Has EUA Stopped Running?
 

I have a LAX-IAH-SJO flight this Sunday and my LAX-IAH cleared the EUA. However, even though my IAH-SJO flight shows R/RN > 0, I am not upgraded (I called CO yesterday and was told that the "sweep" will happen midnight last night and there's nothing they can do to upgrade me).

As far as I know, the "sweep" only happens once a day and it's usually in 24/48/72/96 etc. hours prior to your departure time. All my flights are marketed and operated by CO, so there shouldn't be any out of sync problems. How do I make sure that I am on the upgrade list or get upgraded since it has been showing R/RN > 0 for the past few days!

Sometimes, having faith in the system just doesn't work because computer says no! :mad:

Maybe you're not next in line for the upgrade?
You got upgraded on your other segment, so I'm sure your reservation is fine, and you'll just have to wait until the system processes you.

Just a point of clarification, just because it's marketed and operated by CO and even bought from CO doesn't mean it can't be out of sync. It most certainly can be out of sync.

That's likely not your case here since you received the first of two upgrades.

Since CO's upgrade system is opaque, and you have no visibility into it (no Upgrade: Pending or Upgrade: Waitlisted notation), you just have to have blind faith that the system will work and take care of you if appropriate.

It's unfortunate that they don't have a DL-like or UA-like system where they run upgrade as soon as space is available inside your window, but CO is probably working around a lousy back end system, and apparently this is the best they can do.

And unless the UA flight has a GID at the gate, you'll have no idea where you stand on the upgrade waitlist. You'll also have to wait until you get to the gate to see where you are, unlike co's system which will show you the battlefield upgrade order as soon as you check in. @:-)

I know you have a CO flight, just highlighting some differences with UA

Thank you! I am aware of the CO EUA problems (i.e. not showing Waitlisted/Pending) when they started to offer complimentary EUAs to UA Elites this year. However, it's kinda absurd that an agent can't physically book me into the R/RN class even though it is available (she told me it is available but there's can physically book me into that class)!

:confused: why should they? There could be 10 people ahead of you on the upgrade list - the fact that you can see R availability doesn't mean you're next.

I am confused by this. How would someone be ahead of me when there are already 3 EUA sweeps. If PP is ahead of me, he/she would be upgraded by now and then Plats/1Ks, and now it's past the Gold/1P sweep. Am I wrong to think that if R > 0 before your sweep, you should get the EUA since other higher elites would have been upgraded already?

1) Upgrades may are not necessarily run at the stated times, so there may be PP, Plats/1K ahead of you that have not been upgraded yet. 2) Did you ever stop to think there might be more than one of you at your elite level? As a matter of fact, the number of elites at each level increases significantly as you work down the list. If R>0, that tells me that there's probably a line of people ahead of you waiting to be upgraded.

I don't want to sound rude, but I want to understand the situation. If my flight shows R = 4 now (i.e. < 3 days prior to departure), then the PP, Plats/1K and Gold/1Ps should have cleared by now (since PP/Plat/1K clear 5 days prior and 1P/Gold clear 3 days prior). Even if R>0 and there's a PP in front of me, the PP won't clear because there's a line? Don't CO start clearing the upgrades until R=0?

2) Yes I know there are Plats/PP/1Ks at the same elite level as me!

But if R wasn't available 5 days in advance when the window arrived for PP, Plat, 1K, etc. then no upgrades would have happened then. Same thing if R wasn't available at 3 days out, still nobody would have been upgraded.

What's likely to happen is that the next time the sweep happens, those 4 seats will be filled, starting with the PP, Plat, 1K, etc. and working down from there. Or they will remove some / all of the R inventory because the revenue management system believes they can sell more seats.

The key difference though is that nothing happens until each "sweep" occurs and then the available R inventory is filled according to status. No R inventory at that instant = no upgrades happen then until the next sweep.

As a CO Plat, I can tell your for sure that EUA does not run predictably every day, as you are assuming. Also, you are not taking into account higher levels of elite that may have (and probably did, to a certain extent) purchase tickets after the 5 day EUA run (if in fact it ran). Nowhere does CO 'guarantee' that EUA will run at the listed times.

Indeed, & in fact, for those elites who have done SDCs, -- this has worked in their favor (otherwise, there would be little chance for an EUA w/in T-24 when doing an SDC)!^

While CO shows you the battlefield order at checkin, it doesn't necessarily show you the ordering that will be used. It depends on which system handles your upgrade.

One of the advantages of UA's approach is that the list becomes authoritative inside of four (4) hours.

CO's list, OTOH, does not become authoritative until checkin close, which in some cases is after boarding has commenced. Since EUA and the visible upgrade list use different orderings, this could be a problem.

In fact if CO did have GIDs at more gates like other airlines have, it could be more problematic when the lists complete and customers watch #3 get upgraded while #1 and #2 remain the same.


Remember there is no waitlisting for EUA upgrades with CO. The computer gets to you and processes it when it gets to you. You don't know if the R space was just released and others are ahead of you. Or if the R was there all along but EUA never ran. It's all part of the mystery and lack of transparency behind EUA.

Since we have no visibility into the upgrade system on CO, the agents aren't allowed to override it in an attempt to maintain some semblance of integrity.

You seem to have this expectation that if you're inside the window and there's upgrade space, you're entitled to it. While that would be the case on UA or DL, it's not the case with CO.

If there is R=1 and I buy an F seat right now, R goes to 0 and you don't get your UG.

Not necessarily. If F=3 and R=1, the F you purchased doesn't come out of R. Revenue management is behind both UA and CO's upgrade schemes and none of us have the crystal ball inside either one. UA's upgrade scheme and CO's both have advantages and disadvantages. Let's not pretend either one is the be all end all of complementary upgrade programs.

I am not going to search, but I think I recall reading on FF that revenue management can pull R availability just before the EUA is run, and reinstate it after the EUA. This allows passengers buying full Y fares (and B or M) to upgrade in the days before the flight. Otherwise, this option would disappear if there were enough high level elites on discount fares.

I don't like it because I almost never buy full fare and my upgrade percentage went down when this was started. I will say, that for whatever reason, the percentage has been better this year.

As many have said, if you must have an upgrade, then miles or money can make it happen. Otherwise, you get it when revenue management says so. I am at peace with that and appreciate every upgrade when it happens.

Also, SWUs/CR-1s can be applied!

I am under the impression that the Y/B/M upgrades clear into a different bucket (FE/ZE?). Thus, there is no need for IM to pull and reinstate R/RN availability before the sweep.

Well, if they wanted to hold FC space for the YBM-UPs, but they also wanted to allow instrument upgrades, this would be a reason for withdrawing/reinstating the R/RN inventory.

Perhaps they're moving toward different inventory buckets for instrument upgrades and EUA/UDU/CPUs (e.g., R vs. RN) in which case they wouldn't need to do this.

FWIW, AA has different buckets for mileage and elite upgrades. Although their mileage upgrade bucket is also a revenue bucket on domestic 2-class flights for some stupid reason... (Which of course is good for travelers as it means mileage upgrades are almost always available on AA.)

Yikes! Never thought I'd be responding to this type of thread, but I'm on CO 1052 tomorrow (EWR-CUN) leaving at 7:25am. PDA shows 16 seats in F with only 6 booked... but as of now (7:45am) 0 upgraded ?? Similar story on my return Sun on CO 1011-- which also has 16 in F, but there it shows only 4 booked and 2 of those 4 were already upgraded (miles ??).
This Platinum has 97,645 miles this year, and I'm at 100% EUA, I can't believe this will be the one flight I'm sitting in coach:eek::eek:
PS-- yeah, I know it will problably run and I'll be sipping on my bloody mary at this time tommow in 1A, but come on CO, don't make me sweat it out ;)

Just checked again, and still showing the same, but CO is giving me the "generous" offer of using US$ 1,011 to upgrade to F for one of the available 9 + seats on tomorrows flight !!

Agreed - but I would posit a single UG bucket and a single UG list is more clear and intuitive than two of each, which just induces confusion.

Good point. I meant F/R=1 and I buy the seat. Point is that OP might not be the only person in line for the seat and that even if he is at any given second, someone could jump ahead of him one second later. Thus, carriers all hold seats to the gate.

No EUA's to CUN / Mexico ??
 

JRegarding my non- EUA EWR- CUN, I just spoke to a CO Plat desk rep who politely informed me that EUA's are not available on flights to/from Mexico ?? But, if I wanted I could get immediately upgraded for a mere 25,000 miles each way or for a cost of $2,022 r/t :mad:

Misinformed agents. EUAs are fine to Mexico.

Yeah, I know.... problem was she kept me on hold for over 20 minutes, only to come back with that inaccurate info!

"The best in the business." ;)

Enjoy Cancun!

Today, my EUA ran / upgraded me ATL-IAH for 5 October. ^

:mad: My SJO-IAH on Oct. 5 did not run as well even though R/RN = 3!!!! My IAH-SJO is showing R/RN = 5 and that did not run as well!

I don't really understand that...
It's nothing new that upgrades are not processed as it's been all the time like this.
Upgrade window opens up based on the status, but it doesn't mean that upgrades will be processed at all.
Basically what CO is saying that your upgrade might be processed somewhere between -xx hours till the departure and actual departure.

Maybe I am too used to UA's system whereby upgrade will clear once you reach the window and if it doesn't you can call UA and book you right into NC/NF if it's still available.

So long as EUA has the sort of opaqueness and mystery that it currently has, we're going to continue to see posters confused like the poster to which you replied. It's actually going to get worse when we move to CO's systems and the EUA methodology takes precedence if they don't fix it ahead of time. The UA upgrade system is simpler and has more visibility into it, and it does not have the same sort of caveats and nuances.

The sweep mechanism creates this sort of anomaly where you could be inside your window, with upgrade space available, yet not be upgraded. If you understand a little about this stuff, but don't understand the design of the system end to end, that is going to be confusing. Another part that will be confusing is the multiple upgrade lists (e.g., B-Up is available but my V fare is not clearing).

Yet another part that's going to be confusing is the competing upgrade lists, with the airport upgrade list being visible but EUA using a different ordering scheme even while at the gate is going to ruffle some feathers when people see #2 get upgraded above #1. UA's gate displays may provide more visibility into this nuance and draw attention to it.

This all assumes they use EUA as we know it and don't fix these issues before they move the UA folks over. I wonder how much CO spends in calls each year with Elite customers calling in inside their window about upgrade space being open but their upgrade not clearing.

CO could clear the confusion with two changes. One would be to remove the "window" terminology in the elite benefits descriptions. Your upgrade comes when revenue management says so with ranking in order: displaced etc, instruments, YBM, elite status, ticket price, and time of purchase.

The other would be to use time of purchase in the gate list instead of time of check in. Then the ranking would not be different in those instances when an upgrade is based on the final tie-breaker.

But they won't do that. CO will continue to over-market and under-deliver like they like to do.


Or just put in a 4-hour EUA cutoff rule like UA has (or a 3-hour EUA cutoff rule like CO used to). Then the airport standby list becomes authoritative at that point.

completely agree, that CO's EUA process might be confusing for UA folks as UA's process is a bit confusing for me.
Me, personally look at at the COs system, that upgrade will not be processed >24 hours before the scheduled departure, and with my routes and luck :) my upgrade will not be processed at all...

OK - I am even more confused now! I've checked in for my flight but it doesn't that I have been upgraded on the LAX-IAH flight (which usually does if you are on EUA) on the flight status page and it doesn't show that I am on the upgrade standby list on the IAH-SJO sector! :mad:

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Same deal on my EWR-CLT flight tomorrow, got 5-day EUA, but the app's flight status has 13/16 booked with no one upgraded. My BP is correct so I'm not sweating it, but interesting to see. Those on the upgrade standby list appear to be as before.

Similar for IAH-MSY tomorrow - 20 seats, 0 booked or c/i, couple dozen folks on the standby list. Curious if this is a system issue or a bid to drive upgrade purchases. Either way, tad annoying.

not working on flight to SEA today
 

IAH to SEA at 2:35p. 16 seats, 8 booked, and 8 checked in.

Dozen people on upgrade list, but hey, maybe 8 people will buy FC seats in the next two hours.

IAH-PHL @ 7:41pm. 20 seats, 7 booked, 6 checked in. 24 on waitlist. 13 will buy-up, according to Elite Desk rep :( I guess he is giving a standard answer the $mi$ek told them to.

This started happening this weekend as my Friday's upgrade happened last Sunday. Probably some kind of system glitch between UA and CO trying to merge some functions. Coincidentally I was dropping off my parents yesterday pm and their flight had 12 empty FC seats. Saw GA at the last moment holding a handfull of BP and calling all 12 pax and exchanging their BPs.

Annoying.

EUA
 

Sorry just have to ask. What is EUA...

Electronic Upgrade Application?
End of United?
Elephant Under Airplane?
Ear Under A**


>>Same deal on my EWR-CLT flight tomorrow, got 5-day EUA, but the app's flight status has 13/16 booked with no one upgraded. My BP is correct so I'm not sweating it, but interesting to see. Those on the upgrade standby list appear to be as before. <<

How do we know this? is this the new United Cell Phone APP?