first class seats
 

Who thinks it will become harder to upgrade under HPAirways? I noticed that barring the 757's gaining seats and the A-319 staying the same every other plane in the USfleet would loose seats in F. I dont see how this oculd be a good thing for us Elite flyers. IS there a silver lining im missing? Is it very common for HP silvers to get upgrades? I was batting 80% as a silver and the flights I didnt get it on I could have been on any other flight that day and would have gotten it including a non-stop. Im gold now so I expect that to be even better but thats assuming some of the US configurations are kept.

Come on, it's merger or liquidation. There isn't a future with the "good old days at US" in it.

Yes. My mom is HP Silver and gets upgraded frequently on her OAK-PHX flights.

How that will change after the merger, I don't know.

I think that will be depend entirely on the percentage of first class seats that are sold. It appears US has not been particularly successful at selling first class upgrades. HP has -- they make millions doing it. If the percentage of sold seats is pretty low, expect a reconfiguration pretty quickly. If HP thinks there is a good chance of selling a large percentage of them via the discounting program, the Y- or H-up fares or the day-of-departure upgrades that they've had success with, they might keep them.

Based upon HP's very consistent philosophy over the past 2 years, I would not expect them to preserve those first class seats for elite upgrades if they believe the flights will achieve a higher yield by replacing them with economy seats. They very much make decisions on that basis -- not the basis of whether elite members will like what they do.

HP Silver Batting About 75%
 

I've been an HP Silver for a couple of years and I bat about 75%. I've found that day of week, destination and flight time all play a role.

For instance, I fly HP 3 (PHX-ORD) about once a month. I've never been upgraded on that flight. I also fly HP 5 (PHX-ORD), a slightly later flight, about once every couple months and have always been upgraded.

I've found that Saturdays and Wednesdays are great upgrade days, while Sundays, Mondays and Fridays are just not going to happen for me. As a byproduct, I try and schedule my business trips so that I can travel at times when an upgrade is more likely.

I've also found that upgrades are very likely on flights that depart after the magic 8pm window. Although there's no food service on these late flights, there also seem to be less folks paying for first, which sure ups the chances for an upgrade.

The one thing that scares me is all the new elites coming into the system. Especially UA elites on the ORD-PHX and ORD-LAS flights that I seem to be on so often, since I'm guessing they'll have *alliance rights now on these flights and because ORD is lousy with them. :(

Any idea how big an impact they are?

I am both HP Silver and US Silver. I'm close to 100% on US, with the few exceptions of a Monday or Tuesday morning CLT-DCA or PHL-DCA where there are even some Chairman's that get turned down. HP is closer to 75%, possibly because most HP aircraft have less F seats than their US counterparts (not including the 757s, of course). I've missed BWI-PHX and IAD-LAS before, but I've been successful on DCA-PHX a few times.