United MileagePlus (Consolidated) - What happens when R=1 and I have 2 RPUs on waitlist?

Just my luck that 2 RPUs for attaining 75k were credited the same night that United turned off "Expert" mode fare bucket availability.

I tried to upgrade a p.s. reservation and discovered that R=1 for my particular flight. I bit the bullet, and committed my 2 RPUs for Mrs. Transportprof and my own upgrades, thinking that I could confirm her seat in J and wait for mine to become available (or not). No such luck.

I'm now waitlisted for both seats upgrading, while R=1 on this flight. I've verified this by using the 'upgrade with miles' work-around on a dummy booking for the same itinerary. There is one R seat still showing available, AFTER I burned 2 RPUs to upgrade on the same flight.

Anyone have experience with such a situation? Is it worth trying to call in to the 1k line and get one seat upgraded from the R inventory, or would this be beyond SHARES capability?

If R inventory is added one seat at a time, there could be plenty of upgrades that would 'jump' my 2 RPUs in the queue and I'd never get to upgrade.

Any advice from seasoned 1K or GS who care to take a break from howling about the disappearance of fare bucket availability would be appreciated.

I think this is the same with CPU. If you want to upgrade 1 at a time, I think you'll need to split the PNR. You can't have pax in different cabins on the same reservation.

I don't think this would be any different PMUA - same issue with pax in different cabins with Apollo.

I got an incredibly helpful agent at the Premier Services line, Doug in SLC. He not only successfully split the rez, but since I had a through fare HNL-JFK (with an overnight stop in SFO) he was able to upgrade the HNL-SFO flight on the same RPU! It took over an hour to complete this change, but that's what speakerphones are for.

Now Mrs. Transportprof is in F and C all the way to JFK (using the one R space now available on the ps flight), we're both in F from HNL - SFO, and I'm on the WL for C on the ps flight to JFK. If IM releases one more R seat on that flight between now and Christmas day, I'm in (as UA says in their cc ads).

Doug ended our call by saying that he really enjoyed giving customers more than they expected when taking Premium line calls. His attitude represents the best of United, and will be exactly what they need to propagate if the slide in performance is to be turned around.

I got an incredibly helpful agent at the Premier Services line, Doug in SLC. He not only successfully split the rez, but since I had a through fare HNL-JFK (with an overnight stop in SFO) he was able to upgrade the HNL-SFO flight on the same RPU! It took over an hour to complete this change, but that's what speakerphones are for.

Now Mrs. Transportprof is in F and C all the way to JFK (using the one R space now available on the ps flight), we're both in F from HNL - SFO, and I'm on the WL for C on the ps flight to JFK. If IM releases one more R seat on that flight between now and Christmas day, I'm in (as UA says in their cc ads).

Doug ended our call by saying that he really enjoyed giving customers more than they expected when taking Premium line calls. His attitude represents the best of United, and will be exactly what they need to propagate if the slide in performance is to be turned around.

Usually a phone call can solve a lot of things. And even better if you get a really good agent. While we might be upset at a lot of things UA is doing and at the behavior of a lot of UA employees; there are still a lot of them whethere ground staff, HQ or in the air, that do an outstanding job and go above and beyond to make sure the customer is satisfied.

Doug ended our call by saying that he really enjoyed giving customers more than they expected when taking Premium line calls. His attitude represents the best of United, and will be exactly what they need to propagate if the slide in performance is to be turned around.

You should write a brief letter to United and let them know what a positive experience you had. Doug's job is one of those "thankless" types and I'm sure his supervisor would love to hear something good.