This is the year I am watching my number of successful upgrades. I have seven currently applied of which two have been successful. I have another two to be used, so nine in total for the year. I have also applied all my RPUs of which two were successful snd I knew they would be but it was my son's 21st birthday flight to LAS so wanted to ensure he got 1A (he has very, very long legs) but normally just wait for a CPU on short flights.
I will make Platinum this year with my PQD, but holding off on the additional $6k to make 1K for 2020 as my PQM will be close to 110,000 miles in 2019 for flights currently booked. I only have a couple more trips but can just as easily fly LH out of SAN to Europe and JAL to Asia.
i have said it before that I understand United is there to make money for their shareholders soI want to see if this "perceived" change in policy will ultimately benefit my upgrade chances with GPUs. I just read on another thread where someone once again jumped the queue for the upgrade by having the CS phone agent force it - instead following the policy that it should go first on the list (and the FT member was
#7 as noted by the CS agent and congrats to that person for the successful upgrade). Things like rogue CS agents decrease my upgrade chances - last year was the first time in many years where my GPUs were not successful as i tend to fly on off days and at off times.
So all for United restricting upgrades and saver awards until they have get every last dollar for their front of cabin seats, but it will likely mean that more of my spend will go to OALs.