mgcsinc

There is a new tracking site for tracking upgrade successes and failures, currently in beta testing but already pulling in live data.

The current (live data) version is here: http://www.diditclear.com
The beta version is here: http://beta.diditclear.com

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This thread grew out separate efforts by diditclear and mgcsinc to revive the udustats.com tool described in this thread, which people could use to submit information about their successes and failures obtaining different types of upgrades. That site is no longer actively maintained/updated, and there were many mentions in other threads about how it was useful, so each of us had the idea to try to reincarnate it.

Diditclear's technical skills and hard work led to the tool that is being developed now, and he is currently the primary developer working on the project.

Contributors are very welcome! The repo is https://github.com/diditclear/diditclear.com.

FortFun

As someone on record as liking the original effort, I'd heartily support a reboot.

flyingmusicianlax

The same!

jchiguy1

Absolutely a good idea.

SFflyer123

The problem with the last website was compliance. You simply needed people to contribute to the site. Once people stopped, it didn't work. Moreover, if only a certain segment contributed, it was not useful. You created a selection bias.

The key to this site is that *everybody* need to be included. You need a way to capture all the data, not just data from people who have the time, energy, and willingness to enter it, in order to make it accurate & useful.

villox

While I agree that compliance would be a problem, there are a couple other suggestions I have if you're going to go forward:

- When did the upgrade clear (T-120-96, T-96 to 48, T-48 to 24, T-24, at Gate)
- If not cleared, where were you on the upgrade list (not essential)
- If offered buy-up, what was the dollar amount.

Make as much optional as possible to still be useful.

It's too bad there's no tripit-like way to have people forward - like if they actually receive the premier upgrade notification.

Maybe you could write a greasemonkey script that would allow one-click submission to the site that captures basic flight information from united.com - click here if upgraded for example and then it prompts for the remaining info as suggested.

bocastephen

The simpler the process, the more compliant people will be about sharing data - making them access/open/update a spreadsheet won't work well, but if you created a very simple front-end form hosted from the site that allowed a user to add data to preset fields and submit, and that form updated the spreadsheet, you might have a better shot at collecting more data.

cordelli

While the site is a great idea, when I went to check on a flight from Bradley to someplace (don't remember where) months and months into it, there were no entries at all.

If you are basing your data off what the passengers are entering, you will never get enough people to take the time to put in the data to get meaningful results.

drewguy

Totally support the idea.

Short of tapping into UA's system to pull the stats, any log is going to require user participation, and of course may create skews.

On the other hand, hasn't Flyertalk shown that people will post endless amounts of information with little direct benefit to them?

mduell

Another useful stat to collect would be if you were downgraded back to your original cabin.

alexperi

I also think it's a good idea. Would potentially be a more user-friendly database than ploughing through the upgrade success/failure threads here.

mkasperzak

Why not just try and re-energize use of UDUstats? Its already there and has somewhat of a user base.

RockinRon

I would participate but only if it is fast and easy. It would be interesting to see the data points.

flyingmusicianlax

Just tried filling out the form for a test. Everything looks great, could maybe use less spacing to make scrolling less necessary.

Also, I would encourage a standard date and time format, rather than have the user manually input that info. (The way it's set up now, some people will put in January 20th, 2013, while others will put in 1/20/13, while still others will do 20-Jan, 13.) If you could use a calendar pop-up, that would be ideal.

Good work so far! :-:

frequentjohn

I loved udustats and I would definately participate.