I showed up at SFO at 9.45am on Saturday for my 11am flight to ICN. I was checked in and had seat 15K on the upper deck of the 747, with a SWU upgrade that had been confirmed sometime in August. I had no bags to check and got through security around 10.05. The doors closed at 10.50, so I figured I'd use the extra time to check out the SQ lounge at SFO -- it had to be better than the "United Club" with its carrots-only vegetable plate.

The SQ lounge was almost empty and not too bad -- a real cheese plate, fresh berries, and self-serve liquor (I didn't have any of the last). I was surprised to see showers, and while a shower is always nice, my one from 2 hours before still felt fresh, so I had a bite of cheese and checked the status of my flight using the UA iPhone app -- still on time. I looked at the upgrade list: about a dozen waitlisted for C with no seats available. I also looked at the "cleared" list and saw FRE/D in seat 24A. "Random coincidence," I thought.

I got to the gate around 10.25 and went to board. I showed my mobile BP and the GA said, "We need to print you a paper one." I was transferred to a different GA, who started by asking, "How are you today?" I replied, "I think I'm about to be very unhappy." "Unfortunately, you're right," she said.

She told me what I feared: they had downgraded me to Y. C was oversold by one seat, and I was the only person who had upgraded. Therefore, I was first in line for a downgrade. Fair enough, I suppose, since I had paid $1300 while everyone else in C had paid $4000 or more for their seat. But I wasn't going down without a fight. (The GA tried to be gracious: she had held an exit row aisle seat for me, but I'd prefer a lie-flat seat to 5 feet of legroom. She had also given me an extra SWU, but what good are those when even confirmed upgrades aren't honored?)

I first asked the GA to look for space on other flights to Asia, figuring I could make my way to Seoul from wherever I landed. But she said everything was sold out -- NRT, PEK, KIX, even SEA-NRT (which it was probably too late for anyway). I guess Saturday is when businessfolk travel to Asia, so they can land Sunday night and start work on Monday. The GA had to keep boarding the flight, so she suggested I call the 1K desk and see what they could do. It was now 10.35. I had 15 minutes to figure something out.

I called the 1K desk and through a lucky roll of the dice immediately got a really good agent. I explained I had been downgraded from a confirmed upgrade and asked if there was any way I could get over the Pacific today in C. She typed for a few seconds and told me that there was space in Business on the SFO-NRT flight. However, there were two problems: (1) she couldn't change my ticket since I was checked into the ICN flight, and (2) there were no Y seats on the NRT flight. Since I was holding a Y ticket, she had to book me into Y before she could upgrade me.

Problem (1) was dealt with by asking the GA to un-check me in. As for problem (2), the phone agent insisted that the airport folks could simply print me a new BP for the NRT flight, while the GA kept saying she couldn't. I finally got the GA to take the phone. Upon doing so she basically said "I'm trying to get this flight out on time, you have to deal with it" and handed it back.

At this point it was 10.42 and I was desperate. The GA had told me I'd be first in line for a C seat if there was a no-show, but C had now boarded full. I pulled out my last card: "Is there a supervisor you can go to to oversell the NRT flight and get me on it?" "Please hold."

10.46: "Dr. dfreeman02, I have a supervisor who has agreed to oversell the NRT flight. It'll take a few more minutes to change the ticket." This didn't make me any less nervous, since it was precisely such an exchange that had caused a majorly f'ed up situation at LHR in July. (The exchange had been done improperly, so UA cancelled my ticket when I didn't show up for the pre-change flight. It took 40 minutes at the LHR ticket counter to clear things up.)

10.49: "You're confirmed in C SFO-NRT and NRT-ICN. The flight departs at 11.27." At that moment the ICN flight was closed. Doors to NRT were closing in 28 minutes.

I scurried to the NRT gate, which was a madhouse. I fought my way up to the desk, showed my passport, and said "They moved me here from the ICN flight." Some typing, some chatting, and I was handed a BP for 7A.

As I boarded the NRT flight, I noticed that the board showed 34 people waitlisted for C with 2 seats remaining. There is no way I would have gotten the upgrade on a W fare if I had been in that queue -- I must have hit the phone agent during the narrow window after the unbooked seats were released for upgrades and before the gate agents processed the waitlist.

So I arrived at ICN at 9.15pm Sunday instead of 4.20. My presentation was at 9.30am on Monday. But I'll take a 5-hour delay to avoid 12.5 hours in 747 Y, any day.

In summary:
- UA bean counters figured they could oversell C and downgrade an upgrader if necessary.
- UA gate agent tried to be accommodating but ultimately had to give priority to getting the flight out.
- UA phone agent and supervisor were spectacular, giving priority to a top customer.
- I got extremely lucky with (a) which phone agent I got and (b) when I got her.

We'll see how the system changes as the merger goes along (expecially with the switch to SHARES in the spring), but for now UA is keeping my business.