The screenshot below was grabbed four hours prior to departure on Monday. Guess who didn’t get the ugprade?
If you gussed me, you guessed correctly.
Unfortunately, I still suffer from upgrade phobia and was quite angry when I was offered the upgrade for $99 upon check-on while my upgrade was still wailisted. Although I cannot blame Continental for seeking ancillary revenue, it still rubs me the wrong way when upgrades are hawked for so cheap (though still not cheap enough for me to buy one) to anyone willing to put down the money. It seems that on Continental, loayalty is based primarily on the question of, “What have you done for me lately?” Thankfully, UA is not hawking upgrades in a similar manner–yet.
But I share some of the blame too–I neglected to transfer my status to Continental to gain Platinum status. That may have made the difference.
It was only a four hour flight and I had more legroom in the economy bulkhead row than I would have had in first class, but I still hate to miss out on upgrades–my first missed one of the year.
I’m confused by why 1Ks would status match to CO. Yes you get a better upgrade chance, but then don’t you have to credit your EQM/EQS to CO? What if they’re slow in converging the systems and you’re short of 1K requalification at the end of the year?
I must be missing something…
Marcus: See Nick’s explanation below.
Essentially they run a regular sweep among accounts that have your STATUS linked, and combine the totals to award you the appropriate status based on your combined flying. This is quite useful, as any UA flyer should now credit ALL US Airways activity to CO, since CO gives 500 mile minimums to elites flying US while UA is only miles flown.
Interesting.. many thanks! I’ll have to try this.