dashark

I'm trying to figure out how the 24-hour check-in and upgrade rules affect the chance of scoring a gate upgrade on a connecting flight.

In searching this forum, there is a general concensus that NW is still doing gate upgrades with the following priorities:

1) Elite status level (Plat, Gold, Silver and then Companion)
2) Within a status level, based on check-in time

So some folks claim you should OLCI right at the 24 hour mark to be first on the upgrade list.

That logic works if you are flying from a remote airport to a NW hub. However, what about the second leg (hub to destination) or worse yet, what if you are not connecting and flying straight from MSP or DTW to your destination?

For example, if you are taking flight 165 from MSP to SEA, you can check in at 9:38pm CDT the night before. However, if you're flying from ORD to SEA through MSP, you can check in at 6:49pm CDT, almost 3 hours ahead of anyone flying from MSP. If you're flying from BOS to SEA, you can check in at 6:04pm EDT, 4:34 ahead of anyone from MSP. Finally, if you're flying MCO to SEA, you can check in at 5:18pm EDT, 5:20 ahead of anyone from MSP.

Does anyone know if this is, in fact, the way the process works? If so, those who fly in to MSP from the furthest point or have the longest layover (and check in reasonably close to the 24-hour mark) will always be the highest on the list and those who fly non-stop from MSP will rarely make the top of the upgrade list.

themicah

An elite with a connecting flight who does OLCI at the 24hr mark will almost certainly be higher on the battlefield waitlist than the elite who originates at the hub.

That said, I think the odds are extremely low that this issue would matter to the hub-originating elite. Remember, checkin time only matters when (1) two elites at the SAME status level haven't been upgraded yet, AND (2) only one seat is left when it comes time for the GA to choose between them.

The odds that you will be one of those two elites are already fairly small. And the odds are much, much smaller that the other elite will BOTH (1) be on a connecting itinerary, AND (2) have checked in before your 24 hour window began.

There simply aren't that many people out there who are as religious about checking in at the 24hr mark as the average FT member.

SchmutzigMSP

People generally like short connections. So, if you're originating from a hub, load up the timetable software and find a flight that doesn't seem to work very well for the connections you're concerned about. And don't book yourself on a flight that was "direct" from outstation-outstation.

That general approach seems to work for me as a hub flyer.

stephem

I just met one! Just had a redeye flight last week where the guy sitting next to me in F on the outbound SEA-DTW leg of a connecting flight was, like me, coming back at the end of the day via the DTW-SEA flight. We both mentioned how we had not gotten advanced EUA's for that leg. He said he checked in 23:59 in advance, I had done it about 23:40. At the end of the day he was in F, and with only one seat left I had to settle for my 1000 points and an exit row. When waiting for my flight in the Boston Worldclub I inquired with an agent who looked at me curiously, saying, "wow, you and somebody else really checked in early, he beat you out for the last seat by 20 minutes w/ OLCI."

dashark

I concur that this is probably more common than some might think. Some of my co-workers (who know nothing about Flyertalk), specifically mention checking in right at the 24-hour mark to get to the top of the upgrade list.

This hasn't been an issue for me since early spring (I've been EUA'd all summer). At that time, I wasn't using OLCI until the morning of my flight. I'd arrive in DTW or MSP and find myself the 10th or 12th Plat on the list with only 2 seats available for my connecting flight to SEA.

mellowg

Now does OLCI in this case mean completing the check-in process on-line or just saying yes to the complimentary upgrades and being put on a waitlist?

Because after OLCI processes upgrades and says they put you on the waiting list if first isn't available, you can CANCEL OLCI and do it later.

Sorry for the poor wording...

Mateo4321

Friday I checked in 23:59 for a flight SFO-MSP, didn't clear...

When the agent called for elites to board, about 20% of the plane boarded.


Tomorrow I fly YUL-DTW-SFO, and I checked in about 23:20 before my 1st leg, I cleared for the YUL-DTW seg, lets see about DTW-SFO tomorrow...

stephem

I was meticulous this week, getting the OLCI at 23:59 with my wife as a Plat companion on the same record for our return this morning. We had been EUA'd 6 1/2 days out for the outbound SEA-DTW-BOS and for the first of our return BOS-MSP 6:15am this morning, but were still waiting on the MSP-SEA leg. Since I was on the east coast yesterday, I figured getting OLCI around 6:16am would be easy and potent. Sure enough, went into the WC in Boston this morning, and we were #1 and #2, but they wouldnt move us up until we got to MSP (I've had WC agents break this rule for me alone, but not with a companion). We got to MSP and were still #1 and #2 and they had new BP's with our F seats ready when we approached the podium. There were a number of other folks waiting for battlefield UG's, some I am presuming who were stepping on at MSP and thus were only able to OLCI hours after we had (and were thus much lower on the list).

My wife is only a Silver, so in addition to validating the 23:59 OLCI practice, this seems to have verified that a companion on the same record as a Plat effectively gets Plat status for battlefield upgrades if the Plat+Companion do not get EUA'd at 5+ days. I have seen people here suggest that the companion drags the Plat down for all battlefields. This may be the case where the companion and Plat are not on the same record, but where a Plat+companion traveling on the same record make it on the waitlist due to missing an advanced EUA, they will both appear to have Plat status.

SpinzCity

>>>>>There simply aren't that many people out there who are as religious about checking in at the 24hr mark as the average FT member...

I'm amazed at all the FTers who talk about checking in at 23:59 prior to the flight. I'm finding that if I start checking in at 24:01 prior (e.g., if a flight is leaving at 8am, I have the boxes filled in and click to start check-in the moment the computer hits 7:59am the previous day--this has worked at home, at work, and at every Kinkos computer I've used). I hope that TSA doesn't crack down on the extra minute now that I've posted this--but perhaps they don't read FT either!

WAIT! FORGET I EVER TOLD YOU!!!

Mill Creek Don

FWIW....Mrs. MCD and I have a flight from SEA-MSP tomorrow morning. No EUA (though it's P3), so we were up with the chickens for the OLCI. The system said that we weren't able to check-in online and needed to see an agent (perhaps due to the number of segments on this trip). Drat!! Anyhow, after an hour or so, I got the idea to call the elite line and see if I could be put on the upgrade waiting list by the agent, since I couldn't check in. According to her, we were both already on the list (separate PNR's), though she wouldn't tell me where on the list we stood.

Wondering....does EUA put you on the list automatically or did we get put on the list due to the incompleted OLCI attempt?? I'll try to find out what the time stamp on our position is at SEA in the morning, and report back.

HeathrowGuy

Checking in early can actually work *against* you - through means/for reasons unknown, the OLCI system seems to be fairly liberal in giving out upgrades when checking in less than 12 hours or before the flight, even when a phone agent tells me one minute earlier that no Elite upgrade inventory is available.

I realized this on a recent itinerary. When I checked in at the 24 hr. mark, I was placed on the standby list. I needed to be unchecked by phone support in order to change my Coach seat assignment (the agent also verified that no upgrade space was avail.), and when I tried to check in again, I was then UPGRADED by the computer on the spot (I'm a Silver).

mnredfox

Anyone else have this happen or was this a fluke?

themicah

I had it happen twice in early 2004 as a silver (after the introduction of the R bucket for EUA), except that I didn't go through the uncheck-in process like HeathrowGuy. Instead, I just aborted OLCI on my first try, and came back and tried again a number of hours later and scored instant upgrades. See my various posts in this thread for further analysis:

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=401226

That thread is inconclusive as to whether my instant upgrades jumped the waitlist queue or not. I still don't know the answer, nor do I know if anything has changed in NW's programming/procedures.