Hi Everyone, I've heard from some of you regarding questions and feedback about our new reward waitlist policy. Specifically, there have been lots of questions about how waitlisted reward upgrades are prioritized versus complimentary Elite upgrades. We've also received some examples of where waitlists weren't automatically transitioned to the upgrade standby list upon check-in.
First, let’s talk about how these upgrade waitlists are prioritized versus complimentary Elite upgrades. There are three common scenarios where Elite upgrades are prioritized ahead of waitlisted rewards.
- Instant Elite Upgrades. Our full-fare Elite upgrades have no capacity controls, and will almost always trump upgrade waitlists outside of 24 hours. The only time it won’t trump a reward waitlist is if the capacity controlled inventory being waitlisted is also available.
- F Class vs. E/EN Class. This is a tough one to explain, and fortunately, the scenarios where this could happen are very limited. At the heart of the matter, we allocate separate inventory for all upgrades (F class) versus front cabin travel rewards (E/EN class). As a result, there are scenarios where we’ll open F class inventory, which also enables complimentary Elite upgrades, but not E/EN class. This doesn’t happen often, but it’s possible.
- EUA within 24 Hours. Currently, our Elite Upgrade Automation (EUA) doesn’t consider waitlisted customers on the day of departure. This is a known issue, and we’re on track to correct this in the next couple months. Fortunately, this only could occur on flight segments that are eligible for Elite upgrades. Our solution for this will involve EUA processing upgrades for customers who had expired reward waitlists.
Second, we've researched a handful of examples of where the expired waitlist wasn't automatically transitioned to the upgrade standby list upon check-in. Thanks to those of you who’ve provided examples. In total, we've found four popular scenarios.
- Waitlist was requested within 24 hours. Any waitlists added within 24 hours will not be recognized and will therefore not be automatically transitioned to the airport upgrade standby list. This is by design.
- Waitlist was for a different flight. We have seen a small handful of examples of where a customer was waitlisted on a flight other than the one that was confirmed. When we automatically transition a waitlist to the airport upgrade standby list, it has to be for the exact flight that was waitlisted.
- Waitlist was for a connecting flight. We found some isolated cases where we weren’t transitioning the customer to the upgrade standby list automatically on connecting itineraries (i.e. the waitlist was on the connecting flight). This was the most popular culprit. A solution to this issue has been developed and was loaded yesterday.
- Trip originated on another airline. Like #3, this isn't an issue in all cases, but we've we found some instances where we're not transitioning the customer to the upgrade standby list automatically when the first flight in the trip is operated by another airline. The solution to this issue is in the works, and should be corrected by the end of the year.
As you can see from above, there are some limited cases where you're going to need to be added to the upgrade standby list manually, and thankfully, there’s
pda.continental.com/info to let you know when. If your expired waitlist doesn’t get automatically transitioned to the airport upgrade standby list upon check-in, please keep these couple points in mind.
- You can’t add yourself to the list over the phone. As much as we’d like to help you, only our check-in applications and airport colleagues have the ability to add you to the airport upgrade standby list.
- Timing isn’t critical.The time you're added to the airport upgrade standby list won't impact your upgrade chances so long as it's done before the flight closes for check-in (which is the earliest we would begin clearing from this list). The only time where getting on the airport upgrade standby list early would matter is in a tie-breaker where there are multiple customers with the same waitlist priority and fare class. Unlike Elite upgrades, the population of reward waitlist customers at the airport is very small, so this scenario will only rarely come up.
Thanks as always for your feedback. Please let me know if you have any questions or issues to report.
Originally Posted by
donnyb
Mrs donnyb & I were mileage award waitlisted on 9/9/08 CO 234 segment since April. Lots of empty seats up front, but never cleared the waitlist. Got an email at the 24 hour mark telling us the waitlist had expired. Tried OLCI at 24 hrs and it would not complete. At this point there were 9 empty FC seats per the PDA site, 1 pax UG'd. Called Elite desk and was told to " give it a few more hours to see if the mileage award waitlist would work". Tried a few hours later, no dice. Went to bed, and early next morning tried again, no dice. PM'ed CO Insider for advice but got no response. Called Elite desk again and they could not check us in, nor clear the hold, which they said was due to the mileage award waitlist not dropping off at the 24 hour mark. Transferred to online help, who could not fix it either. Told us the only way to fix it was to drive to the airport (5 hours away) in person and talk to agent. Called Elite desk to ask about getting a message to the local ANC gate agents, no phone # available for the public. "They go on duty at 2:15pm." We drive there, arrive at 2:15 and explain it all over again to them. They are unable to get us checked in as well, takes them about 10 minutes of fiddling around before they finally are able to print BPs and bag tags. At this point we are 2.5 hours before flight time. Agent tells us she will give the UG issue to (name withheld) and we should come back to the airport at flight time & speak to her at the gate to get our UG. We arrive at the gate 1.5 hrs before flight time and speak to (name withheld) who tells us she "called the Elite desk & asked if waitlisted mileage UG award pax get special priority over EUA's and they said no." She the looked away from me & said there was nothing more she could do. The PDA site showed 7 pax upgraded, and we were never listed. In truth it was more than that, because the (replacement) aircraft we flew had 20 F seats not 16. At the 24 hour mark there were only 6 FC seats occupied per the PDA site, but we never even had a chance at a battlefield UG.
My understanding of Scott's announcement post of May 15 was that we were supposed to have a priority over EUA's, but the Elite desk repeatedly said "not".
My advice to others: Series 0 awards are good only if you find a flight segment combo with immediate availablity on all segments. If not try another combo of segments. Waitlisting can be a frustrating nightmare. And possibly a waste of miles. I will try to get some of our miles refunded.
Hi
donnyb, I know this had to be a frustrating situation, and you're right, with our non-BusinessFirst rewards (i.e. Series 0 and 1) the only way to truly maximize the value of these rewards is to ensure all the front cabin is available on all flights. Otherwise, a partially-upgraded Series 0/1 reward is still considered "used." Unfortunately, in your case, you were originally waitlisted on an Anchorage-Houston nonstop that was later schedule-changed to a connection via Seattle, only to then have your upgrade waitlist partially clear.
To address this situation, we'll follow up behind the scenes to ensure our reward waitlist standby policy continues to be circulated, including some of the exceptions noted in my post above. We'll also be refunding some of the miles you redeemed for this trip, considering you probably wouldn't have redeemed miles for this upgrade had you known your nonstop was going to turn into two flights and a potential partial upgrade. Thanks for your patience, and for bringing this example to our attention.