Originally Posted by findark

Believe this was answered.. see following:



"Available" means positive space, i.e. F inventory.

I don't understand the level of anger at pilots being booked into F. How is it any different than any other company choosing to put its employees on your flight in F? UA is buying the seats (lost revenue) for its own employees. As some have noted, if being in F is so important you too can buy it.

Originally Posted by SS255

I'm guessing that the anger is more about the potential of shenanigans, which -- if the crew was legitimately booked into F -- would not be the case.

Wouldn't it be great if UA could roll out codes next to each upgrader's name to indicate the reason for the upgrade?

C = CPU
R = RPU
G = GPU
M = Mileage
T$ = TOD
O = Operational
N = Nonrev
P = Positive Space
S = Shenanigans

Originally Posted by emcampbe

And what about the contract with pilots that say they get F in certain circumstances? Are they less important. Maybe they'll give you the job of reaching out to pilots to let them know that they won't get their contractual benefit to F because there are a bunch of people whining on an Internet forum about how they 'expect' to get F for free.

Look, I'm as glad as the next guy when i get upgraded. But I also am not stupid enough to have the expectation that I'll be upgraded on all, 80%, 50%, or even 1% of the flights I take. Having the expectation of an upgrade is a customer perception problem, much of it from the days when there were more unsold F seats since the economy wasn't as good. Carriers have buckled down on capacity as well as focusing on how to sell those seats for revenue, even if not on full fare F. The result is fewer upgrades. You can either bring up your expectations to the reality of the airline industry today (more benefits based on revenue vs. miles flown, fewer free upgrades, but often the ability to buy it at a lower cost, etc.) or you can complain that things aren't like yesteryear, and threaten to go to the next carrier (which in general operates the same way). I think I'm probably happier and less stressed not expecting my upgrade rate to be what it was 5 years ago then fighting how things are currently and how they'll be in the future.

Originally Posted by laxmillenial

If they did this then people would start comparing, oh why did this 1K get a CPU when this 1K didn't. etc etc.

I see UA going the other way. If people keep complaining then... they'll get so fed up they'll eliminate the CPU benefit altogether.

Or hide the upgrade 'list' and just do it behind the scenes. No public-facing visible list, no one can complain. Sorry your upgrade didn't clear, but you now can't see if anyone cleared at all.

Originally Posted by N104UA

If someone declines and upgrade or is a no show then you can find the next person on the plane and surprise them but when I see an A319 with an upgrade list of 60+ it is crazy to me that I need to see that I am #4 0

Originally Posted by bocastephen

My post was pretty clear - unless the employee has a contractural provision to that F seat, or is riding on a PS pass that permits F travel (in which case no one on the flight would even know), no employee should be riding up front, especially in uniform, while paying customers are in the back waiting for upgrades which are part of their own contractual provision with the airline.

We all know that Shenanigans occur on a regular basis where a GA or even FA will put a friend or colleague in a F or J seat under the table - and for that reason, as rare as it may or may not be, passengers need to remain vigilant.

Also, I have no problem with UA or any airline selling discounted P or Z fares, nor do I have a problem with them selling a fare-difference buy-up to anyone - however I do have a problem with the almost mind-numbing abject stupidity of selling a Kettle a F seat out from under an Elite customer for an amount that may be less than, equal to, or even a $20-30 more than the ancillary revenue the airline would have received from that customer's checked bags alone.

Either way, we have a major problem with transparency and expectations and customers with a contract that includes a provision for complimentary upgrades have a right to full transparency with regard to how upgrades are being handled.

Originally Posted by bocastephen

We all know that Shenanigans occur on a regular basis where a GA or even FA will put a friend or colleague in a F or J seat under the table - and for that reason, as rare as it may or may not be, passengers need to remain vigilant.

Originally Posted by bocastephen

Either way, we have a major problem with transparency and expectations and customers with a contract that includes a provision for complimentary upgrades have a right to full transparency with regard to how upgrades are being handled.