Originally Posted by
seacarl
This is starting to explain an experience that I have frequently as a 75K. A day or two out the F seating chart still shows lots of seats, and there are multiple seats for revenue sale, but no U seats. And then they seem to suddenly disappear. The lag between U opening and the upgrade processor running is creating the opportunity for people to grab the seats out of order. This would be solved if AS could allow waitlisting for GGUs and treat all GGUs within five days as waitlisted. Once we are in the 5-day window for complimentary upgrades, they really should be letting people grab upgrades ahead of the automated processor.
That could be part of it. Other reasons could include: on more popular routes (e.g. SEA - JFK), there are more last minute F purchases, or perhaps the UG processor runs and UG's someone prior to noticing there was U space available and since we cannot see the UG list until T-24 (and then only of those who have checked-in) we cannot be certain. I set EF alerts for all of my flights and the delay for the UG processor varies. Sometimes it upgrades me prior to the EF alert.