I’ve got a bad condition. I call it upgrade phobia. While I don’t fear upgrades themselves, I fear missing them and I stress out over them even when I know I’ll probably get the upgrade in the end.
While I hate sweating out something as inconsequential as an upgrade, I do. I lose sleep when I see myself on the waitlist and find myself checking the status of my upgrade on my phone or computer every hour, like a crack addict needing a fix. At this stage in my mileage running career, I have not reached the point where I don’t care either way if I get the upgrade or not. I’m still enamored by the plush seat, higher service levels, and a meal.
Today my routing was relatively simple: Philadelphia to Santa Ana via Houston on Continental. I waited anxiously all week for my upgrades to clear and thought I would have no trouble upgrading on a Friday morning 5:40a flight to IAH on a 737-800 with 16 first class seats.
As the week went on, however, my upgrades did not clear and the number of first class seats for sale continued to dwindle. Yesterday, I received an e-mail notification that my IAH-SNA upgrade cleared, but I saw that the PHL-IAH flight was now zeroed out and I still in economy.
I actually stressed about the upgrade all day yesterday, even though the flight was lightly filled in the back and I had an exit row to myself with more legroom than first class (and CO still serves food in the back so it wasn’t even like I was going to even miss breakfast).
First class checked in full and I dropped to number two on the upgrade list this morning. I was one of the last to board and noticed that a seat in first class remained unoccupied. Turns out there was one no-show and a FA came back to fetch the passenger on top of the waitlist, who happened to be sitting in front of me. He also had an exit row to himself (row 20 with no recline) and declined the upgrade. She glanced down at her manifest, looked at me, and signaled for me to move up to first class. I gladly grabbed my bags and moved up.
Breakfast was great and I appreciated the free DirecTV, but I must say I admire the passenger who declined the first class seat.
To recap my condition, I have not yet reached the point of maturity where I can decline an upgrade when I have a row to myself (i.e. a better seat). Even more fundamentally, I have not reached the point of maturity where I don’t stress about a waitlisted upgrade. There’s something about the allure of first class that still draws me, even though after years of flying I know that domestic first class isn’t all that its cracked up to be.
One of these days, I am going to stop losing sleep over upgrades and maybe even turn one down when I’ve got more room to work and more room to stretch my legs behind the curtain. But I’m not there yet.
But perhaps I made some progress this morning. Turns out I have business near LAX this evening so I gave up my upgrade on the IAH-SNA flight in order to fly into LAX instead (I thought a post about using public transportation to get from SNA to LAX would be interesting, but just couldn’t stomach a four hour journey on three busses, the Metrolink, and the LA Metro Green Line). Now, though, instead of being happy that I’ll have an exit row seat with an open middle, a free lunch, a plug to power my laptop, and DirecTV, I am again stressing about whether there will be any no-shows in first class:
Anyone else dealing with a similar phobia? Maybe we should form a support group…
The day you pass on an upgrade, is the day you’re off the podcast. 😉
I’ve got a near terminal case of upgrade phobia. As a 1P, upgrades are possible, but it always seems to be down to the wire. On Wednesday I missed both IAD-TPA and TPA-IAD on a 320 and 319 respectively. The kicker: I was #1 on the list each time when F checked in full.
Worse are my upcoming international trips. I’ve got IAD-LHR-IAD next week on a super expensive M-fare thats been waitlisted using sponsored SWUs for several months. The outbound has a chance of clearing, but the return almost definitly not. I’ve also got an upcoming V-class SFO-SYD that is WLed as well.
I must check these iteneraries 10x a day on the .bomb….
Matthew-
Upgrades are a little harder on CO aren’t they? I’ve noticed that – like being a Platinum on an H fare and ending up 23rd on the waitlist after everyone clears EWR-SFO. Most of mine clear though and on CO sometimes even when I’ve given up and boarded they’ve called me up to the front over the PA.
I do stress over the upgrades if I’m on a schedule that doesn’t allow me to get a meal somewhere. Where I’m different though is that once I am fairly sure it won’t clear I’m able to quickly make peace with it and be content in my bulkhead or exit row Y seat.
Regarding breakfast on CO – I was on a 700 mile flight on CO the other day and was served an F breakfast consisting of (large) hot croissant, yogurt (not in disposable container), and a bowl of fruit that was edible. They als came around with cinamon rolls which I just can’t pass up. They announced that in Y they would be handing out muffins – isn’t that what UA serves in FIRST on a 700 mile flight. Ugg!
I really hope CO catering replaces UA catering after the merger!
My IAH-LAX upgrade never cleared…
HunterSFO – the “new” UA breakfast on ~700 miles flights is either 1)omlette, potatoes, sausage, or 2)cereal, banana, pastry, yogurt. I’ve been enjoying it on LGA-ORD-LGA lately. FINALLY giving CO a decent run for its money.
@UA-NYC: I have been very pleased with UA’s breakfasts lately. Nice improvement, though I miss the fruit plates on the 600-mile PHL-ORD-PHL flights.
@HunterSFO: Upgrades are definitely harder on CO! I’m glad you stop worrying about it once you’re sure it won’t clear. I actually can’t complain about the flight from IAH-LAX yesterday. Exit row with copious amounts of legroom, power, direcTV, and a decent chicken enchilada with chips, carrots, and a piece of chocolate for lunch. The enchilada was so good I had seconds!
@smashr: Oh, I don’t envy you right now! I’d really be sweating if upgrades to Europe or Sydney were waitlisted with C filling up fast.
I think I have to agree, Matthew. Case in point, earlier in the year pre-UDU, I was totally content on my 21J seat on a UA domestic 763 SFO-IAD redeye, just wanted to sleep anyway. But, sitting at the gate, seeing how many people there were on the waitlist for 7 first class seats remaining, I decided to “test” the system to see where this 1K would fall on a L-fare. I was #5 out of 20+, and it cleared and I switched to first.
I would have been just fine without it, but my addiction got the best of me again.
@UA-NYC – (from United.com)
Flights between one and two hours in length (a distance of 220 to 759 miles)
United First passengers are offered … Warm muffins are offered on flights departing during breakfast hours
I believe I said “700” miles, not “760 or more” miles. I do, concede however that on a VERY small number of flights less than 800 miles (the very upper limit of “~700” in my book,) the next step up in meals is served on UA.
however on such flights (shorthaul-midcon) with CO you would get a hot egg dish – ( eg omelette with “real” cheese sauteed mushrooms on the side), yogurt (not in disposable plastic container), potato/cheese/vegetable casserole, LARGE THICK slice of grilled Ham, Sausage patty, cinamon roll, fruit plate, and CLOTH tray liner and REAL salt and pepper shakers.
So I still say UA is on NO WAY giving CO a “decent run for its money.” Unless by “decent run for its money” you mean “pitiful, cheap presentation of much lower quality food in a stingy portion size”.
My experience is that to UA, “potatoes” means literally 3 bite-size morsels – even on p.s. and “sausage” means one tiny pathetic link. I also find that usually UA omelettes have no filling or have a fake pasturized processed cheese food product in them. And I’ve had a LOT of UA breakfasts – even post “improvement” which I will concede is a big improvement over before on some routes – ie warm muffin better than NOTHING.
@Darren
Are the dancing girls in F more of a distraction then an overweight pax in 21K? Why is sleeping in economy more relaxing than sleeping in first?
@Matthew
Where is that screenshot from? How can one access it?
@Michael. Ha! Actually, dancing girls in F would be an incredibly annoying distraction for me, but that’s another topic. 21J on United’s domestic 767 is an exit row with more leg room than first class. While it is narrower (not by a huge amount), I’m a tall & skinny thing, and can sleep very well in that seat. The recline isn’t as great, but I’d rather have the legroom
Also, I believe UA now prohibits anyone needing a seat belt extender from sitting in the exit rows, so an averagely overweight person probably would be fine in that row.
Good comments, though. If I were on a different airplane, first class would likely be better than economy.
@Michael: The screenshot is from Continental’s flight status page. It has a handy realtime upgrade waitlist–hopefully the post-merger UA will keep this technology.
Enter your flight number, then click on the “ugprade” tab.
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/travel/flightStatus/default.aspx
I never thought I was upgrade-phobic… until this weekend… I’m flying CO EWR-TPA-EWR on Tues/Weds and as a Plat, have been 100% on upgrades all year. Due to CO’s new buy up policies… the upgardes are no longer coming at the 5 day mark – but a couple of hours before T-24. I was email watching ALL weekend… waiting for that “you’ve been upgraded” email – which didn’t come until this morning. Return leg upgrade still to go. This email watching made me think of this blog post 🙂
Thanks for your blogs – I enjoy them greatly
@MaximusNJ: Welcome to the “upgrade phobia” club! Thanks for your comments.
@Matthew –
Don’t forget you can also see the upgrade list on your phone! Just go to the mobile site in your phone browser, it will ask for your flight number and date, and thev show you the upgrade and standby lists as well as in-flight amenities, aircraft type, and where the inboud aircraft is coming from. This is handy while sitting in the lounge or a restaurant eating waiting for your flight if you don’t want to bother dragging out the laptop.
go to http://pda.continental.com on your phone
click flight information and status
enter your fright # and pick date from drop down
choose from:
View flight status
view seat map
View flight standby list
View upgrade standby list
view inflight amenities
click go
remember both the Pc and Phone versions of the ugrade and standby lists are only going to show your name once the check-in window (24 hours before departure) has opened – so dont freak out if you look 3 days before and dont see your name.
@Hunter: Thanks–I will take advantage of that!
Man, I’ve got a bad case of the upgrade phobia tonight.
All over CO’s cheesy potatoes and cinnamon rolls. 🙁