smiles33

My family of 4 (including 2 kids under 13) applied miles + copay to upgrade from E+ to Business. No seats were available so we're waitlisted. We have no status with United, but since it's a red-eye on a Thursday night, I was hoping there might be a small chance the upgrades go through.

I checked in last night and saw we are included on the Business upgrade standby waitlist (#8-11). I thought we weren't supposed to show up on there unless I split the PNR. I did not, but I did check in with the mobile app. The flight is on one of the older planes, so there's still a separate 1st class cabin with 8 open seats. Even if they upgrade 8 people into 1st, I don't think we're getting off the waiting list unless passengers with confirmed J tickets fail to check in, right?

Also, I see no one from yesterday's flight or the day before is on the "upgraded to Business class" list. Do they not upgrade to Business very often? From the seat map, they were both full flights. Every business class seat and 1st class seat was shown as taken. It also shows 4 passengers were upgraded to First. Unless they came up from E/E+, wouldn't that have meant 4 people got into J class?

FWIW, this is an SFO-FRA flight.

Thanks in advance for helping me figure this out! Any insight would be appreciated.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Currently, people upgraded prior to check in do nor show up as upgraded. 4 people may have had J tickets, but no seats until they moved people up front prior to departure. If the business cabin seat map is full and there are 6 open Polaris F seats, there may be 6 J ticket holders people waiting for seats.

As for yesterday's flight, it would seem there were zero day of departure upgrades.

smiles33

Ah! That makes sense. Thank you for pointing that out.

fumje

Your PNR was split at check in without you being prompted, as there was a waitlisted upgrade request when you checked in. It is unintuitive.

Passengers who fly non-revenue (e.g., employee or 'buddy-pass') tickets can get cleared into F directly, so it may not be that anyone cleared into J on the previous days' flights.

WineCountryUA

PNR Splitting is automatic at checkin if waitlist with miles (or GPU or RPU)

The flight is Upgrades will be processed if there are empty seats in business. But they will not bump folks from business to Polaris FIrst just to make room for upgraders.

Only those upgraded at the gate show on the list. Been that way for years for non-CPU eligible flights ( and recently true for CPU eligible)

for more on the waitlist priorization, Understanding the United Upgrade List Comprehensively

findark

Ed. to add:

The flight is currently J7 PN2 R2 IN1 I1. If you feel like jockeying with agents, you might want to consult https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...available.html and attempt to get two upgrades pushed through. However, especially with a long waitlist already and it being within 24 hours of departure, this is a strategy of dubious reliability and morality.

At J7, it's possible that it's over by 1 in J and someone will get op-upped, but this won't help the J seat count.

Checking in will split the PNR and add you to the upgrade list. The only way to prevent this is to call and remove the waitlist prior to check-in.

Yes. Moreover, based on the F standby list, the likely result is that F will go out with 6 NRSAs (non-revenue passengers) and some empty seats. They may move the pilot into F (from seat 6A) which will unblock one J seat, but barring a significant number of no-shows you will not get upgraded.

As mentioned, upgrades before T-24 do not show as check marks.

It could, or it could mean four NRSA cleared off the standby list.

smiles33

Thank you all! We've only flown United once before (on a trip to Taipei, Taiwan) and we cleared from E+ to J months in advance on the outbound flight and the night before on the return flight. I know we really lucked out then, but since it was before check-in, we never got on the waiting list.

Thanks again for explaining it to me.