Originally Posted by
findark
Yes. Usually up to about (J - 2) or so; it's a revenue decision based on whether effectively selling a J seat for a medium Y fare is worth it for the particular flight.
Eligible upgrades, followed by op-ups, will be run until every confirmed passenger has a seat assignment. Then any standbys will be cleared. If the net result of the confirmed pax is Y full, 4 empty in J, and nobody else eligible for an upgrade, then 4 NRSAs will go out in J.
ed. oddly the flight status reports full in J and Y both, but they are still selling J inventory: J9 R9 I8 Y0. I can only assume that the flight is booked at least level but they are willing to bump a Y pax for a J sale (even an IN award though??)
Why not have IN open? Until that point the flight still had J seats to sell over and above whatever OpUps were going to occur and factored into the load. UA would gladly take 40K miles out of someone's account to hop on that flight in "J". It's still a "paid" seat, just in this instance a UA account has 40K less miles.
-RM