gsorob

I give the BE seat to my wife and stay in coach with the kids

DL2SXM

Or, you can split the time in BE between you and your wife. She takes the first half of the flight in BE then switch, you take the 2nd half of the flight in BE

localady

And if you see that the flight looks pretty (or totally full) in coach, DO NOT order a special meal in coach. I almost missed an op-up because of doing just that... I knew that the flight was over-booked and didn't even think a thing about it. When I got to Gatwick, they told me that I hadn't been upgraded because of the special meal. As it turned out they still had one seat left in BE and gave me it. I had LAST choice of meals in BE, but I didn't care.

FlytheTail

Indeed. On most of the TPACs I've been on this past year, BE is filled with NW/DL employees just before boarding. Several times I've overheard NW/DL employees asking about "how things look" at the gate for the upgrade.

Again, NW/DL does not give free upgrades on transoceanic flights unless coach is oversold. Seats in the BE cabin go empty all the time regardless of how many DMs, PMs, etc are in coach.

In my experience, the odds of an op-up are higher around the holidays because the planes are often full and fewer people are traveling on a company's dime so fewer BE seats are occupied. Also, if a segment shows J9 C9 I9 Z9 Y9 B0 M0 etc. then likely coach is already full or oversold but they're willing to sell full-fare economy seats and allow op-ups and/or offer at-airport or check-in upgrades for cash and/or ask for volunteers to take a different flight. When I see J9 C9 I9 Z9 Y0 etc., I interpret that to mean the plane is already booked to capacity or oversold and op-ups (especially for employees) and/or cash-for-upgrades are probable.

mot29

When NW was running the phantom program I had a conversation with an FA when I had gotten one of the upgrades. She explained that NW employees had gotten a message from management explaining that there was this new phantom upgrade program to take care of the best flyers and that it would likely mean fewer upgrades for employees traveling internationally. This FA was pretty cool about it -- she indicated that she felt that NW should take care of its best customers.
We'll see if the phantom program comes back as the DL folks said it would at the ATL discussions.

CarmenOM

Last May I flew SEA-AMS-MAD on low fare coach tickets. At the gate in Seattle I asked about the possibility for an upgrade and promptly received one. There did not seem to be any organized process of upgrading elites; if I had not asked I doubt that I would have been upgraded, despite lots of empty BE seats. On the return flight I asked the KL staff in AMS and was told I was welcome to an upgrade for $600. (Not bad really, but more than I was willing to pay)

This past December I flew SEA-AMS-CDG, same type of ticket, BE looking less than half full, was told in SEA there were no complimentary upgrades. Those seats flew empty. I didn't bother to ask before the return flight from AMS.

It seems pretty random.

number21

Thank you doglover. In trying to upgrade into FC on an TPAC flight with Delta (and a low cost T class fare) your only chance is when the flight is oversold in coach and a lot of FC seats left up front. Does anyone use this strategy in trying to secure upgrades at flight booking time? How well does it work?

No kidding on the inflation of M fares. It seems like not to long ago there were Ms to NRT in the $1,200 to $1,500 range. Not anymore.

StefanNYC

Not necessarily. This past summer, my family and I (PM + FO + general member) were traveling on the same PNR on AF; we all got upgraded. A pleasant surprise, needless to say
Although, I assume this would be an exception rather than the rule. (I vaguely remember the GA finding our names in a rather long list; if that was the UG list, this means the flight must have been oversold by quite a bit.)

tentseller

When NW was NW the empty WBC(BE) seats were given out by Status at the gate to fill them up. This happened regularly up until June 09. Due to my high PE status I flew many time in WBC even on a K ticket.

The two flights after that date I was in row 35 (NW744) and saw empty seats in WBC after DL took full control over the TPAC operation. Other PE(PM) flyers in the same row also shared the same experience since July 1,09.

avidflyer

Well almost. The program was for up to 5 plats per flight (they would fly any other seats empty) and there were qualifiers and tie breakers by fare. I too had the benefit of 3 "Phantom upgrades" and it was great. This is a simple way to keep your best customers happy for very little cost. They limited it to 5, the program was not "official" or published anywhere so there could be no expectation that you would get it..just happiness when you did, and it would never sway somebody from paying for BE as it was a total roll of the dice. DL could learn something from that compromise around INT upgrade/PMU dissatisfaction.

FlytheTail

Yeah, but that was then and this is now. That unpublished NW upgrade program ran for less than a year and was viewed as a "last hurrah" for NW to thank their most frequent flyers. Boy was it sweet. For more: Phantum upgrades

MSPeconomist

I observed some interesting TPAC "upgrades" on MSP-NRT-MSP around the holidays.

On my outbound flight a few days before Christmas, BE had been more than half empty according to seatcounter and the seating maps, but it was suddenly filled with passengers who appeared to be foreign graduate students; coach looked closer to being full but there certainly were some empty coach seats. Thus, coach passengers shouldn't have been moved up due to overbooking and, if so, it should have been based on status and fare. There may have been misconnects due to weather, but I don't think very many on the day I was flying, and in that case priority should again have been based on elite status and fare. I noticed at least one BE seat assignment happening during the boarding process, just as the documents of the passenger in front of me were scanned at the gate on the breezeway side, as opposed to the person being called to the podium for a seat. At takeoff and landing, the plane--or at least the forward BE cabin--looked like an overseas carrier with lots of carry-on luggage not properly stowed and especially a number of briefcases behind passengers' legs.

On the return after Christmas, again BE was supposed to be about half empty and this time it remained so. I had an empty seat next to me until a passenger was brought up from coach by a FA right after the doors were closed. (I had thought that this was alsolutely strictly against the rules.) The person wasn't a nonrev; the FA said she should sit in the seat next to me because the additional passenger was the FA's friend. (I don't know why this seat was selected and I had the inconvenience to move then in order to get an empty seat next to me again.) We chatted a bit and it was clear that the person didn't fly very much and certainly wasn't elite. At the end of the flight, the FA (who didn't work in our section) gave the friend a bottle of wine to go. Since DL is so opposed to paying coach passengers riding in BE except for clearly delineated circumstances such as using miles/SWUs in advance on Y/B/M fares, I'm very tempted to report the FA. From a strict ethical perspective, this looks like theft of goods and services by an employee. I don't know whether the purser was aware of the "upgrade" but I assume that the purser did not observe the gift of wine, which came from a different section with instructions to hide it.

In addition, I noticed that an unaccompanied minor without elite status was informally upgraded to BE. Isn't this also against the rules?

tentseller

Yup, It was good while it lasted.

SpinzCity

>>>>>>When traveling with the family internationally, all on the same PNR, I, a PM, have wondered whether I would be overlooked for the oversold upgrade because of the other members (all general members) present in the PNR. Is this true?

After three straight phantom upgrades MSP-AMS this past year, my latest December MSP-AMS flight was zeroed out in Y, and still was showing a bunch of empty C seats. When elite boarding started a man literally pushed past and told his wife and teen daughter, "follow me". His boarding pass gave a rapid beep, and he was told he had been upgraded. He then offered his spot to his wife - - but it turns out all three were upgraded, and the GA passed over a handful of boarding passes she had cranked out just before elite boarding had started.

They were shocked (and delighted)! The daughter said, "Now I'm DEFINITELY staying up tonight". I was next to board, and slithered off to 29A.

mnredfox

Recent Non op-up experience was they cleared PE's based upon not just highest fare class, but actual paid $$. I saw the GA had names scribbled on paper with the exact fare amount paid written next to it.

NW metal TATL.