Originally Posted by
gandalf29
I have seen this statement a lot here--if you fly out of a non-hub you have better chances of an upgrade. But due to UA's hub-spoke model, you're always either flying to a hub or from a hub, so this non-hub idea is non-existent, except perhaps for a few leftover flights from previous era hubs like CLE or maybe some of the Pacific flights that don't connect to domestic hubs. Obviously hub-hub flights are the worst from an upgrade perspective. But the "less-vital" hub is an interesting idea . . . which are the hubs with less elites and higher upgrade chances? Seems like SFO, ORD and IAH would be the first tier UA hubs so the worst for upgrades. So maybe IAD and LAX are better? I have had good success out of IAD with Gold and Platinum, or at least better than some people complain about here, with maybe 25-50% of my CPU opportunities being successful.
I think what's meant by non-hub is something like STL-ORD, or ORD-STL where you're heading from/to a hub. Decent upgrade chances on those routes- I know I've done that run and have had a good degree of success. Mainline aircraft out of a hub to another major airport can be difficult, but CRJ700s to/from smaller non-hubs generally do have good chances.