Yield Management / Upgrade Questions

[dukeman]

I posted this earlier today on FlyerTalk, but so far have received no answers. Perhaps someone over here might know better?

Question for the experts out there especially from the HP side. I have an itin for next week on which all segments upgraded at the 7-day window. No complaints there! While I have seen others complain about not upgrading and the huge holdbacks for revenue, my experience is different. All of my flights on this itin are on HP metal (all 320's). I was surprised when my first segment cleared, Expert Flyer showed F4 but 6 of 12 seats were already full. I know seatmaps aren't always an indicator, but I assumed that with F already 1/2 full I would not clear. It cleared. Now fast forward a few days to my return. The first segment had a seatmap that was wide open and Expert Flyer showed F4, no surprise that it cleared. My second segment PHX-PHL was showing F4 and the seatmap only had 4 empties last night. I figured no way would I clear. Woke up this morning and of course no upgrade notification....not that I was expecting one. Logged into my account and lo and behold I cleared into F. Expert Flyer still shows F4 but there are now only 2 empties on the seatmap. The CP desk says there are only 2 revenue seats! I'm certainly not complaining, but I would have thought for a hub route they would have held back a few more seats. Here are the questions:

1. Does Expert Flyer only show either F4 or F0? I don't recall ever seeing F3 or F2 for HP flights, although quite honestly I haven't watched too many HP flights.

2. Will HP oversell F or are they perhaps blocking seats? (As an interesting aside when my upgrade cleared last week I tried to switch seats on the US site to row 1 which Expert Flyer showed open but the US site had row 1 blocked. A call to the CP desk got me moved to row 1, so US can block some seats that Expert Flyer can't see).

3. On the new US they use mileage within status to determine who gets the upgrade. Do they use trailing 12 months activity? Current year-to-date activity? Or something different?

 

[US1YFARE]

3. On the new US they use mileage within status to determine who gets the upgrade. Do they use trailing 12 months activity? Current year-to-date activity? Or something different?

that's not entirely true. that is true for HP flights. my understanding is it is based on miles flown last year. on US metal, it is still done based on check-in time. This is at least what was recently (within the last 1 1/2 weeks) by someone on the CP desk--although those people are becoming more and more unreliable.

I can't speak to the upgrade issue because most of my tickets are YUP's, A fares, or B/Y fares that allow me to upgrade immediately. It does seem that HP holds back a few more seats for purchase or perhaps last minute CP upgrades than the old US did.

 

[PHL]

that's not entirely true. that is true for HP flights. my understanding is it is based on miles flown last year. on US metal, it is still done based on check-in time.

Let me understand this - if I earned CP with exactly 100,000 miles last year and another guy earned it with 105,000 - is HE going to get bumped up on the standby list ahead of me EVEN if I checked in before him (on HP metal)??

This wreaks. For the membership year, a CP is a CP is a CP. He/She earned the status for the current year. Period.

 

[FCYTravis]

Let me understand this - if I earned CP with exactly 100,000 miles last year and another guy earned it with 105,000 - is HE going to get bumped up on the standby list ahead of me EVEN if I checked in before him (on HP metal)??

No. The gate standby list is still based on check-in time. However, the priority order for automated upgrades at the elite upgrade windows is based on elite level first, then miles flown, I believe rolling year-to-date. So a Platinum with 89,000 miles flown would be bumped up ahead of a Platinum with 78,000 miles.

This wreaks. For the membership year, a CP is a CP is a CP. He/She earned the status for the current year. Period.

I completely disagree. Those who fly more should be given the benefits of flying more. I'm a Platinum with 78,393 miles flown this year - if I lose an F-cabin seat to a Platinum who's flown 95,000 miles, how can I possibly complain? That person flew way more than I did and deserves to reap that benefit before I do.

It's certainly a lot more fair than things as arbitrary as the "who can Web-check-in exactly 23:59 before the flight" game, or the date/time you got added to the upgrade list.

 

[USCREW]

I completely disagree. Those who fly more should be given the benefits of flying more. I'm a Platinum with 78,393 miles flown this year - if I lose an F-cabin seat to a Platinum who's flown 95,000 miles, how can I possibly complain? That person flew way more than I did and deserves to reap that benefit before I do.

It's certainly a lot more fair than things as arbitrary as the "who can Web-check-in exactly 23:59 before the flight" game, or the date/time you got added to the upgrade list.

This sounds similar to the employee's discussion of seniority versus first-come/first-serve.