Originally Posted by
MBS MillionMiler
Simple: Coach was overbooked by 29-ish. (I’m this case, not every seat was sold, but with capacity restrictions, they keep selling Y beyond capacity, usually up to the collective number of seats across the entire aircraft). Happens daily on many, many flights; domestic and international.
They’ll eventually clear the upgrade list, freeing up seats in Y. Because of reduced capacity on these examples, they won’t need to move anyone up, but on full flights where Y capacity is exceeded, they’ll then start upgrading by status or other metrics to get everyone a seat somewhere on the plane.
I totally disagree with the notion that Y was oversold.
The flight took off with more than 100 empty Y seats.
In fact, UA never oversells China flights since COVID. There is a capacity control by the Chinese authority (80% or something).
Originally Posted by
runner450
Economy capacity shouldn’t be exceeded, so not planning any operational upgrades. The holds are floating amounts in order to take bookings without busting the entry limits from China.
Yes, this is possible.
However, I am still puzzled by UA's fuzzy "Blocking" practice. What purpose does this serve?
China doesn't care "blocking" or not. Only the final number counts.