denverhockeyguy:

Not sure if you misunderstood me or were being rhetorical, but just for clarity: I'm not suggesting upgrades are supposed to clear, I am suggesting that there is a process by which they are supposed to clear.

It is transparency in the process I am asking United to provide. Not a guarantee of further upgrades, nor any additional leverage. Merely a clearly articulated process explanation. It would calm everyone down, create a sense of fairness and predictability.

Not sure what you do for a living, but as anyone who deals with queue theory can tell you, you can make queue members readily stand in line for hours providing they know what to expect from the queue. If the process by which the queue moves forward (and an estimated wait time) is completely variable, all hell breaks loose.

This isn't my conjecture, incidentally - it's fact. United has a queue process which we can join, but we are unclear as to exactly how the queue works. This creates FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) - as the dozens of threads clearly illustrate. While United in unlikely to please everyone by illuminating the queue process (in fact, some people will probably get quite irritated), it will - in general - promote peace and stability among frequent travelers. In short, it's a cheap CS win for UA.

-G

PS - another thing that would help is if we had confidence in UA's tech team to write good, clear code.