Upgrade Priority - Miles or EUA?
 

As a Plat, I was upgraded at 5-day window. I called CO to upgrade my wife with miles. She was waitlisted as no reward upgrades available at that time. Now we're at the 3-day mark. Assuming CO releases seats, will Golds clear before mileage upgrades or Mileage upgrades clear before Golds? I would assume the latter as Continental might as well get miles, but didn't see this question in the FAQ. Also, do mileage upgrades come from the same bucket as EUAs?


Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) to
Seattle, WA (SEA)
Thu., Apr 30, 2009 at 7:14 PM
Boeing 737-900

Capacity: 20
Booked: 14
Checked In: 0

This information will change frequently.
This page was last refreshed Tue., Apr 28, 2009 5:49 AM Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) local time

Customers Upgraded into First Class:
CHA, M. 5B
EHL, D. 3F
GAU, M. 2A
MCC, S. 5F
MOF, A. 4F
ODD, N. 1F
RII, W. 1A
STA, D. 1B
STA, L. 4A
STO, D. 4E

Upgrade Standby List*:
No customers currently standing by

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Miles come first, but they will not show on that standby list until they are checked in.

Yes, they all come from the R bucket. If you do an advanced search on co.com and select 'one pass reward upgrade' you can query the R bucket. If your desired flight comes up in First when you do this, upgrades are available.

As your wife is waitlisted, she should immediately clear if a seat becomes available. She doesn't have to wait for the EUA to run.

Like sbm12 said, she will be added to the standby list at check-in if she doesn't clear in advance. She will be prioritized as a Plat on a mileage upgrade (assuming the miles came from your account).

doesnt it pay to CX the miles upgrade if its not cleared by the time they get to teh airport and that the OP puts her down as his companion?

That's probably not a bad idea, but it does lessen the chances of the OP's wife getting the upgrade as she will be prioritized behind all Plats.

That being said, I don't even know if you can cancel a mileage upgrade after the T+24 point, now that they add waitlists to the airport standby list. Can anyone confirm this?

Depends. She'll drop in the list to behind any other pending miles upgrades and all platinums on the list. That is a gamble that some may consider worthwhile.

Considered doing the same thing for the return trip. I burned miles for both of us so that we have a slightly better chance of sleeping on the return (red-eye). We both cleared already. Not sure if they would allow me to cancel and be added back to EUA list (would be wise not to) as it looks like space is still available.

At this point, it's a moot point as I'm not willing to take the risk (aka face the wrath of my wife) if we were not sitting together on our weekend date!

Based on there only being 6 seats not booked at this point and Gold and Silver still need to clear, I don't think that will be an option, but I like the way you're thinking!

Hi Wilco_FT, in the period before expiration, the reward upgrade waitlist will automatically clear before any complimentary Elite upgrades. However, after the reward waitlist expires at 24 hours before itinerary departure, there's a very good chance it'll be trumped by subsequent Elite Upgrade Automation (EUA) runs. Of course, this would only happen if you're on a flight that's eligible for complimentary Elite upgrades.

Even though formerly-waitlisted customers are prioritized ahead of complimentary Elite upgrades on the airport upgrade standby list, this list isn't used until the closing minutes before flight departure. EUA, on the other hand, is simply referring to the list of eligible Elite members in heirarchy order, and in its scheduled runs (which occur up until 3 hours before departure), there's a good chance it'll fill up the front cabin or come close to it.

We're working on a solution that'll address this discrepancy, which involves expanding our EUA to include upgrades for customers who had expired reward waitlists. We had originally hoped to have this sooner, but I can at least confirm it's in development.

So, for example, if I am using my Gold miles to waitlist a non-elite, at T+24, the waitlist expires and they have no chance of getting an upgrade at the T+24 or T+3 EUA runs.

So in theory, a non-elite waitlisting with Gold miles could appear above a Plat on a L fare on the PDA standby list after checkin, but that Plat might get upgraded ahead of them at T+24 or T+3. After the final EUA run, the non-elite would be prioritized ahead of the Plat?

For now, TommyC80, that is correct.

Ok, one more...

If I waitlist myself with miles, and I get an EUA at T+24 or T+3, do I get my miles back? :D

That's a tough one, TommyC80. I wouldn't chance it. If this a concern to you, I'd recommend redepositing your unused upgrade reward once your waitlist expires and leave EUA to do its bit.

Thanks, as always, for your insight in to the inner workings. I can understand why Continental would want to get this "discrepancy" fixed! As a customer, this is a big gap and will be a point of frustration. Hopefully, the reward inventory will open up prior to the 24 hour mark (now less than 1 day away in my case).
Again, thanks for the insight.

Looking increasingly likely that I will fall victim to this software gap. It's 1.5 hours until the 24 hour mark where my mileage upgrade will lose priority unless battlefield upgrades happen. Bummer.