TheProton

I'd really like to know what it takes to get a GPU to clear before TOD.

I'm flying SFO-EWR on a PS flight tomorrow, booked weeks ago and GPU applied. 18 seats still available in businessfirst, and as best I can tell no one was upgraded before now as these 18 seats have been there for 5 days.

Seriously, with 18 seats available in first do they need to hold every single one for a TOD upgrade?

nomad420

SFO-EWR is one of several notoriously slow (if ever) to clear RPU/GPU's. Numerous up thread complaints about this route. Although I must admit this example is pretty egregious. I have to believe by this time all GS upgrades have cleared!? Consider yourself lucky if you clear by the tomorrow morning. I have had zero luck on getting my RPU/GPU's pulled on this flight.

findark

Are you on the 77W? They are holding back inventory like crazy, and for the Polaris seats yes I think they do sell an awful lot of $299 to $349 TODs.

nomad420

Don't you just love when you are sitting on an RPU and at OLCI then send you a TOD....

PaulInTheSky

To be fair,

1. It's not TODs, it's HODs.
2. Considering it's only $599USD one-way for a lot of carriers with lie-flat seats, $299 is seriously not a deal.

findark

Depends on how you look at it. When they want almost $2,000 for a Z fare because the flight is P0 K9 within 7 days, and I can buy a $149 K fare + $299 to sit in J, it could be a very good deal. But no, it's not some mythical steal of a price like a mistake or fare or trick. No TODs are; the closest I've come are $249 Y->F double-upgrades on SFO-IAD.

(As an aside I've just taken to using "TOD" to mean time-of-departure or at-booking upgrades priced using the fee engine.. we don't really have a better term for it.)

Syzygies

I ended up switching from the 77W to the 4pm 757. Not fond of 77W coach. Then, like Dr. Strangelove, my hand somehow clicked on 7A for $299. Been a tough month.

Perhaps I could have done the same earlier, for the private bed on the 77W. I used the day well.

This is the rub: Having an RPU in play hurt me. It had little chance of clearing, but it froze me.

This is where I despise United: The ways in which they deliberately profit from asymmetric information. Money in the bank for them, short, term, but psychologically toxic. It would be so easy for them to make all this a PR coup if they actually gave a fug.

MostlyUA

I was upgraded on a EWR-SFO flight yesterday. I think 8 people cleared on the flight.

I think United is suffering from the passenger re-accommodation fallout.

nomad420

LOL, it happens to me all the time, you are taking the words from mouth. You have an RPU in "play" and nothing happens and then suddenly they through a TOD at you.

fzwinter

Thinking seriously about booking SMF-IAD-BCN and back in September for me and my spouse, as I have a friend willing to gift me 4 GPUs. Saw fleeting R availability for about 24 hours over the weekend on the outbound IAD-BCN (767-400ER) but went from R9 back to R0 quickly before I could commit. No R space available on the return.

Would it be a good strategy to book flights with PN9 and take my chances? Is this at all a useful indicator for GPUs clearing these days? Other suggestions? I can find a few flights with PN9, including the one where the phantom R9 availability came and went. These are all M, Tu, W flights, which is fine. I'd prefer to fly SFO-FRA-BCN on the 747 but can't see any flights with PN9 availability.

Thanks.

findark

Yes, that's about the best you can do short of actually finding R space. If you're not in a hurry to book I'd keep my eyes out for that R coming back, or other chances. Nothing is as good as a confirmed upgrade.

cfischer

more like 13 on my flight ... 6 at T-36 then another 7 at the gate ... that was with plenty of PN available for days, so add GS to that mix ...

Kacee

Very good chance R opens back up. But SMF-IAD is a long ways in Y and that's going to be tough to clear.

Total crapshoot to upgrade that flight. It's really a challenge to use GPUs TATL ex-SFO. LH SFO-FRA is generally a better bet (but still no guarantees).

AV has a $2000 J fare LAX-BCN.

NH_Clark

Wow... No offense but that doesn't say much about your life. No sense in letting UA have so much control over your life. It's a wonderful world... get outside and enjoy it! ^

cyclogenesis

True... But 787s and 777-300s are rare on ORD-Europe.

Watching fra-ord on saturday morning.. 7 Polaris-buisiness and one first.. fingers crossed. My luck on rpus and gpus has been poor lately