colonius

As a 1K:

6/6 on SWUs (2 of these were "two oceans" upgrades from Europe to Australia, clearing all the way)
2/2 on CR-1s

Close to 100% on UDU, just missing two upgrades this year. Home base is variably SEA/YVR/YYJ.

avidflyer

Just a sore arse

ben-y

As a 1PMM, flying on lots of cheap fares bought well in advance (one segment this year was at Y, and it's only because it was because of a rescheduled VDB):

Since I'm flying from LGA, it means my choices for the first leg are IAD (RJs, with no F), DEN, or ORD (some RJs, mostly A3xx).

Ignoring the RJs, I'm 1/20 on ORD (instrument-supported, not UDU), and would have been 1/8 on DEN (instrument-supported), but the A320 got downguaged to a 319, and I lost my upgrade.

Those routes all all elite-heavy. There are no screens at LGA, so I don't know how far down I would have been on the waitlists.

I'm 4/4 between DEN-RNO, 2/2 between ORD-MCI all on UDU.

MY JFK-LAX/SFO all cleared, but that's not UDU, since those are p.s.

megalab

Last year as a 2P I was 0/12 out of ORD & MKE.
This year I flew 57 BIS segments, 24 UDU-eligible, 6 cleared (25%).

UA 2P = 0/10
UA 1P = 3/7 (43%). 2 were ORD-OKC on CR7's
CO 0P = 3/7 UDU (2 on CO CR7's, MKE-IAH), 2/2 CR1, 1/3 MP upgrades
Y/B/M = 0/4 (that really hurt!)

The CR1's helped my wife and I get to SJU to use our *W FRN's in style. On the way home we did not clear UDU for SJU-IAD, but were pleased to both get UDU IAD-ORD into 767 international C. Now my wife is really spoiled!

Made 1K on my last flight of the year. We'll see how it goes next year. Will need the SWU's to keep wife happy.

zcat18

Update: Now 2/3 since earning 2P!

Upgrade for my ORD-IAH flight tomorrow cleared at OLCI...on CO metal, no less! How did THAT happen?? No complaints, though!

halls120

As a UA 1P/1K in 2011, I had a 62% upgrade success rate.

As a AA 2P equivalent in 2011, I had a 75% upgrade success rate.

smashr

A very good year for me upgrade wise. It's the reason I'll still be flying UA next year despite the current cutbacks. More cuts and/or a major drop to these upgrade percentages will seriously hurt my desire to continue this level of spend (~$17k).

82 Segments
-4 Non UA/CO due to irrops
-12 Single Cabin RJs
-1 Standby to E- to get home ~3 hours earlier

65 Eligible UA/CO segments
63 Upgrades
96.92% Total Upgrade Percentage by Segment

54 UDU/EUA Eligible Segments
52 Upgrades
96.30% UDU/EUA Upgrade Percentage by Segment
Missed: Thursday 5pm BNA-ORD on CR7
Missed: Thursday 5pm ATL-IAD on CR7

6 International Segments (3x IAD-LHR r/t)
6 Upgrades
100% SWU Upgrade Percentage by Segment
April IAD-LHR (M Fare): Cleared 3 weeks out
April LHR-IAD (M Fare): Cleared 3 weeks out
Sept IAD-LHR (H Fare): Cleared 2 hours out
Sept LHR-IAD (H Fare): Cleared 1 hour out
Dec IAD-LHR (Q Fare): Cleared at booking, 2mo out
Dec LHR-IAD (Q Fare): Cleared 1 hour out (one of the last seats)

5 CR1 Segments (3 CR1s … was a new 1K, so no CR1 backlog)
5 Upgrades
100% CR1 Upgrade Percentage by Segment
March LAX-IAD redeye: Cleared 3 weeks out
Sept DCA-IAH-SJC: Cleared at booking, 1.5mo out
Sept SJC-IAH-DCA: Cleared at booking, 1.5mo out

sbm12

How many segments on each? And did you have to purchase additional stickers on the AA side?

Ay Caramba

My closest airport is only serviced by single-cabin aircraft, so a good chunk of my segments aren't even eligible for upgrade.

That said, in 2011, of UDU-possible flights:

UA: (4*/15)
CO: (4/4)
42% overall

*Note: one UDU was made possible only because IRROPS caused about half the plane miss the flight.


I even got UG'd on a US flight once by showing my *A Silver card to the gate agent. That never works, but there were only two other people in F on this particular flight. Five of 8 F seats went out empty.


Since the MP changes were announced, I have switched to US and am already 2 for 3 in the trial elite program. So far, a 25% improvement!

lensman

As a 2P, I'm 4/12 on eligible segments. I eliminated single cabin flights and flights where I upgraded using RDMs.

Segments upgraded:
ORD-DTW E70 mon evening
DTW-EWR E70 tue evening
EWR-FLL 738 sat night
FLL-EWR 738 tue night

Segments not upgraded:
EWR-ORD x2
ORD-EWR
ORD-OKC CR7 x2
OKC-ORD CR7
EWR-IAH
SFO-ORD

All in all, it's much better than I expected. I was thinking my upgrade percentage as a 2P would approach zero. OTOH, my stats are slightly pumped up by the 2 hub-to-hub flights that I upgraded with miles.

I'll be 1P next year so I'd guess that I have a good shot at upgrades on non transcons and non-hub-to-hubs.

UAL1200

I'm 8/22 (36%) on UDU since getting 2P in mid-October. Most of my upgrades were on UX flights, but I did have 2 CO flights that cleared via EUA runs.

Looking at the big picture, 36% is about average. The UDUStats clearing rate for 2P's is 48%, but take into account more elite activity from the CO side it may very well drop.

halls120

Far fewer segments on AA - maybe 25 - but almost all of them were DCA-MIA and DCA-DFW, so it wasn't like I was on routes with few AA elites.

To be fair to UA, AA has more F inventory on their 737 and MD-80's than UA does on their 319 and 320s, and in 2011, I flew a lot of 319/20, thanks to UA moving their larger aircraft off the routes I usually fly.

I did have to purchase additional stickers for most of the AA upgrades, but at $30 each, they are pretty cheap. And at least AA makes the option available to everyone, unlike UA's hit or miss buy-ups in the last 24 hrs of a flight.

I really wish UA would go back to the e500 certs as well. Even as a 1K, I wasn't a fan of UDU when it replaced the previous system.