CP: I don't know what you are talking about on USAirways. I've boarded flights and then have had agents take me from coach and bring me into first several times and I still see this practice relatively often.

I witnessed a passenger moved from coach to first last night on a Delta flight. The gate agent brought the final paper work on the aircraft, then came back to coach and escorted the passenger to first class.
Normally when I see this on Delta, it is employees who are being moved to first class.

I've had it happen a few times while flying on CO. I have spent a lot of time on other airlines waiting at the gate for my name to be called for an upgrade; when it didn't come through, boarded and got to check luggage I normally would have had to put in the overhead compartment.

Not related, but I have had pretty good luck getting confirmed upgrades on CO prior to boarding, both as a gold and as a platinum. I used to wait in the boarding area to see if the upgrade was going to clear at least 1/3 of the time; now, almost never.

On a DFW-CLE flight on CO, I was waitlisted and took my seat in coach. Shortly thereafter, my seatmates arrived. I believe they were going to audition for "Beavis & Butthead join a fraternity".

A few minutes later, salvation appeared in the form of the smiling Gate Agent.


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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

DG1-
I was talking to my favorite TPA US Airways Club rep about this. Their official policy is that we don't have to get you once you get on. Often on pretty full flights that load right up to departure time, the agents won't go all the way to the back and move someone up. If everyone boards and there still is some time, the agents will, but that is not policy, as they don't want to get FFs mad if the flight is ready to go so the agent can't move the guy up. I too have been moved up plenty of times. Another tatic is to show the FA your CP card, if there is a First seat and you couldn't get upgraded, and she/he will probably say go right up!

CP

US Airways SDF-PHL My wife,myself and my one year old son flying. I was flying on a discounted ticket but called seven days in advance to upgrade - they told me no availability. No problem as I checked ITN and saw there were still FC seats available. Got to the gate and there was one FC seat left. Showed my CP card and asked for the seat, the gate agent told me they couldn't realease the seat until 45 minutes before the flight but if I boarded I lost the rights to the seat CP or not - however I was first on the wait list. My wife (non elite) boarded and I decided to wait in the boarding area with a very anxious one year old while they boarded everybody figuring at worst I would just switch with my wife once the doors closed. Sat there for a while and was kind of stunned to see the doors to the plane closing. I screamed at the agent to see what was happening but he told me the plane was preparing to leave. I told him I was waiting for my upgrade confirmation but he told me "Oh no we sold the last FC seat 1/2 hour ago". No announcement made to the lounge that all wait listed FC passengers should go ahead and board. I let US Airways have it with my fury and all I got back was a form letter saying "Sorry we will talk to our gate agents" If that is how they treat CP, I would not want to be non elite!

[This message has been edited by PSU Lion (edited 10-28-1999).]

I have seen it both ways on Delta. However, I remain in the gate area, because I don't trust someone to go that extra mile.

I'm Infinite Platinum on CO and Chairman's Preferred on US. Normal procedure on US, if the front is booked full, is to list standby's and board them in coach. After the flight is closed the agent comes on and, over the PA, calls up to the front anyone who has cleared F/C. Continental, I find is a little murky. I have personally witnessed "grafting" going on, and in fact, there has been quite a contoversy over this at West Palm, with people having been upgraded out of sequence. Let's face it....at the end of the day, the gate agent is King. Based on personal experience, I'm satisfied US plays it straight.

I understand if a flight is running late the agent will sometimes not come on to move people up. But honestly the simpler way that most US gate agents do is tell the FA's on the flight and they ask for the person to ring their flight attendant call button.

Then they move up with the one FA's help. This way the other FA's can close up the doors, etc.

PSU Lion: Terrible experience, sorry to hear it. I assume you wrote to USAirways Customer Affairs? The two times I've wrote them I've gotten what I asked for -- did you ask for something specific?

I asked for compensation in the form of vouchers and was told they didn't think this situation warranted them. I took my business to Air France and Continental out of Newark for a while after this but found the two + hour drive each way to the airport a little much after three to four trips so I put my tail between my legs and returned to the fold.

Years ago, I received a post-boarding upgrade on United -- and the agent forgot to take my certs. Oops!

Within the last year, sympathetic AA agents have come to my seat on two occasions and moved me to the front. One time they had told me to watch for it (and the stickers were taken from my upgrade account) -- the other was a complete surprise.

Now that I think of it, on the day of the surprise upgrade, I had been waylayed with a delayed flight that was to get me home well after midnight -- probably didn't hurt that I asked for cab fare (which I was told they couldn't provide).

I'm Preferred on US Airways. My experience has been that the agent will add me to the waitlist and tell me to board. Then, if I clear for First, the agent will come back and move me up. I've never had a problem with doing things this way, except one time when the agent specifically told me not to board, and another time when the agent didn't actually add me to the list, even though she said she would. Ha! From the sounds of it, though, it's not always safe to board and expect the upgrade if room opens up. Maybe I'll start to "play it safe" and wait at the gate.

I used to live in a small town served by TW Express (CMI) and traveled on TWA quite a bit, connecting in STL. I was red card, so I could call 72 hours in advance and confirm an upgrade seat by phone. I checked in for my entire outbound in CMI and about 80% of the time, the gate agent would "forget" to take my upgrade certs. Now they did know me there... I don't know if they were really forgetting, or they were conveniently "forgetting" :-).

Once I made the mistake of "checking in" again in the Amb club in STL during a layover and the agent had a conniption about my next boarding pass not having upgrade certs. She said that she was going to report CMI... I was worried, but the practice didn't change :-).

Last week, I asked for an upgrade on checkin, was placed on the upgrade list, then later told that there were no upgrade seats left. Oh well...I was one of the last people to board the flight. Just as I was getting comfortable, the flight attendant came to me and asked if I was asking for an upgrade. I said yes and he said "Come with me" and I was escorted to business class. They did not take my coupons.

OK I can't resist one more story.

A few weeks ago we were flying SEA-ORD on a UA 757 and my wife and I were in 8DE. Pretty decent seats, so I wasn't so upset when we were at spots 3 & 4 on the upgrade list (1P isn't so much ) and didn't get called for upgrades.

We were sitting there and they were actling like they were going to close the door. The purser and FAs were standing around in front of us and the guy in 9A started saying "there's still a seat in FC! They told me that it was full! You have to let me have that seat!" The purser did not like his bad attitude and stepped out to talk to the gate agent outside. She came back in and I blithely mentioned that we were probably ahead of him on the list (since 1&2 on the list were given seats... someone else hadn't shown up yet). She latched onto that and told him that others were head of him and went out to talk to the agent. It turned out that the last FC passenger was just taking his sweet time getting there and FC filled up but it just goes to show you: a bad attitude is NOT the way to get an operational upgrade.