Originally Posted by kv99

I'm booked on UA932 on Tuesday Nov. 9 IAD-FRA and back on UA933 on Sun. Nov 14 trying to upgrade from coach to business.

Maybe I'm spoiled, but as a 1K the last two years I've cleared every international wait list well in advance (except around the real peak times like Christmas-New Years where I expect to sweat it out at the gate or not clear at all), but my flights next week haven't cleared yet and aren't looking good at all.

I've been told that 932 is booked to 48/49 in business and 933 to 46/49 in business, but they're still showing inventory for sale as F1 C9 D3 on the way out and F3 C9 D9 on the return which I guess means that they're willing to oversell business pretty substantially. I've also been told by one agent that I probably wouldn't clear, and by another that I might since there are "very few" people on the waitlist (i.e. around 5).

What's the deal? I expected the Sunday evening return to be a little difficult but I didn't think a Tuesday night in November to Frankfurt would be hard to upgrade at all. Crazy!!

This is the first flight I've ever taken on UA to FRA (I generally go to HKG, BKK, SIN, and occasionally LHR).

Is this normal for these flights? Do most 1Ks find that they clear at the last minute or should I expect to go in coach? Just curious, but I don't think I'm going to take UA to Frankfurt again if this is typical.