Originally Posted by
IAHtraveler
Anyone know if UA does the buy-up game, too? If not, they might be getting the bulk of my flights (especially since they have E+). Even though I'm hub-based, most of my "normal routes" require EWR/CLE connections, except GRU. So even though I'm IAH based, I might have to re-think my strategies.
UA does buy-ups too, but only when all upgrade requests have been accommodated.
I've posted this before, but while UA's website may not be as flashy, UA's technology seems to be more solid. When they do stuff, it usually works. If there's a waitlist going, they're not selling upgrades. It's simple.
Frankly, I'm not sure why people are so upset about this on CO. CO has been plagued with these sorts of upgrade-related issues for years -- whether it be checkin loopholes upgrading Silvers before Platinums, EUA glitches for periods at a time when it just wasn't running, or B/M/Y-purchasers who cannot confirm their upgrade at time of booking and are unable to waitlist, so the person who catches the space open up and calls/goes online gets it, even though he may not be the highest status, or the first one to have bought one on the flight. And now we have this.
There's always something, and it really doesn't bother me anymore. I really don't care if some non-Elite gets an upgrade ahead of me for $69. Last year it would have been a Silver who checked in at the right time. Or 3 months ago, it was the guy who was able to sweet-talk the phone agent to manually do it because EUA wasn't working. The net effect is the same. Someone's always able to jump the queue on CO. It's been like this for years.