Originally Posted by
mitchmu
Apologies if this has been covered somewhere:
Suppose you've got a two-segment itinerary.
Segment 1 is short, and R space is open
Segment 2 is long, and R space is 0
If you apply the RPU today, then it gets consumed and applied to the short segment 1, then theoretically maybe waitlisted for the long segment 2.
If segment 2 does not clear, then you've burned an RPU for a short flight.
What's the "best practice" strategy for this situation?
What I've done is to create an EF alert on the long flight, and then apply the RPU if R space opens on the long flight. Downside is the R space might be consumed by others on the WL if the WL actually clears.
If I applied the RPU now, it would go to the short flight, not the long flight, and then if the long flight doesn't clear, I've burned an RPU on a flight that was < 1 hour long.
Other thoughts?
Apply/waitlist the RPU to the longer segment only now (requires calling). If it clears, extend to the shorter segment. I do this appraoch on a regular basis.
Waiting for EF alert is a problem if UA clears the waitlist but R>0 never occurs or only occurs for a short period and never seen by EF.