Originally Posted by
timfountain
I have had two international trips in the last few months when I paid up to W, applied GPU's, R=0, saw TOD buy-ups when checking in at T-24 and still ended up in E+.
I generally think the SWU/RPU game is a true scam by United, but I would posit that it's at least possible that the upgrades looked like TODs because your fare was already so high (on the theory that TODs price based on the diff between then-discounted biz and your fare). Doesn't take away from the fact that the SWU not clearing is problematically but that price might not have been widely available.