Originally Posted by
LarkSFO
channa -
You agree with UA-NYC that if R>2, then CPU should process?
Yes.
Originally Posted by
LarkSFO
And, if it is working correctly, an R4 flight would drop to R2,
It would drop to R2, R1, or R0 depending on the holdback programmed for the flight, presuming there are enough eligible Elites at that window to utilize those R seats.
Originally Posted by
LarkSFO
and you could observe the first two people clearing from the upgrade list?
There's no upgrade list to watch, but if you see R go down (and F likely as well), around the window timeframe, that's the desired operational behavior.
Originally Posted by
LarkSFO
I don't recall UA Insider specifically mentioning this, but I could have missed it. Do you have a reference post where this was mentioned? (or, approximate timeframe and I can go look through UA Insider's posts from around that time.)
I believe it was shared around the first quarter of 2012.
And frankly, that is the behavior that is observed in 99% of the EUA situations -- they dump all of R (except sometimes 1 or 2, depending on market). That's why when I observe a 96 hour window and an R9 flight with 2 known 1Ks on the plane, that is the system not working as expected. All this talk about some sort of mysterious hidden bucket is rubbish.
As an aside, that excess R anomaly is what triggers the TOD situation -- the EUA system isn't processing correctly, then if that excessive R condition makes it to checkin, the upsell system sees the wide open R and assumes there are no further upgrades to be given, so it sells them out from under Elites for cheap in an attempt to collect some amount of cash for it.
As I've said before, as much as I get on UA for its issues, the upgrade problems are not a result of malice or contempt towards customers. It's a poorly managed system (actually 4+ systems) which do not communicate with one another, and as a result, they will at times not execute in a manner that matches the published business rules.
They have acknowledged as much, and they are spending money to fix it. In the meantime, it is what it is, and it's broken.