mnmme

My daughter, a non-elite, flying IAH - ORD today on an V fare is being offered an $89 buy up to 1st.

There are 3 F seats left and 5 elites on the upgrade standby list.

UA-NYC

Classy. Legit buy-up offers for Plats would be $252 and for Gold/Silver, $330.

But it's just a "bug", right? Funny how these TODs always seem to end in a 9

Please PM to UA Insider.

mnmme

Her buy up for the return is $459, has been for both the inbound and outbound since reservation made.

But going to check in .........$89. The checkle I got was the exit row price was $69........who wouldn't pay the extra $20???

UA-NYC

That's the PMCO MO - offer legit buy-ups until T-24, then break all it's published / promised rules and drop it to a TOD, and more often than not skip the elites on the WL to try and grab some additional $ from a kettle. Sweet business practice, does wonders for loyalty.

UA Insider

Hi mnmme, if you’d like to PM me with the flight number, we can take a look to see who the five customers on the standby list were. If three or greater are Elite customers, then the offer your daughter received is definitely an issue – and one that we clearly want to understand and correct. But, if there were enough remaining seats to clear any Elites on the standby list (say one or two) and there were still seats left, then the offer to upgrade matches what should be happening. For example, if only one of the five on the list are Elites and there are three seats left, then the lower dollar upgrade will be offered for two seats. Prior to check-in, the upgrade offer would have been higher because it would have been closer to the difference in fare between what she paid and the lowest fare she could purchase by to secure a First Class seat. It’s at check-in that the offer can drop based on the number of seats left and who is on the standby list. Other customers on the upgrade standby list can be employees, which of course, don’t come into play when determining whether or not to offer an upgrade. With the specific flight, we can determine definitively.

Shannon

channa

Shannon, does the system take into account just the number of Elites on the upgrade list or all Elites who could be on the upgrade list (i.e., those who are not yet checked in so they're not yet on the upgrade list)?

It sounds like the OP's flight may not yet have departed, so the upgrade list could get longer as more and more Elites check in.

mnmme

Hi Shannon,

They were there yesterday at T-22 when I checked her in. How else can you get on the Upgrade list at T-22 if not elite?

Plats cleared at T-120and Gold at T-72.

mnmme

Flight doesn't leave until early evening.

amartin1979

Employees traveling on NRSA or NRPS can be on the upgrade list. @:-)

ijgordon

I'll bet someone 3:1 that there are non-revs on the upgrade standby list and all elites will be accommodated.

Cbmaz

What we see on our PDA's is the standby list, not just the upgrade list.

UA Insider

Hi mnmme, thanks for sharing the flight number in your PM. It is very helpful. Without sharing specific names, here’s what’s happening. On this flight, there is one Elite customer booked that has not yet been cleared up front. This customer is checked in and shows as number one on the upgrade standby list. All the other customers on the upgrade standby list are employees. Specifically, numbers 2 through 5 are employees traveling on confirmed business who are eligible for upgrades once all customers are cleared and number 6 is an employee traveling standby. Since the flight has not yet departed, this list will change as others check-in. But, unless another Elite customer snags a last minute seat on this flight or switches to it through a same day change, I can confirm that there is indeed only one Elite booked on the flight that has not yet been cleared.

In a case like this, behind the scenes, we’ve calculated that we still need one seat to accommodate our Elite customer. This means that we have two seats left which we will offer for the lower upgrade cost. If the offer is ultimately taken for these two remaining seats, you won’t see the lower offer made anymore – since we know that the third seat is required for our Elite customer.

Even though things are working as designed on this flight, we do know that there's room for improvement regarding transparency. Until we're on a single system such changes remain on our list. In the interim, when we can delve deeper into flights on which there are concerns, we're happy to do so. We've found issues in the past -- and when we do, fixing them is our top priority.

Hi channa, the system does account for all Elites booked on the flight (regardless of whether or not they are checked in). Once checked in the name will display on the upgrade standby list. Admittedly, there is no visible transparency into the number of actual Elites booked on a flight unless everyone has checked in.

Employees – we’re conditioned to check-in early! When there are two employees with the same seniority, the time of check-in is the tie breaker.

**PS: The customer who was number one on the list just cleared at the 3 hour mark as I was typing, so the previous numbers change. 1 through 4 are now employees on business and number 5 is standby. But, I’ve left the original detail since it helps explain the scenario.

Shannon

UA-NYC

Thanks for the detailed explanation Shannon, this is very helpful (and I stand corrected in this case).

Hope we can still fix the issue when there are elites getting passed over for the UG offers, and the GMs are getting ones substantially less than a buy-up (not that they'd be eligible for the buy-up at the M/B fare anyways).

channa

Thanks, Shannon, for the detailed info.

Your comments regarding transparency sound promising. From a customer perspective, ideally Jeff's co-workers wouldn't show on lists visible to customers (employees could have their own interface, likely with more detailed load data not available to customers).

In addition to the perception issue in this situation, having upgrade lists longer than they need to be also creates a negative perception and ties up real estate on gate displays.

goalie

Thanks for a very good explanation Shannon ^ (and also for dealing with this while your on vacation as well ^) but If I can ask this......

You referred to the clearing of elites but how would this apply to a general/non-status member on a sponsored upgrade? The reason I ask is that I sponsored goalie-sis (no status) EWR-DUB and then back again DUB-EWR last month on a full-Y fare in both directions using 2 of my UA SWU's which I had transferred to my CO account.

The outbound cleared immediately as there was confirmable space ^ but the return never cleared (she just stayed number one on the list) and on the return, other pax were offered by-ups (one of my sister's co-workers on the same flight at check-in and two that asked the gate agent who quoted them the buy-up price [my sister was standing near the podium as the agent told her to "stay close by" and overheard the conversation)]

I'm not sure if this is similar to the OP's post but figured I'd ask it here