abefroman329

Hi all -

I'm planning to fly US DCA-LAS at the end of the month and just read up on Try Preferred - seems like a decent deal to buy Silver when a) you factor in baggage fees and b) I'd be pretty close to the required 7500 miles by the time I get back.

However, I'd mostly be doing it to secure the upgrade - are upgrades hard to come by on this route for Silvers?

Thanks!

aaflyer757

To the "Sausage King of Chicago"
If you plan on flying at least 7 times this year (30$ a bag RT) it is definitely worth it in my opinion. Not only do you have the chance to get upgrades, but at least you can book exit rows. I have had good success on a PIT to LAS route on getting silver upgrades (Not sure fore you at DCA). I have always been told it is hard to get upgraded on transcon as silver.

abefroman329

Thanks for the advice - 7x a year seems unlikely now that they've done away with the DCA-ATL nonstop, but it could happen. Just seemed like $200 was a lot cheaper than $60 in bag fees and two GoFares UGs.

SouthsideJAX

It is harder to get upgraded on any kind of hub-to-hub route. Although DCA is actually considered a focus city, it does produce a fair amount of elite-heavy flights. When I was a Silver in 2007, I almost never got an upgrade on routes like PHL-CLT, CLT-PHX, PHL-LAS, etc. Public perception is that it is now getting easier, due to the heavy defections by US DM members.

Here is what I used to do to increase my odds of getting an upgrade. Determine you route, and start performing some dummy bookings on the same route using today's date. Look at the different flights, to see which ones have no availability in F. When you find some that do, view the seats, and see how many preferred seats are open in Y, and see how many seats are open in F. You can always do some similar checks at seatcounter.com, but I find that the US website is the best to actually evaluate what seats would be available on that route.

You can actually watch the elite member get upgraded, as CP's go at 7 days, Plat's at 4, Gold's at 3, and Silver's at 2 days before the flight. You can actually see the seats in the preferred rows empty, like the exit rows, as the members get upgraded.

You should see that certain flight times get more elite traveler traffic than others on the same route. You may not have complete flexibility, but if you can adjust you itinerary, you can increase your odds of scoring an upgrade.

One thing to consider is the tie breaking format used by US. If you purchase Silver, you will be at the bottom of the pecking order, when it comes to upgrades. If there are 5 Silver members for two F seats, the two members with the highest BIS miles for this year get the seats. If you purchase Silver, you will have 0 BIS miles, putting you at the bottom. It doesn't mean you won't get one, but you really need to find the flights that don't usually draw the heavy elite traffic.

The other good thing about being a Silver is that you board in Zone 2, which lets you get on the plane before the overhead bins fill up.

Captain Flush

What day of the week are you flying? My upgrade percentage as a BIS Silver flying to LAS out of DCA was about 50%, but I only flew that route on Friday nights and can't speak to other nights of the week. US used to have an evening nonstop IAD-LAS, which bled off some of the traffic from DCA, but things got a bit tighter on DCA-LAS when the IAD flight disappeared. (By comparison, I never missed an upgrade on IAD-LAS, regardless of which day of the week I was traveling . . . .)

abefroman329

It would be out on Thursday night and back on Monday night.

Was the IAD-LAS nonstop on US or HP?

Danairbus

It was on HP.

Captain Flush

Yep. It was originally a HP flight and stuck around for a while after the merger. Always West equipment and West crews, just like the DCA-LAS nonstops I've taken.

(OP--if it matters to you, all the flights I'm referring to in terms of my upgrade percentage were post-merger. Was never an HP flier pre-merger.)

abefroman329

It's a shame that flight had to go away - along with the LAS-BWI redeye I took back in 2005...

Did HP fly DCA-PHX nonstop pre-merger? The DCA-LAS flight has always been US, correct?

Thanks - I took the plunge this morning, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'm planning to check 2 bags each way, so I'm already $80 towards paying the fee.

Just have to keep an eye out for a MR to get the ~3500 more miles I'll need to keep Silver.

P.S. Any chance US is going to bring back the DCA-ATL nonstop?

aztimm

HP flew both LASDCA and PHXDCA. HP had to negotiate an exemption to the distance rule for both of these.

Mrp Alert

Star Alliancelists both LAS & DCA as hub cities, but they both are now focus cities

FWIW, LAS-DCA-LAS is no longer a westie flight. It is now run by the east side of the house.