Wow. This seems to be a pretty hot-button topic for many.

I appreciate as many details for the differences between PMUA and PMCO as possible. So thanks to those that are chiming in with information.

After many years, I have a pretty good understanding of how my United took care of things and how things were supposed to work. As they say, it is going to be a brand new ball game, so time to start learning again.

I have tried to roll with the punches on some of the changes and exercise some self-restraint. Everyone has different priorities. I did not get too worked up on the pillows and blankets. I was mildly annoyed at the undrinkable coffee. I got pretty livid about the degradation of elite / priority boarding, check-in, etc. The last one even caused me to book a flight on Delta for later this year.....gasp. But I have taken some deep breaths and resumed booking on UA for 2012.

The difficulties that PMCO has with upgrades scares me more than any of the above. SWU was the big benefit for 100,000 BIS miles with UA. But now W fares are really expensive and upgrade space confirm-able in advance is pretty hard to find. I don't think I can stomach upgrade "shenanigans" on top of everything else.

I asked before, but it might have gotten buried. Supposedly, PMCO systems "save" upgrade space for elites on the waitlist for the magic upgrade sweep. Would it not be a fairly simple thing to clear the upgrades when checking dynamically for "un-saved" seats to offer for sale. If they are hitting some data to determine if seats are available, it seems they can hit the data to clear the upgrades.

I am not an IT person, so maybe this is something difficult to perform with the SHARES system. If not, the only logical reason for not clearing the upgrade waitlist is to sell them out from the elites.
Can someone with some IT knowledge weigh in on this? I would really like to know if this is even feasible to be fixed prior to the grand integration.

NOTE: I am really referring to International upgrades. UDU is a different deal for me.