New Silver, Upgrade Questions
 

Hi,
I just qualified for Silver last month for the first time. I have an upcoming flight to PVR on 12/31. From the seatmap, C+ and F are completely empty, and the regular preferred seating is nearly empty as well..
What are the rules for upgrades? My reservation says - NOT COMPLIMENTARY UPGRADE ELIGIBLE.
It's a main cabin (X) and (L) fare flight, and I have 3 companions on the same reservation. I was able to select preferred seating for us. Why does it say not complimentary upgrade eligible? Is it because PVR is Mexico instead of US? Will I be able to get C+ or F at the appropriate window assuming availability exists?

Ben

You can only upgrade one companion. If you have more than one companion on your reservation, the system will not process any upgrades which is why it is saying it is not complimentary upgrade eligible. You will need to split the reservation in two if you want to be eligible to upgrade with one companion. However, if you split the reservation, the other companions may lose their preferred seats. The above issue with the system showing routes with J/C/D/I/Z fare classes as being ineligible only occurs when searching for flights and does not relate to your issue which is due to having more than one companion on your reservation.

You are actually not eligible for upgrades if you are on a PNR with 3 other individuals. Only you and one traveling companion in the same reservation are eligible. You could split the PNR which might help but honestly as an FO your odds of an upgrade are extremely unlikely.

I suspect that the upgrade odds depend greatly on the time of day for the PVR flight, presumably from LAX???

OP could keep all four on the same PNR for now, but split it later if it looks like there's a decent chance for one or two upgrades. Or the OP could decide to split it now, when there still might be some decent nonpreferred seats available for the other two or three people.The latter strategy should get an earlier upgrade request time, which is the ultimate tiebreaker.

Speaking as a Silver, it is not as impossible as I might have thought. I'm 5 for 16 on upgrades to F on domestic mainline flights in 2017, but granted I stack the deck in my favor by often flying on Saturday afternoons or evenings when all those Diamond-level management consultant types are home enjoying their half-day off for the week. And on another couple of flights, I've "missed" by only one or two spots (and on one of those occasions, I had a row of 3 seats all to myself, and it was on a red eye, so it was actually a blessing).

With 3 companions, if I can't upgrade to F, will I be able upgrade to C+? Or are none of the upgrades processed with 3 companions?

Yes, It's the 10:35am LAX to PVR on 12/31. It appears very lightly booked.
Seatmap shows 26 available regular E seats, Our seats are the only occupied preferred seats, Only 4 C+ seats are occupied, and Only 2 F seats are occupied.

The return trip is a different story, and is almost completely full. I don't hope for any upgrades coming home.

10B and 10C are blocked - so only 2 C+ seats occupied. I'd bet that you + 1 companion get the upgrade if you split the reservation. And if there are empty F seats after all upgrades are processed, you may be able to ask at the gate in LAX and have the other companions moved to C+ or even F (had a similar situation PUJ-DTW last year).

As a FO, you are entitled to carry.....oh, wait. Never mind.

If I were you, don't ever expect an upgrade domestically, so when it doesn't happen (I'm often still in economy as diamond). So the rare time it happens for a SM, you'll be thrilled. Expected, you'll be disappointed lots.

Internationally, no one gets upgraded without paying for it, certificates that only DM gets, or if they severely run out of economy seats and have business seats open, which is not very common anymore either.

New Silver, Upgrade Questions...

Unfortunately, the only upgrade question for a Silver is "What is an upgrade?"

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...perienced.html

Well as a PM who on the last 4 legs this past 2 weeks ended up on the list as the following don’t expect the upgrade to happen.

number 1 of 29 with 3 F seats (ended up being #1 on the upgrade list too and got it at the end. Trust me I was surprised not one DM was on my weekday afternoon business heavy (normally) flight

23 out of 78 for 0 F seats

11 out of 49 for 0 F seats

19 out of 47 with 0 F seats

I'm a whopping 0/33 as an FO this year. I don't think Gold is much better so not doing a MR for the 4500 MQMs I need to make Gold - Id rather carry over to next year in case it's a light travel year.

FO is only worth more seats to pick from and a free checked bag. (well 2 if you have the DL amex)

And I've tried flying early morning every day of the weekdays, sunday morning, sunday late night, late nights on the weekdays etc. The only upgrade I've gotten is if I bought it.

It's hard to get an upgrade as a diamond these days.