They supposedly had a solution, and I believe I was even told the solution was being "loaded" several weeks ago. Not sure if anything has been confirmed by CO Insider.

Presumably a reservation that is out-of-sync. An example might be a travel-agent booked itinerary where the reservation was changed but the ticket wasn't re-issued. Or maybe the domestic portion of an international itinerary that is on the waitlist for a BF upgrade but the waitlist wasn't properly processed.

The issue of a problem reservation halting EUA has been around for several years. The frequency in which CO saw it, though, has increased, which is why they're working on it.

While what CO Insider said is true, I'm going to take a guess and say that the actual instances where it's happened are rare.

Let's not forget that CO (and other airlines) zero out the R bucket right before EUA runs and then opens it back up. So even though you might see R bucket availability now, the only thing that matters for EUA is t-72, t-48, t-24, t-3.

Unless Im flying on a Flight that historically doesnt sell 50% of its FC seats , I know any Upgrade will be done day of flight. No matter how many seats are empty up front

So the ole adage still holds water, If you must be up front BUY the FC seat, otherwise pick a seat in the back that you dont mind actually flying in. If you get the UP great,if not, then you got what you paid for.

IF CO opens up Ups to all UA Elites then ,IMO its gonna be alot longer between Ups then its been till now. If UA opens E+ to CO Elites then fly UA,the extra room is really that nice, only you wont be able to complain about the food since its BOB

No, they don't really do this. Just an urban legend / conspiracy theory / etc.

I am guessing a problem reservation is one that is "out of sync". Standard terminology that a reservation is screwed up.

CO Insider reported the EUA freeze issue a month or two ago and indicated that CO was working on it. But I have not seen an update from CO Insider on the current status.

:confused:

You can actually watch this happen if you check upgrade reward availability before, during, and after the EUA window.

As a Gold I did not get my EUA at 3 days out earlier this month. I saw 4 seats open. I called the Elite desk and in 2 minutes I had 2F on the Retrojet!!!

I think the rarity is no longer rare - as channa has pointed out. Up to about 4-5 months ago - R bucket, R bucket being zero'ed out at EUA time, R bucket available and all available R seats EUA'ed, then R goes to zero and may reopen the next day, etc. etc. etc.

I am pretty asute on how this works and have watched it over the years and know the patterns and flights for which it will clear/not clear.

But - the patterns over the past couple of months on several flights - and many of the exact same flights on the same days of the week - indicates to me there is a problem with EUA.

Now agreed - it works most of the time as it should and seats are held back as they should - but there are irregular patterns and CO Insider has confirmed it.

We just need an update from CO Insider on the status.

It doesn't indicate it to me and while I'm sure there were actually some issues, I don't think it's as widespread as you are trying to suggest.

I agree that the R bucket is being zeroed out, we've known that for a while, but I disagree that the EUA being choked up on a single passenger record is really that widespread.

Not really wide spread, but unique per flight. It only takes one out-of-sync reservation to stop the EUA process for a given flight - this is what CO Insider has indicated on his last post on this subject.

I see this happening on the DCA-IAH at 6am - one that I eventually get upgraded. Many of the passengers on this flight do not speak English - so I suspect that many have had tickets issued through agents - with a higher risk of being out of sync.

Since we don't know what the issue is that is causing the EUA to stop, it's difficult for us conclude that tickets out of sync or tickets being issued by agents are the problem.

It is not related to the tickets, per se. It is actually related to specific passengers and something in their accounts. I happen to know someone who's OnePass account could regularly and repeatedly break the EUA system. Didn't matter what type of ticket they were on or where it was purchased.

Good to know.