Upgrades after Boarding
 

It seems from what I've heard that on Continental, you can go ahead and preboard with the other Elites, and if their are First Class seats available after everyone gets on, the gate agent will come back and get you, and you can move up front.

On US Airways, if you preboard, you are basically taken off the upgrade waiting list. They only give out upgrades after boarding to those in the gate area. So, if you need to preboard, you're out of luck for an upgrade. If the flight is overbooked, though, they might move you up to free up your coach seat.

What do other airlines do? Which policy do you think is better? The first policy might delay the flight a little, but might be safe if the gate agent is sure not to hold up the flight.

What do you think?

CP

Continental's policy is superb, both in theory and in practice!!! They really seem to adhere to it, at least they have with me on numerous occasions. It is so much more convenient to pre-board with the elites knowing that if I am entitled to a seat up front, it will be protected. America West seems to follow the same fine policy, also.

I have never noticed that their policy slows down the push at the gate. I actually feel it can expedite it. When persons hover around the gate area waiting for possible upgrades that don't materalize, then board in coach at the last possible moment, usually with carry-ons and no bin space available, they seem to slow down departures!

By the way, Monday evening at a gate in Newark I observed a CO agent informing a passenger (a CO pilot) that no first was available for the EWR-LAX flight and offering him a choice of jump, several center seats or one window seat toward the rear of the 757. He chose the window seat. A few minutes later the same agent paged another passenger (a wait listed for upgrade, Platinum elite) and informed him that he had a seat up front. Now that's integrity!!!

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

This has happened to me only once on NW in ANC. The gate agent who had initially refused my request for 1st due to a sold out situation, came and rescued me from 2 very obnoxious seatmates. She asked if I was still interested in moving "up front". No one had to twist my arm, and you should have seen the expressions on those **** passengers' faces. It was a Kodak moment for sure!

United...nope. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif You gotsta wait at the gate while all the overheads fill up.

I love it when the F/A comes into the back with my new F/C boarding Pass on Continental. I have seen employees moved to the back to accomodate elites on several occasions.

Premex:

It's never happened to me on United, but I saw it happen to 4 other pax a couple weeks ago on a ORD-OAK 757. After we were all on and boarding was completed the gate agent went back and got 4 pax out of coach and moved them up to first. I assume they had been on the wait list.

I watched this wondering if the upgrades were freebies. Certainly appeared so, as the agent seated the pax, turned and headed for the door. Just shy of the door she stopped and suddenly returned. She realized she had forgotten to collect the upgrade coupons http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Nope, no freebie tonight ... she stood there and waited while each of the pax dug for their coupons.


Robert Johnson
danville 1K

I've been upgraded by Continental several times after boarding. This does seem to expedite the boarding process. It lets the elites board, and get access to the overhead bins, and lets the gate people take care of the standby's and checkin. All this without,
6 people crowding around the gate agent, waiting for an upgrade.

It's a very customer friendly and civil approach.

I have had this happen several times on CO. What I suggest is that if you are waitlisted and told to board in coach, using your elite status (obviously) get on first and place your bags in the bins just behind FC, this way if you are upgraded (which usually happens), when getting off your bags are close by!

Well....one time, I watched on UA as a flight attendant was upgraded after she was seated in coach (hey, you ASKED) http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Not on Canadian Airlines...it's clearly stated on the upgrade stickers. Once onboard, cannot be used.

The only exception is when the flight is overbook, they'll caome in and find someone for an operational upgrade to J class in order to accomodate the overbooked pax.

Regards,
Empress

I don't know what the official policy is with DL, but I have seen them come and get people from coach after they boarded, but I personally don't trust all gate agents to do this so I wait at the gate.

Beckles, I'm not sure DL has an official policy. I've seen it both ways over the past 3 years. Had a gate agent in SLC tell me "You must wait in the gate area. We will not come onboard to get you, we're just too busy to do that."

Then had an agent at DFW come get me from my bulkhead seat about 5 minutes before pushback
& move me upfront.

AA is like United, etc. You need to hover or loose your seat, generally. Once, I removed myself from the list, boarded, and then was called, but it was due to a pleasant agent, not the airline.

I've been plucked out of coach and put in business on a couple of occasions on UA. It has always been a case of economy being oversold.

Normally on UA at IAD, The gate agent will announce about 20 minutes prior that passengers X and Y should remain in the boarding area, and all others should take their seats. The final upgrades are done 10 mins prior to flight.

A few weeks ago, I had the gate agent tell me to board. When the FC pax didn't show up by departure time, she came to get me in the back, and offered me a seat up front. I got to the front, gave her my certs, and as she urned to depart, ran smack into the fellow someone else had let on board, coming for my seat. She apologized, stating that he should not have been allowed to board, and returned my coupons to me. Of course, when I reurned to the back, I had to throw a guy out of my isle seat (empty middle - the young lady in the window was cute too). http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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

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.


------------------
"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. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif) 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.

DL upgraded my after I boarded 4 times in 1996, but I haven't had to worry about it since. I too, wonder if they still do it. They must, because I will occassionally hear "Will PAX XYZ please come to the first class and bring your belongings with you?"