1. Route: EWR - OGG
2. Date: 9 July 2022
3. Fare class: Discounted economy
4. N/A
5. # of PlusPoints: 10 * 2
6. How many days/weeks in advance ticket was purchased: ~ one month
7. How many hours/days/weeks before departure did upgrade clear: two hours
United First was pricing out between 699 and 999 per seat the last few days, but there were two PP seats at $250 each and plenty of open seats up front in the 767.
We were on two PNRs and I had already waitlisted all 40 PlusPoints on the return red-eye, so I enlisted some help.
First, I had the ladies at the United Club confirm the Polaris availability, then upgraded each reservation to PP in the app myself, and they applied ten PlusPoints each to confirm United First in 11A and 10D, and finally I asked the Twitter team to cancel the waitlist for next week since I don't have enough points to clear.
$250 and 10 PlusPoints each feels like a great deal on the original $710 r/t fare, and the availability on the way back is looking great as well.
(We also cleared CLE - EWR with CPUs, even though she's Silver and was tenth on the list. I cleared at check-in and she cleared a few hours later, last available seat. That's our first successful CPU this year, and I'm Platinum.)