Originally Posted by
cerealmarketer
On CO biz over sells are a lot more rare.
Reading this it appears a lot more common on UA. Hope that changes -- what good is an advance upgrade if there's a good chance it gets revoked.
Hold them back when in doubt and don't tease. We do have choice (other airlines, other routing, using full miles, paying full fare) to get biz in advance -- would rather have seen "NC0" at time of booking so I could make other arrangements in advance.
UA screwed up twice. Over selling and putting OP in lurch. Don't spread the virus onto someone on another flight.
But that said, all class of services can get oversold. In this case the SWU was not "sold".
All airlines oversell. There are people on this board who actually seek out VDB certificates (I'm not one of them).
I highly doubt the majority of people on the waitlist would be happy or willingly give up an U/G to appease the OP's misfortune, especially if they were on higher fare.