Originally Posted by
SuperFlyBoy
O-class is an LH F award class.
Flight overall was oversold?? It should not have been, if there was O2 availability. You should monitor further, closer into flight time to see what was happening last minute.
Also, you should have asked again between T-4 and T-1, because a lot of things happen during that period, where adjustments are being made, so you really could have scored the GPU upgrade.
For business loads, you shouldn't be looking only at the C-class bucket - you should also be looking at all business class loads, together with economy loads - as sometimes Y is zeroed out, meaning that they will be op-upping a lot of people into business.
Further, you should also keep an eye out for the First Class classes - if they are zeroed out, then you have a reduced chance to upgrade from economy to business, if the C-class loads are available, and the other business class buckets are not available - because they won't be able to upgrade one of their own current elites in the business cabin into First to accomodate your upgrade into business.
It's a bit complicated, but if you keep watching the loads you will get the hang of it...
Thanks for the feedback. Still new to this and not always sure about the correct amount of detail. The main point I wanted to make is you can monitor loads but it doesn't mean anything until the GA gives you the BP. Let me expand.
Correct about O = F award. I meant the I = C award bucket, but both =2. Also, F=2, Z=2 and Y=9. That's why I felt confident we'd get the upgrade. However, it had been as low as C=0, so I was prepared for the worst.
This is because it was during the World Economic Forum-Africa so Addis Ababa was full of elites. I was suspicous, but not really surprised if they had a bunch of walk-up C-class purchases between when we left for the airport at T-4 and got there at t-1.5. (A 15 minute drive turned into 2.5 hrs due to a bunch of road closures to allow various ministers' motorcades to get to the airport unimpeded.)
Our smartphones couldn't get a web connection during that time, but I don't see how more monitoring (I was making dummy bookings at my corporate travel site and UA.com) would have made a difference. When we finally got to the TA to check bags and I showed her the cert she just said to take it to the gate.
When we finally got there at T-1, the first GA said C was full but there were still two people who hadn't checked in. If they didn't show (a good chance given the chaos out there) we'd get their seats. (Note: I was also trying to upgrade my colleague, who switched to my flight to get home early due to illness.)
At T-0.5 he gave us the thumbs-up and went to get our BP's from the head GA at the computer. (Quaintly, he was keeping track of check-ins on a sheet of paper.) She said "nein" because while there were open seats leaving ADD, the flight stopped en route in KHT where they were oversold by +1. As T&C #9 states, we could only upgrade if all portions were open. Not that I'd want to use a cert for only the first 1.5 hrs of a 9 hr flight. Thus I'm curious if you still think we "really could have scored the GPU upgrade" in that situation.
Going back to 1), that flight was C=0 for a while before showing C=1 a couple days before the flight. I didn't expect to make that upgrade and didn't monitor any more after checking in the night before. I was clearly surprised when the GA gave me the C BP when I got to the gate at T-0.75. She made it clear that getting on the grading list the night before (~T-15) is what got me the last seat. Just shows how you can never tell.
I was pretty confident about 3) and didn't bother getting on the grading list because the flight never fluctuated from C=9, Y=9 on my corporate travel site. It left with 14 empty C seats.
I'm confident about 4), my 5/25 flight ORD-MUC, because right now it's sitting at F:5 A:5 J:9 C:9 D:9 Z:0 P:0 Y:9 B:9 M:9 U:9 H:9 Q:9 V:9 W:9 S:9 T:9 L:9 K:9. However, as I work near ORD I will again try to check in at T-23 at the LH ticket counter to get on the grading list (Does anyone know if calling them would have the same effect?) because at T-12 days there are only 47 Y seats and 20/60 C seats unassigned on this A346and I understand Friday night TATL flights often fill up last minute.
I have very little confidence on the return because while only half the Y seats are assigned, the flight has been F:3 A:0 J:0 C:0 D:0 Z:0 P:0 Y:9 B:9 M:9 U:9 H:9 Q:9 V:9 W:9 S:9 T:9 L:0 K:0 since I booked it a couple of weeks ago. However, as I learned from 1) & 2), don't assume.
As I still have that extra cert I will certainly try, though I'm not sure if they'll be able to get me on the grading list from MAN, where I start my trip that morning, and I'll only have 1.5 hrs in MUC to work it. Any advice? Call the TA at MUC at check-in?
(PS: I'm booked in T on the return; only excluded for intra-Europe flights on the cert, but excluded according to UA GPU web page. Which is correct?)