'd probably pick CO if I could get an exit row; UA to EWR with an E+ buy up if not.

Why would a M-up be any more of an occasion than a B-up? They draw upgrades to ZE from the same fare bucket.

Thanks for the feedback. I was able to get an exit row on CO. I will follow up with the outcome of the upgrade request after my flight.

My usual play for transcon is to waitlist for mileage upgrades on both segments at time of ticketing, then cancel the return request if the outbound clears, or take my chances if I ride in Y on the way out. With all applicable bonuses, a EWR-LAX trip will get me about 11,500 RDM, so a 3500-mile net loss is really worth it to me to secure F on at least one leg if I'm lucky.

I've had reasonably good success with this strategy in the past, and it works for me since I don't do transcons *that* often.