richinaz

Thanks. That is what I thought was true but with airlines you never know.

samgvb

I called the CP Line and was upgraded about 20 hours prior to the flight and on that call, initally they said no seats were available, nice operator put me on hold for quite some time and she came back on the line and said she begged to get one released. During the actual flight, Envoy was less that 50% full.

This process is broken.

Biggie Fries

Glad you got a desirable resolution; but, yes, it does sound like a system gone wrong; and does make one (well, me at least) wonder about the advantages of buying up to CP (since these upgrades strike me as the easiest to calculate benefit per dollar spent on the purchase of additional status).

Anyhow, I appreciate the updates.

apeortdz

I had a similar experience in August where the flight was the next day and there were plenty of Envoy seats open. I wanted to use my CP cert and, although it got done, it was not as easy as it should have been at that point.

FlyProf

Should this become the norm, it calls into question the value of the CP Certificates. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for this benefit. However, it would be nice if the process was a little less uncertain and dependent upon who you get on the phone.

Does anyone think it is the case they would prefer people to pay the $500 GoUpgrade (or whatever it is called for international) than release the seats for CP Certificate upgrades, or are they the same award bucket?

apeortdz

I don't really know what would be fair to all concerned. It would be great to be able to put your reservation on a waiting list immediately after the booking to use the certs but I am not sure if that is the best approach. In the long run, I have never not been able to use both of my certs but it truly comes down to the wire anymore. I look for low envoy availablility every day and call in about once a month and it still ends up being a week or less prior to flight when I can upgrade.

dvanrip

Not sure if this is true, but I was told by a CP Angel a few days ago that e-Cert upgrades are booked in J and GoEnvoy is from the O bucket (which didn’t really make sense to me as that is the First Domestic upgrade bucket, but that's what I was told).

Agreed, I’ve never not (sorry for double neg) been able to use the eCerts but they are definitely getting very stingy (ie - upgrade for my flight tonight just became available this morning).

As for the process, there has to be a better way, but any way they 'fix' it will annoy someone, of course. Simply luck of the draw as to when you call, or who your agent is (and whether s/he is willing to call inventory control, and whether they'll open one or two) is a bit frustrating. But then again, if I'm willing to call 5x per day to make sure I get the upgrade, shouldn't I? Or should it be based on current year miles flown, ticket fare purchased, who booked first or who requested an upgrade first? Again, either way, someone is going to not be happy about it.

laclac01

I booked some flights to Dub, 75% of the seats are still unbooked according to the agent but I'm not allowed to use my upgrade certs yet, other than calling and asking how can I tell when they open up?

kudzu

Some say that looking for Low award availability on website is a good indicator. There's an ongoing discussion in this thread.

ACC2008

I am a CP and am trying to use these two certificates for us to travel to GIG. Flight clearly shows space both on outbound and return (at least 9 seats open in Biz).

When I tried to upgrade using my certificates was told no seats available right now but please call tomorrow to see if inventory has opened any seats. I have been calling every day for the past 14 days.

What happened to customer service? Why can' they put me on the waitlist - just like they do for Domestic? No one knows!

Does anyone know who to get an upgrade using these besides 'calling CHPR desk every day?'

Thanks

apeortdz

How soon is your flight to Rio? It seems that Envoy seats open up very near the flight date anymore. There is not much else you can do but keep checking(*) and wait it out. I know it is frustrating as we all have been there many times.

What do you mean "Why can't they put me on the waitlist - just like they do for Domestic?" When do they do this for domestic?

(*) Either call the CP desk or check online for Low availability.

Superguy

Hey all,

I'm a noob to US, looking at moving over after some of UA's changes. If I were to attain CP, but don't have a companion travel (a lot will be business going solo), are those certs pretty much useless, or can they be exchanged for something (miles, etc)?

Thanks,

Super

geo1005

The CP Companion certs have to be used by someone flying with you - so yes, they are pretty worthless if you don't use them for that purpose (can't exchange them for miles, etc)

Superguy

That sucks. Thanks for the answer though.

geo1005

It does. Personally, instead of two CP Upgrades and two Companion Upgrades, I'd rather have four CP Upgrades that could be used with a companion if desired.