International Mileage upgrade success rates?
 

Deleted

Mileage upgrades clear at the time of request, so you could check availability when you are booking your ticket. I'm not sure on what the percentage of available seats is. Same day upgardes are also available, but they require a DS0087 certificate or a Chairman's Preferred certificate. These can be found on eBay or through CC. If you have the miles, that is a much easier way to confirm an upgrade. My thoughts are always that the 10K miles are equivalent to what I'll be earning back for taking the flight, so it's a swap of 0.

Deleted

Yes.

Vinnmann: Mileage seats are not always confirmed when requested and I am frequently waitlisted if I book at the last minute. Whether you clear the waitlist depends mostly on your status, but I've gotten cleared 95% of the time in the last 3 years at both the Gold and CP levels. Basically I would say they are pretty good with making them available, but you might have to deal with the uncertainty of being waitlisted and possibly not cleared til the gate. My routes are usually PHL to LGW or CDG. I understand the Italy routes are sometimes more crowded. If you can reach Gold level, which sounds doable with your miles (get the BOA Visa card for 10,000 extra), you should have pretty good luck with upgrading.

KIM

I'm trying to book about 6 months out -- "B" fare + 20K r/t -- PHL-LGW.

When I used to be a CP I didn't worry much, but now I'm just a base member. Can't I confirm at time of booking? If not, what are the chances (given my [lack of] status) of getting it at the gate?

100% of my US TA flights in the past 24 months as US2 have cleared within 48 hours of departure: DEN-PHL-MAN (2), DEN-PHL-CDG (1), DEN-CLT-LGW (3), DEN-PHL-LGW (2), DEN-PHL-FRA (2). They have been at 10,000 and 30,000 levels. This is one of the reasons I keep US -- the intl upgrade and the *G club access in Europe.

Also, the domestic space available upgrades out of DEN are also running at ~85%.

Also hit space available upgrades on my matched status segments on HP from DEN-LAS in July!

Bring on more service for the "other" * carrier in Denver!

BigLar: They will confirm you at time of booking if there are allocated mileage seats available. At 6 months out you should have pretty good luck so booking early would definitely be your best bet. My experience is that if they waitlist you, they may or may not release seats a few days before depending on how full the flight is. They will release seats leading up to the flight based on status, so if you have no status you are probably going to be waitlisted until the gate and frankly you don't have a great chance at that point with no status.

KIM

Deleted

Vinnmann: I'm not realy sure since I don't fly those routes often.....I just know it's hard to book award travel to Italy and from mentions on this board it seems like FC fills up a lot quicker to Italy than the LGW and CDG routes I fly, which are sometimes not full in FC. But I don't really know for sure so I should probably shut up! I do think you have a better upgrade chance as a GP on all the International routes than for domestic transcontinental--seems like you pretty much have to be CP to get those. I think the transatlantic routes defintiely have more leisure travelers so FC doesn't tend to be dominated as much by the business travel CPs.

KIM

Fare Codes for awards & upgrades
 

Domestic Awards:
X: Standard domestic coach award
O: Standard domestic FC award
Y: Premium domestic coach award
F: Premium domestic FC award

International Awards:
X: Standard international coach award
I: Standard international Envoy award
Y: Premium international coach award
J: Premium international Envoy award

Upgrades:
E - Domestic First upgrade from discount fare
P - Domestic upgrade from full fare
R - international upgrade to Envoy

I have flown over 20 transatlantic trips with US Airways. Out of those 20, I paid for F on 3 of them and J in about 7 of them. My upgrade success rate with both restricted and full-fare booking codes has been 100%.

US Airways no longer has an international First Class. Its transatlantic premium class is Envoy Business Class.

I flew PHL-BCN and my wife in Envoy talked me up from coach with the FA.

Coming home VCE-PHL we asked the GA. AFter about 45 minutes of fooling around, he finally came through.

Neither were op-ups for their benefit. In both cases there were many empty Envoy seats.

2 for 2, no pay, no op-up. Unbelievable, in my book.

Deleted