Hi:

I was Silver (just made Gold with my last flight in 2016 when the events below occurred.

FWIW, I don't think I'm entitled to any special treatment as I'm just a Silver member. I'm just trying to understand exactly what happened to make sure I understand how MP and CPUs work for the future.

I flew the following route:

Dec 20 2016: SFO -> LAS (Fareclass L)
Dec 20 2016: LAS -> EWR (Fareclass L)

Dec 30 2016: EWR -> SFO (Fareclass H)

On my Dec 20 flights, I was added to the upgrade list, but did not clear (as expected).

On my Dec 30 flight, I wasn't even added to the upgrade list, but there were empty seats in 1st throughout the flight.

The United app (I took screenshots which I can attach if it'll help) said the following:

Standby tab:

United Business Available
United Economy Full

Upgrades tab:

Capacity: 28
Booked: 24( +2 blocked)
Checked in: 22

Followed by a list containing only 5 names, all with checkmarks.

Usually, I see a longer list of names, with mostly no checkmarks -- usually me

Can anyone help me understand why this happened? I was Silver at the time, so I figured I would at least be listed (but maybe not clear).

Does United cap the number of CPUs per flight?

Was this an inventory thing? In other words, maybe the CPU seats came from a fareclass bucket that was used and so United didn't bother waitlisting anyone else?

Maybe I didn't have a high-enough fare class on the return trip (SFO->EWR) ?

Any hints or thoughts would be much appreciated; please let me know if I can supply any other information to help solve this.