Originally Posted by
aacharya
Board when you are asked to.
Monitor the upgrade lists. They don't 'skip' people, but they may not come aboard to tell you you were, or even worse, will tell a friend/deadheader to take "your" seat.
But the upgraded lists never lie.
Beerwoman had a situation on a ps flight where I requested an UG with an RPU at booking for her. It waitlisted. It continued to show waitlisted as time passed. I got an automated phone call from United at T-24 saying the upgrade was not cleared but she would automatically be transferred to the upgrade standby list (or whatever it is called). When she OLCI the boarding documents showed she was waitlisted for the UG. I checked the mobile app and she was not on the waitlist. I called United and the agent said she was on the list and would show up at the airport. At the airport she asked the GA and was told she couldn't upgrade the flight any way other than cash.
While I wouldn't single out a "list" as being the biggest liar in the series of events described there was a whole lot of "lying" going on by both humans and computers working for United.
FWIW in January I was #2 on the UG list on a flight out of LGA and just boarded with my group. GA came on and got me to move me up shortly after I boarded.