Feb 12, 2018, 2:25 pm
Last edit by: drewguy
There are no complimentary upgrades on "Polaris" or premium transcon service or Hawaii (to/from ORD/EWR/IAD/IAH) flights for elites. Elites need to support their upgrades with Plus Points or miles+copay. A complete table is here
Some international flights are CPU eligible (mainly North American)
On very rare occasions if a lower cabin is overbooked, some passengers (usually by elite status) will be operational upgraded (op-up'ed)
Consolidated - Chance of Operational Upgrade (Op-Up) on my flight?
did united ever offer complimentary upgrades on international routes?
Some international flights are CPU eligible (mainly North American)
On very rare occasions if a lower cabin is overbooked, some passengers (usually by elite status) will be operational upgraded (op-up'ed)
Consolidated - Chance of Operational Upgrade (Op-Up) on my flight?
did united ever offer complimentary upgrades on international routes?
Complimentary upgrades when UA's PremPlus / Polaris cabin(s) are open? (No)
May 5, 2017, 12:24 pm
#31
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Kaiserslautern
Programs: UA G 1.9MM, HH Diamond, Global Entry
Posts: 439
Looking at the flight status, now, 10 minutes before departure. Flight status shows 12 seats, 0 booked, and 8 checked in. The only two on the waitlist are same two on the other lists. Business is full, and there is Economy available. There are only two non revs on standby. Curious to see if there name pops into F. I wonder if the 8 who were put into F were space required employees?
May 5, 2017, 12:36 pm
#32
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 100
The number of blocked changed several times. My flight into SFO was heavily delayed, but I had another GS who got the Mercedes transfer as well. I think he was upgraded as he boarded from a different entrance. I was not. Can't really complain, but kind of annoying considering there are still open seats, and I had a three hour delay including deboarding because a FA got sick, and they had to bus in another one..
Last edited by dag16; May 5, 2017 at 12:45 pm
May 5, 2017, 2:10 pm
#34
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: BOS<>NYC<>BKK
Programs: UA 4.3MM LT-GS; AA1MM; Amtrak SE; MAR LT TITAN; PC Plat; HIL DIA; HYA GLOB
Posts: 4,389
I'm on UA895 ORD-HKG now in F. I bought the ticket about a month ago, and got the last revenue seat. I bought an expensive D class (no P or Z available) and upgraded to F with a GPU. Every one of the eight pax is a paid pax, either full F or biz+CPU or miles+ca$h. I'm flying 895 again in a few weeks, and in the same situation. I find this to be a frequent pattern on many of the UA three-cabin routes to/from Asia.
Last edited by wxguy; May 5, 2017 at 2:16 pm
May 5, 2017, 6:45 pm
#35
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May 5, 2017, 8:19 pm
#36
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: SQ, QF, UA, CO, DL
Posts: 2,882
I'm on UA895 ORD-HKG now in F. I bought the ticket about a month ago, and got the last revenue seat. I bought an expensive D class (no P or Z available) and upgraded to F with a GPU. Every one of the eight pax is a paid pax, either full F or biz+CPU or miles+ca$h. I'm flying 895 again in a few weeks, and in the same situation. I find this to be a frequent pattern on many of the UA three-cabin routes to/from Asia.
May 5, 2017, 8:47 pm
#37
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 350
I would assume they have more data than we do to make the decision. Whether they interpret it correctly or not is another question. If they hired me to be their CFO, I would ensure the right decisions were made and wouldn't forget all the intangible factors when doing the analysis. Their current spreadsheet mentality only works if you don't forget the things that most finance people exclude because they don't know how to quantify it.
May 5, 2017, 9:36 pm
#38
Join Date: Sep 2009
Programs: UA GS>1K>Nothing; DL DM 2MM; AS 75K>Nothing>MVP
Posts: 9,341
I would assume they have more data than we do to make the decision. Whether they interpret it correctly or not is another question. If they hired me to be their CFO, I would ensure the right decisions were made and wouldn't forget all the intangible factors when doing the analysis. Their current spreadsheet mentality only works if you don't forget the things that most finance people exclude because they don't know how to quantify it.
Absolutely right. If the IM and Finance people can’t quantify it, they treat it as unimportant. Back when UA had a competitive International F product, everyone I knew who flew UA J regularly for business cited upgrades into F as the number one reason for choosing UA.
Another problem is that quant jocks can’t measure long term effects. They know precisely how to maximize revenue on any given flight, but they have zero idea how to how to maximize revenue from a specific customer over a one year period... to say nothing of a 3 or 5 year period.
Further, UA began formulating the decision to downsize/eliminate F while the world was still in recession. For anyone who has flown Interntional F regularly and recently on any non-US carrier, it is blindingly obvious that UA is now on the wrong side of that trend.
And... UA made their decision to elminate F at a point when their F product has deteriorated into a dillapidated state. UA used to have by far and away the best hard and soft F product across the Pacific. They didn’t keep up and stay competitive. I recently flew US>HKG in CX F. (BTW - no empty seats and no non-revs.) Anyone who has a choice and would fly F in UA over CX or NH or OZ or SQ or JL, etc is a daft moron. Of course they can’t sell their F product. Duh. So instead they make up some fantasy about declining demand for F and how everyone will be totally satisfied with their Polaris coffin inspired seats.
And finally does UA really think that when the Execs at companies with UA corporate contracts start flying F on foreign carriers that it will have no impact on what carrier other people in those companies choose.
Last edited by 5khours; May 5, 2017 at 9:43 pm
May 5, 2017, 9:43 pm
#39
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Location: MSP
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May 5, 2017, 11:21 pm
#40
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May 5, 2017, 11:47 pm
#41
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AVP & PEK
Programs: UA 1K 1.8MM
Posts: 6,341
In terms of op-up, there is no scientic data and just my personal experience:
I have never been op-up on oversold J flights when I am on the upper deck, but I have an excellent record being op-up from paid J to F when I am sitting in the main deck of 744 or on the 777/767 three-class aircrafts.
I have never been op-up on oversold J flights when I am on the upper deck, but I have an excellent record being op-up from paid J to F when I am sitting in the main deck of 744 or on the 777/767 three-class aircrafts.
I only did PEK-SFO three times in the last 18 months or so, and only Op-Up was to 1K in F from seat 14A in J.
May 6, 2017, 7:31 am
#43
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Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
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If there were three empty seats in business (assuming that all seats were operable) shouldn't this mean that there were no OPUPs into FC?
May 8, 2017, 8:43 am
#45
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 11,459
On the flight status page, I believe op-ups do not show as cleared, but they do count in the 'booked' total. If you're trying to track, the clearest indicator might be seeing the 'booked' count go up at ≈T-2.5 but no names added to the list. That's obviously easy to miss, though.