In my opinion, TOD has become a charged term that is (usually) intended to be inflamatory when posted on FT. If I read TOD in a post, I can guess what kind of rant the poster is about to go on....
To demonstrate my ignorance, I don't even recall the correct terms for the 2 types of upsells offered by UA... PCU - Premium Cabin Upsell and _______ drawing a blank.
I am certainly not saying there are not upsells... (I took advantage of one myself last year, and got the elusive double upgrade to F for my family when we traveled to SYD late 2011.)
I am just saying that in most cases I read here on FT, somebody with an axe to grind posts about a GM who bought the upgrade for TOD and so the elite who should have received it for free got screwed... With little to no facts to back it up.
Enough already.
Just found an old post by our friend 5khours:
"There are two kinds of upgrades offered for cash at the airport. UFCs (Upgrade for Cash) and PCUs (Premium Cabin Upsells). UFCs are only offered when there is a lot of availability and UA IM decides (in their mysterious way) to offer them. Agents in theory are supposed to offer PCUs (slightly higher priced than UFC) at check-in or the gate if there are any open seats after all other UGs have cleared. In practice though this depends on the station and the agent. Some agents believe they can only offer PCUs when there is NF or NC availability. I don't think anyone knows for sure which is correct since no one has been able to supply a copy of the PCU policy profile. It often helps to push hard if you want to buy a PCU. "
Last edited by LarkSFO; Feb 11, 2012 at 4:34 pm
Reason: added upsell info