Indeed:

"Priority within 24 hours
New waitlist requests for MileagePlus Upgrade Awards, Regional Premier Upgrades, and Global Premier Upgrades can be made until 24 hours prior to departure. At 24 hours from departure, waitlists will expire and automatic processing of upgrades, per the priority listed above, will continue. As customers check in, they will be placed on an airport upgrade standby list. This standby list will clear starting at two hours prior to departure, based on Premier status, fare class and time of check-in."

Not looking forward to defending my uncleared upgrade tomorrow. I can handle advertised cuts in benefits, but I really can't handle this toxic mix of lies and ineptitude in unknown proportions, and I'm afraid I'm seeing a firm trajectory starting with the membership card fiasco earlier this year.

Hi mghorton, thanks for bringing this to our attention. I want to ensure you, and anyone else who may hear this, that this is absolutely not the case. I'm sorry you were misadvised. If you redeem a mileage upgrade award, Regional Premier Upgrade (RPU) or Global Premier Upgrade (GPU) and don�t clear the waitlist within 24 hours of your flight, the system will automatically place you on the upgrade standby list when you check-in. We are in process of getting some good information into the hands of our co-workers to ensure that this process is understood.

To offer a bit of background, I think where the confusion has come into play is that, previously United customers could request to upgrade using a systemwide or regional upgrade on the spot, at the airport. Now, if space is not available, these requests must be made at least 24 hours in advance either online or over the phone. I'm afraid some took this to mean that being put on the upgrade standby list at the airport was no longer possible. This is an incorrect interpretation. So long as you�ve redeemed the mileage, RPU or GPU in advance, then you should be on the standby list. We're working to get this message re-communicated.

Shannon

Shannon, what was the reasoning behind eliminating the ability to request an upgrade "on the spot" at the airport using an instrument? It seemed to work fine in the past.....

Shannon,

Thanks - that's good to hear.

But could you possibly clarify why the new United has chosen to go to a more restrictive policy from the previous ability to apply upgrade requests on the spot and whether work is in process to go back to the more customer-friendly approach?

Thanks

Hi halls120 and pagotto, your both right. Previously, on the United side, there was a good process for this. All in all it�s much more a systems constraint than it is a business decision. The short answer is, we simply don�t have the right tools and process in place to support this at the moment. That�s not to say that we don�t want to get there though.

Shannon

Shannon - thanks for the prompt explanation. Hopefully this capability will be restored once the systems can be modified to allow it.

I am only going by my experience PMUA/PMCO.
In January, I was booked DTW-SFO via ORD UA & upgraded using my CR1.
Night before UA cancelled first morning flight DTW-ORD due to weather conditions in ORD that evening.
UA1K desk protected me on CO , I recall UA agent saying they could not put me on upgrade waitlist within the 24 hour window using my CR1,as CO system requires Upgrade space has to be available within the 24 hour window.

I am fine with the 24 hour policy, and can definitely live with the change. However, the miscommunication on this appears to be rampant.

I talked to a 1K at IAD today who claimed they weren't even automatically added to the UG list. UA employees, as one personally claimed to me, said their biggest frustration is that they don't know how to add someone to the upgrade list.

So from what I can see, the problems are

A) Several pax are not being added automatically to the ug standby list, regardless of instrument

B) Some agents claim they don't know how to add ,some agents claim they can't.

I really hope this gets fixed soon. I almost gave the pax my F seat, felt bad for her. Told her to email...

I just think this is another way gets to try to sell seats at the last minute.

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here, as there are things that Shares couldn't do that Apollo could do.

Now, if six months out we still can't use instruments within 24 hours, then it becomes a policy choice, not a systems limitation.

Thanks for the update Shannon ^

Should anyone run into confusion is there a sonic code we could reference to help the agents with sorting out the upgrades at the airport?

Thanks for the update but if I may, imho, if SHARES is "more advanced", one would think that such a commonplace occurrence as is being discussed would have already been part of the "more advanced system". Sorry, and with all due respect, I'm not buying it/drinking the Kool-Aid that the capability is not there as the reason. The system conversion prep had been going on for how long and you mean to tell me that this feature (which almost every other major airline has) was not to be included? Yeah, I'm in a cranky mood but it just boggles my mind that this and other "issues" are the result of a lack of technology resources when the system that was replaced had the very same resources (and they worked!)

Why not allow GAs to add people to the Upgrade Standby List and then call MileagePlus to have the GPU/RPU pulled?

Maybe that's too nightmarish.

Shannon, two questions:

1. If there is confirmed R space available, then can the upgrade be done on the spot at the gate?

2. For people who buy their tickets withing 24 hours - often at high fares - this is a big issue if they cannot be added to the upgrade list. Are there plans to fix this?

others have reported that while this can not be done at the airport, the phone agents can do this.