Originally Posted by halls120

I used my strategy successfully when flying out of IAD and when living in Germany. UA's Mileage Plus upgrades used to be a great deal, but they have just about killed the usefulness of that program as well. This time last year, I booked a TATL MP upgrade to J that was confirmable at purchase. I've been looking for the last few weeks, and every flight I've looked at J is "upgrade waitlisted." The only seats available to be upgraded at purchase are Premium Plus. All that is going to do is push me away from flying UA, because I'm not playing the waitlist lottery.