economy plus and priority boarding
 

Enrolled in status match and got the premier status.
I'm not able to book the seats in economy plus. And even I didn't get priority boarding.

Couple of questions:

• When did you apply (and receive) the status match?
  
• When did you book (and then use) your ticket?

And one comment: in very short order, Premiers will not be able to select E+ until inside 24hrs of flight time.

Jan 30 applied but got mail on Feb 20 stating that u need fly 10k or 15 seg between Feb 9 and may 9.

travelled last weekend feb 24-feb 27. forget about e+, dont care much
what about priority boarding

So basing that you were notified on the match on the 20th... so it was probably granted 15th-17th.

I am basing this on the old 3P nomination days....it took about 5-10 days to shake through the system.

I am sure your status will show up on your next flight.

Continental loophole survives
 

I was just able to move my in-laws into economy plus for free on a united flight I had previously made by redeeming mile from my account (premier gold). Before the merger I was only able to get them regular economy but now my status seems to transfer to them- this must mean that the continental loophole extending status seems to have made it through the merger!

Premier Silver do get priority boarding over standard pax, but they are behind the higher levels of the program, as well as uniformed military, etc. It's a nice perk though to essentially be guaranteed the equivalent of Zone 1 when you have a carryon that you need to put overhead!

Silvers get Boarding Group 4 -- behind all other elites, ahead of all non elites (except military & disable)

see Arriving at a single boarding process

Economy Plus no more?
 

Trying to book a flight tonight, and it hit me that I can no longer book Economy Plus! That's the ONLY reason I fly with United and stay with their program (till now---just joined A.A.'s program). Since I wouldn't be able to book Economy Plus till check-in, does anyone know how realistic it will be that Economy Plus seating will still be available 24 hours prior? I know it'll depend somewhat on the flight, but any ideas? This makes me sick.

I did a flight status on a red eye flight to Boston tomorrow night (flight 506). Granted it's about 16 hours away, it still gives an idea of availability for E+. Equipment is a 757, and there are 5 E+ aisle seats as well as several exit row seats. Hope that helps a bit.

I guess that's fair. Would there be any other way for them to do it without annoying higher level elites?

You could book E+ at the time of ticketing, but it would cost you money.

It is worth noting that Premier Silvers board in the same zone as Presidential Plus cardholders, but one zone before OnePass Plus and Explorer Card members. So they are better than those who pay $95 a year, but equal to those paying $395 annually. Since the PresPlus card offers almost all Silver benefits, except for free E+ at check-in and CPUs, plus lounge access, I agree that the boarding order is fair.

This is only 2 data points but my husband (1P) just flew BOS-SFO/SFO-BOS. It was booked late enough that his upgrade window had already opened. At the time of booking, he got the last assignable coach seat on both flights, a middle seat a few rows from the back of a 757. I noticed that there were still a number of F seats unassigned/available for purchase (they held a lot of F until day of departure). I told him to keep checking because if any upgrades cleared, there was a good chance that E+ would open up. He wound up with a middle in the exit row in one direction and an E+ aisle in the other. Far more E+ seats were available than the number that could have gotten upgraded. Do they block some until 24 hrs prior? By the way, an E fare did not help him get an upgrade, even on the weekend.

Whether any E+ seats will be available at checkin is highly variable depending on route of course, mostly what fraction of the flyers have status. But as pointed out above, a bunch of the E+ seats get the upgrades, so some open up right at T+24 - or later.

Judging by how many people sitting in E+ are boarding late (and are I presume non-status pax who simply got assigned to good seats without buy up - confirmed by peeking at boarding group on a few BPs) it's often about 20% of the E+ seats going that way (that would be available at time of early online checkin). But again, it's going to vary widely by route and even day of week.