Originally Posted by
bmr12
They were booked under separate tickets (and certainly under separate names).
I had read about the status "transferring" in the case of award tickets and the like, but no idea that this applied to SWU/GPUs.
If this is true, then every person waitlisted with a SWU on an international flight is either GS or 1K by default. Which means a lot of actual GS and 1K members will be sitting in the back while folks who booked way ahead enjoy their upgrade with the SWU they've been gifted from their friend/family member/guy they met on the street. This just seems quite wrong.
I think the main differential that is missed in your point is that it goes by FARE CLASS before the timing of booking. So if a perennial elite books a W fare, and a non-elite that happens to book a B fare and has a GPU to use, I'd say the B fare non-elite person should get the upgrade. I should also add a GS or 1K probably buys a higher fare in the first place vs. a non-elite, generally. So for all those GS/1K sitting in the back, there's probably a small chance they lost out to a GIFTED SWU/GPU.
As for the timing of the booking for the 3rd tie breaker, early bird gets the worm... if a non-elite is able to give money to UA ahead of the elite, that should stand for something. As you mentioned, a non-elite parted with their money way ahead of the elite, and if it is the same fare basis, chances are the price is still around the same.