It does work as long as you are on a single segment. If you are flying point to point with no connections and you applied an RPU/GPU you will find yourself just below the insta-upgrades on the gate WL.

And I had two RPU upgrades clear between T-24 and T-6.

The current reservation system fails miserable when dealing with segment with more than a single leg. If one of the segments was upgraded using an instrument, the second will end up in a black hole. The only way to get the upgrade to clear is human intervention

Several recent examples:

• Applied GPU to TPE->NRT->EWR. TPE->NRT clears at booking, NRT->EWR not cleared when RN becomes available a few days before departure. Had to call to get the upgrade to clear.
• Upgraded CCU->BOM->EWR using GPU. CCU->BOM on jet not eligible for upgrade. DEL->EWR not cleared until T-24. Not showing on the upgrade list after check in at CCU. The ticketing agent at BOM manged to get me on the list and I was upgraded after boarding.
• Upgraded SLC->DEN->EWR using RPU. SLC->DEN cleared at booking. never made it to the WL at T-24.Had to call to get on the WL. Nobody cleared.

Bottom line:

• No need to worry if you are not connecting.
• Be prepared for some stress and give yourself some time to override the IT failures if you are trying to apply an RPU/GPU on a flight with connections.
• Channa is too generous with UA/CO's IT. My rating of their performance would have banned me from this forum.

Happy Travels
DLP

I pretty much suspected that something like this was occurring, and your analysis seems very accurate.

My bottom line:

This problem is definitely NOT a priority for UA and until it gets straightened out I'm not going to ever apply an RPU or a GPU unless I can get confirmed from the get-go!

People must be loosing these things, left & right, with no understanding that this is broken, and being waitlisted @ T-24 ain't in the cards!

Showing up at the gate on a domestic flight with a GPU (or even an RPU) requested and seeing your name #13 on the list does tend to piss a guy off, especially when you're about to fly all the way across the country in coach and you burnt one of these for SFO-LAS (on the second leg)!!!

The thing I find astounding about the $mi$ek regime is that they don't seem to measure the labor cost of hiring people to repeat these manual processes over and over again. They've managed to figure out how to save dollars or pennies on just about every imaginable transaction but if they were measuring the labor cost of dealing with these SHARES problems then surely they'd fix the problems and fire all the people who spend their lives resolving them by hand.

Phone experience on re-deposit is mixed for me. Best case - one call, resolved in < 5 minutes. Worst case, several calls, 1-3 hours of time to get it done.

As far as I know, RN hasn't been used. You should look for R.
Somehow, I don't feel they want to fix those issues.
They just want to wait.
Once people feel tired and don't talk about these issues, they can do
business as usual (pmCO).
They barely reply customer relations e-mail if it's not compliment.
The seat changes and upgrade issues have never been fixed.

I was thinking I could get on of those R that opens up at 24 hours before the flight, even with J2 only. But I couldn't call at that exact time, and when I search online when I was free, someone else had taken them, J0. Then in the waitlist at the gate, position 5 of 7, one cleared after boarding.
I was really uncomftable in Y (EWR PVG)

It makes it for a way to get the upgrade if you can be standby to call at that time and jump the queue.

+1

I know that this has been covered ad nauseum, and I thought myself fairly savvy at United ins and outs, but 3 calls to the Global desk have netted me three different answers---sad, but I am certain that someone here will know more than a UA employee...

I am on a wait list to use a GPU to go from B to F on a MUC-IAD UA flight. Only 2 seats left, so the wait list is not a surprise. One UA agent said the wait list goes away 24 hours before a flight and that I need to check in Munich with a gate agent. Another UA agent said that the wait list remains in tact, but passengers with higher priority can bump me down the list if they try to apply a GPU (I am Global 1k), and the third said that I do not need to do anything, my spot is my spot and if the seats are open one will be applied first come first serve.

I am Xfering from KBP so I do not have much time to hustle down to the UA gate in MUC prior to the flight leaving to see if I need to add myself to a new list. I am sure that others have found themselves in similar boats... Any advise?

I am booked in C on UA 940 (ORD-FRA) 6/21, waitlisted for F (ON inventory) ... F5, ON0 now ... am checking daily, maybe more frequently now after reading this thread!

The third agent is the closest.
The Waitlist and the ability to be added to the Waitlist "expires" at T-24. The list is transfered to the the Upgrade Standby list (which looks a bit like a waitlist to me). But the transfer does not happen for individual until they checkin, so new names can appear on the Upgrade StandBy list as checkin happen and these could be above or below you depending on fare class and time of upgrade request.
You do not need to go to the gate and request anything but after checkin check the Upgrade Standby list @ www.mobile.united.com to make sure you are listed.
No new requests for GPU usage can be made after T-24 unless there is upgradeable space available -- they will not be waitlisted on Upgrade Standby list.

Thanks WineCountry great info. I will check into both flights in Kiev with the wonderfully smiley and happy Ukrainian airline contractors.

Please bare with me, as I am a right brainer and still count on my fingers.

What seems odd is the use of a SWU after the pre 24 hr wait list goes away. So the system notes that I previously requested an upgrade and therefore transfers my info to that new list?

Crazy United. I felt like I understood the street signs in China better than the new UA policies.

Just went through this a few weeks ago. There is a difference in how things are supposed to work (or how they tell you things are supposed to work) and what is actually happening. In a similar situation, was waiting for an upgarde and it did not come before the 24-hour window opened. I ended up not getting up graded - but a SFO Customer Service Rep explained what was going on. Theoretically, passangers on the waitlist shuld be priortized by status, as they are prior. And that's the way United says it is supposed to work.

Recently, and for some time, there has been a glitched that basically ignores a travelers status in that window and priortizes the waitlist only by the fare on the which the passenger is traveling. So you need some level of status to get on teh waitlist, but once on - only the fare drives the position on that list. I'm a 1K million miler, and already hit 1K for this year - and on my flight regular FF were getting upgraded before I did. The Rep told me a Global srvices person who ended up being #8 on the waitlist after other folks got upgraded before them.

Supposedly this is a systems glitch that is a 'high priority' to fix.

If you do get an upgrade a SWU/GPU will be used. On the new list, Upgrade Standby list, the fact you requested via SWU/GPU will be maintained.

The word "expired" is a poor choice of words and creates much confusion. The waitlist does not really expire. It is transferred, in whole, as you checkin to the Upgrade Standby list and the ability to add a new request is not longer possibly.

a similar thread on RPUs and the waitlist is http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...re-24-hrs.html

there have been rumors of this but one always needs to be suspicious of agent info in these circumstances. The lack of formal, transparent info from UA can lead to all sorts of speculation.

Be sure to check just after T-24 (like 5 minutes), that's when there's a good chance space will open up

Thanks again to all. Have been following the RPU thread also, but was not sure if there was a difference in process between the RPUs and GPUs.

I am GS1k on a C tix, so maybe i'll catch a break--unless I am on the flight with a GS1KDoubleMM on an A fare (just my luck).

I did now know that you could check upgrade lists at the UA mobile site. Will give me something to do at KBP other than watch Ukrainians boozing at 4:30am

Thanks again.

Under the old regime, where upgrade-after-OLCI produced an error, it was possible to call 1K Web Support and get a seat assignment after (what seemed at the time) an excruciatingly slow 15 minute wait.