Originally Posted by
IAH-OIL-TRASH
It is what it is. You don't know if it's being sold to someone else for less, but I get the feeling your assumption is that it is. UAs decided there was too much capacity (and with it, too many 1st seats). I benefit from being flexible and on a route (LAX-OGG) that it would be hard to reduce the number of 1st seats. You aren't going to see regional jets, 319/320, smaller 73s flying to Maui.
UA promises upgrades AS EARLY as 96 hrs out, and I get them (and others get them) on routes with a lot of available seats. You're on a route with lesser capacity now and you're complaining that you're not getting the same upgrades you used to get and assume theyre being sold for less to others. In you case, you're right - why stay with UA? UA doesn't want to increase capacity solely so you can get free upgrades. Some day I may face the same capacity reduction and may not get the upgrades at the window (if at all) that I get now. I'll make a decision then, but certainly won't be blaming UA for changing capacity or imaginary people stripping me of my upgrade.
Not sure why this has to become personal. I stated MY experiences with upgrades. I didn't blame UA for changing capacity. They changed it and its negatively impacted my success rate.
Imaginary people? Not sure what that means but two FC seats at T-96 and 2 FC seats open at check-in and T-1. Those same seats were booked by the time we boarded and I was still #1 on the Waitlist. Those seats were sold or given away to other people. I'm not begrudging UA for selling them if they could. I stated that initially but there's nothing "imaginary" about the people that got the seats.
I happy for you that your on such a CPU friendly route most of the time. There's plenty of us on here that are not and that means our experiences are no less valid than yours.