I am very frustrated with UA. Their upgrade policy penalizes full fare travellers who are not 1K.

Full fare travellers buy last minute tickets and don't stay over Saturday night. If you buy a ticket on UA with less than 72 hours to go before departure, they waitlist you for an upgrade at the airport.

Other airlines I am familiar with, such as AA, can get you the upgrade even in this case so you know you have it. With UA, I am constantly at the airport worrying about not getting the upgrade.

One alternative for me (I am Prem Ex so far) is to buy C tix on a 3-class transcon trip (I take them almost every week). But if only a 2-cabin is available, an F ticket for a narrowbody is out of the question -- on a transcon it can cost $1900

That is why I took USAirways back from SFO yesterday and not UA. US gave me an upgrade on a sold out flight 24 hours before the flight, using certificates. I would have much preferred flying on UA but they were going to give me a middle seat in coach on a sold out flight on the red-eye, at a cost of about $1100.

I don't want to start an argument with anyone of the merits of advance purchase or leisure travel versus last minute business travel. Reports I read say that it is the last minute full fare business travellers that make a particular flight profitable or not profitable for the airline. So in my book, UA is treating people like me, who are very profitable, very poorly, especially from IAD on any busy market (IAD-SFO, IAD-SEA, IAD-LAX, etc.)

I complained to UA about this and will let you know the response I receive. I am sure that if I was a 1K, this would not be as much of a problem (I have travelled almost 30K miles in UA since 1 January 2000 so I will make 1K mid-year anyway). But I think they should change their yield management system to make upgrades available for last minute full fare travellers who are loyal to the airline and who cannot buy tix 72+ hours in advance.

--end of rant---