Chairman's Preferred TATL upgrades

[InternationalShannon]

Oh hello!!!

My fiancee (hee hee) is Chairman's and we got these Upgrade E Certificates that I thought didnt' really exist when I worked in the crack house, but I guess they do. So when we called to book the trip in July returning from London to Charlotte, they wouldn't let us use the certificates and said that we could use them the day of departure or the day before.

We thought you could use them at booking but now , has that changed too? The lady put us on hold and said she needed to talk to inventory and came back and said "no you can't use them now"

WHAT????!!!?? What do you mean inventory says NO!! I have freakin inventory on speed dial still.....do you know how hard it is to not call my self? LOL.....

Anyway, so with these things , how do you actually successfully get into Envoy. We're only doing one way because we're getting there on Queen Mary 2. So it's not like I can have my friends in the crackhouse fiddle dee dee with it. Not that they would. They're honest workers who are constantly under the thread of the blade.

We used to laugh at the chairmen when they said they were on some list.

So does a list exist or not? Does anyone actually use these successfully?

And most importantly, who is going to bring this one home for me. Who is going to be my Upgrade Ninja?

Enquiring minds want to know. (Inventory..psstt...call me *wink wink*)

 

[SS255]

The CP upgrade certs can be confirmed at the time of booking provided there is open inventory. The way to check open inventory is to go onto usairways.com and start to make an award travel booking. If Envoy Saver awards are available, then you should be able to confirm the upgrades. You cannot waitlist in advance for these upgrades. The only "list" of which I am aware is the airport list.

CP's have been posting on Flyertalk that US is getting stingier with opening up the inventory so far in advance. Their success rate for getting into Envoy has been quite good, but it's usually about 2-3 weeks out.

If I were you, I would continue to monitor the seat maps, and to check for Envoy Saver mileage awards. And have your fiance call the CP line every day to inquire. Maybe somebody at US who is in a position to make your day will reach out to you and offer some assistance.

 

[phlwookie]

One other strategy - if I haven't booked it yet, I usually call the Chairman's line and ask the agents to tell me what dates they can be applied to. They're usually able to quote dates pretty quickly.

Westbound from London will be hard though in July. There's a lot of traffic at that time of year, and I've had trouble buying a business class ticket close in at times during years past during certain days of the week. Being willing to do LHR-PHL-CLT might give you a slightly better shot than LGW-CLT simply because it's a second option, plus you should get the new Envoy Suite on the A330-200 on LHR-PHL, but I honestly think inventory will be pretty tight on both routes - even with 2 BA LHR-PHL flights there's no shortage of traffic on US to London. Shame LGW-PHL isn't around anymore - it ran in addition to LHR-PHL for a short while, and it was a nice backup and not normally full, plus it was a nice way to avoid LHR. But that's also why it isn't around anymore - there are better uses for the 757 that used to fly it.