Other person could have been on an earlier flight in confirmed F and owing to Irrops or DB placed on your flight with confirmed J and priority waitlist for F.

Other person's upgrade could have been based on something other than FF. S/he could have been a VIP (e.g. senior corporate executive with UA or one of the other few "really special people").

Person had J ticket, did not purchase upgrade, was not confirmed, and was not irrop. Used my spouse's GPU (also GS)

simplest explanation and was the first posted -- the other person purchased and requested the upgrade before you did. Check in time seems to only be a factor for CPU, not for GPU/RPU/mileage request.

just wondering if that is confirmed, or a hypothesis we still need to test.

Maybe the case
 

GS saying rules are status, fare (dollar value not fare class), time of check-in for GPU. The dollar value sounds new, but who knows.

It is fare class, not dollar value:

"The waitlist will clear automatically by Premier status, then fare class*, then time of request"
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...wupgrades.aspx

I've no faith in the waitlist process now!
 

Mrs. Tbear and I (both 1Ks) were waitlisted about 6 months before our flights using RPUs on separate PNRs. 4 weeks before our outbound I was cleared for the outbound. Called the 1K desk to inquire why Mrs. Tbear wasn't cleared too. Told agent I waitlisted Mrs. Tbear's flights before I waitlisted mine's and we were on the same fare basis. Agent couldn't explain the anomaly only to say that she should clear soon as plenty of F space left. Two days later, Mrs. Tbear cleared her outbound.

So why did I jump over her in the waitlist?:confused: I do all our travel plans and always waitlist her before me. She even has more RDMs and YTD EQMs than me (if that makes any difference).

Time placed on waitlist did not apply here so I have no faith in the integrity of UA's procedure anymore. Maybe a chimp is throwing darts at names on the waitlist.:rolleyes:

Define, "..I waitlisted Mrs. Tbear's flights before I waitlisted mine's..." Are we talking seconds, minutes, hours or days between upgrade requests?

I'm starting to wonder if UA doesn't do a nightly batch process to update the upgrade waitlist for a flight instead of doing it dynamically that far out (e.g. 6 months). So both of you got added at the same time during the batch and you possibly got the earlier timestamp because they processed your's first.

My other idea is that putting in two requests within seconds or even minutes isn't enough time to update the waitlist so your request, again, hit first before your wife's. Just an idea.

If you say you waited days between upgrade requests then I think there's a definite problem.

-RM

I did the upgrade requests within minutes of each other. Been doing this for years now (we're both 1Ks for 9 yrs now, with identically travel itineraries). Pre 3/3 Mrs. Tbear always cleared the waitlist before me so the integrity of the process was fine previously. Post 3/3 I think the chimp took over.;)

I have a similar issue to to one described above. My wife and I, both 1K's, were in line for a CPU today. The tickets were originally purchased 4 months ago in the same fare class and the exact same dollar amount. They were booked on two separate records. My ticket was purchased 2 minutes before hers. At T-96 she cleared at her window and I did not. Any insights why she cleared before I did? (An agent I spoke with offered a possible explanation of "ladies first" :))

^

Great question and one I wish UA would answer. I'll refer back to my post a few above this one where I infer that the waitlist is not updated automatically when a new reservation is made and is somehow done at night or at some other point during the day and your wife got added before you even though your ticket was issued first. It's all I can think of for now.

-RM

So will my upgrade percentage increase, if I have a sex change operation?

UPG policy: no point in asking Smisek?
 

Was both GS and 1K with UA for years.
Like millions of other people, I am shocked to see the post merger UPG situation and the stark contrast with before.
I made the decision to write a letter to Smisek, hoping that someone in a position to address the question would clarify what the new, post merger UPG policy is.
Too naive..
Got first a reply from a CS agent, who simply copied a URL directing me to the rules on UPG on UA's site....
I complain about such a reply.
THen, another agent tells me that UA has now 3M elite passengers! Great..
I complain again about the reply.
Then I am told that, if I want to know about the pre merger UPG policy, I need to call such and such number in the US (CS). Great... I happen to live in Japan.
With the old UA, it used to mean something to be either GS or 1K.
Seems that now, it is almost irrelevant..
Selling UPGs at the gate used to be the exception (I have travelled extensively on many international routes and rarely saw such practice). It seems to tbe norm now.

Any thoughts?

I've had occasion to send Mr. Smisek half a dozen emails in the last six months. All were answered by him personally, usually within a few hours. Same goes for emails I have sent directly to some of his staff.

I have complaints about and annoyances with the new United but this isn't one of them.

honestly? i mean there's technical glitches and issues, but i think we have to accept that this is the direction all US based carriers seem to be going for the most part (i'm not familiar enough with non-US carriers to comment). with the increasing costs, consolidation and general resistance to paying higher prices (for almost anything, not just airfare) i think that long term the idea of monetizing as much as they can to increase profits to stay afloat. i would say the various legacies (UA, AA, DL, US) are in different stages of monetizing as much as they can and they are all doing it at different rates and there are countless discussions both here and in the real world as to whether it's a good idea versus incredibly shortsighted idea... but in my humble opinion the unbundling and selling of everything they can is only going to get worse, not better, across all the carriers.

that's my long roundabout way of saying (sorry i get verbose sometimes :)) that at least in terms of UA's direction of saying "we want to sell as many upgrades as possible" is something that's here to stay, although if they do the process should be clear and it should work as advertised.

i will say though in my limited experience flying in asia (i fly to ICN via SFO/NRT about 4 times a year and to PVG and HKG 2-3 times a year) for years both pre-merger flying as a CO PLT and now flying as a UA 1K, i would venture to say that the situation is far less worse than it is on domestic flights here in the states. my honest flyer-to-flyer suggestion would be to count whatever blessings you can right now, and start to look at other options to see which carriers (maybe it's UA, maybe it's not) best suit your needs. it's a crappy situation, but better to just get to a place where you're comfortable rather than banging your head against a wall that won't listen. my just 2c.