Worthless miles
 

Why do we bother? Tried to book a flight and upgrade on United flights two months out. There were no 1st class seats booked; also NONE available for upgrade. I called and all a rep could tell me was that they were in it to make a profit.

Worthless miles
 

Vote with your wallet.

How do you know? The airline knows the history of the route and the probability of selling first class seats.

I know because the UA website still shows all of 1st class available. I went ahead and booked SW.

Those are seat assignments, not sales. Many people purchase tickets without choosing seats until nearer the time of travel.

You didn't mention what flight. With the exception (AA only?) of when an upgrade class is the exact same booking code (A in AA's case) as a discount-first class (on domestic 2-class planes), finding upgrades that will clear at the moment of booking can be very tough on any airline. Most people have to either "trust" or "risk" that they'll get miles upgrades if they go an upgrade waitlist. Often an airline will open upgrade availability only "momentarily", to the point that if you weren't waitlisted for the upgrade, you're not likely to ever see it.

Unfortunately, IIRC, United charges the co-pay (or requires booking higher-cost fares) for a miles upgrade at the time of booking, whether or not you end up getting upgraded. AA, by contrast, doesn't charge the co-pay unless/until your upgrade actually goes through, and allows upgrades from most any fare. So putting yourself on a miles+co-pay upgrade waitlist at AA is not quite as (financially) "dangerous" as doing it at UA (unless UA has recently changed their miles upgrade requirements and processing).

Lol, no first class seats 2 months out. I'm shocked.

+1 ....

OP must be new to the redemption game. But yep, the UA rep was right, they're in it to make a profit, though probably best not to toss that out to an angry customer.

Because many of us have been doing this long enough to know that availability on one airline on one flight for a product very unlikely to be available at this point isn't enough to condemn the entire FF business process.

If I called now to get a room in PHX for Super Bowl weekend, I wouldn't write off the entire concept of hotels as a sham.

Good FF Results for 2015
 

I have booked three roundtrips on United using miles for later in 2015. One trip was booked 337 days in advance of travel, while the others 9 to 10 months in advance.

While I didn't always receive my first choice of departures, the available choices were adequate for our needs.

Similarly, I also booked three roundtrips on Southwest, admittedly an easier task, and one on Alaska.

Fairly good results.

So you can't use miles to fly in first class so you book Southwest? Isn't that like cutting off your nose to spite your face?

Good that you could find F availability on WN. I never can.

UA has gotten really bad over the past 12-18 months with tightening up award availability. I seldom see saver awards on the routes I want except at undesirable times of the day, even months in advance. AA award availability has been significantly better every time. Hope US doesn't destroy that....

American has always been good for me.
 

Delta & United not so much.