So late last night I checked out my upcoming flight EWR BOM on Sat. The fare codes indicated "8" for the higher fare b/f fares. The "status" page showed 13 free seats in b/f. This morning. None. Is it possible that CO sold 13 b/f fares to BOM 3 days before the flight, or do they, for some reason, zero out the b/f cabin. My upgrade was looking pretty certain, and now, not so much.
Right now, 5/19's UA 48 is showing J9 C6. Looks pretty full, and business travelers often book last minute, so it may fill up. Seatmap has 12 open seats at the moment up front. All fare classes: J9 C6 D0 Z0 P0 Y2 B2 M2 E1 U0 H0 Q0V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N0
Revenue Management will do whatever it takes to protect the revenue integrity of the BusinessFirst cabin, that having been said I did check for you and you can come up with a logical conclusion as to why they would zero out the BF cabin.
Doubtful. Most airlines would rather sell a very expensive ticket and pay VDB/IDB to others. However, in the past, I've seen airlines zero out premium cabins in an attempt to sell more full Y fares, assuming that some passengers will pay full Y but cannot buy a premium cabin ticket. They count on doing upgrades to get the additional seats in coach.
Honestly, I must have seen a revenue management effort. It was "booked full" now, as noted above, not so much. Odd. Wonder what program was supposed to run when I was looking at fare buckets.
Of course they cleared GPUs since Economy is still overbooked, looks like they cleared 7 Waitlisted Upgrades.
