How flexible are you? Are you willing to make a double connection? (I see US-FRA upgrades in June, perhaps other cities as well) What is your origin city, and what is your ideal window of travel?

You may also consider connecting at Glasgow or Dublin or Manchester to get to London.

...and then prepare to fly in economy!

So fly to another airport. Europe is small, barely bigger than an average Canadian province. Why would you want to subject yourself to LHR's cancer scanner anyway?
For it is worth, before LHR had cancer scanners, I found that flights to LHR often had empty seats in J. But I agree, if you want J, then confirm J.

Very bad approach under current conditions.

Welcome to FT! You're unfortunately facing a combination of UA's increasingly restrictive general approach to upgrade availability, the relatively short advance period for seeking it (yes, less than three months can be short for UA), a busy time of year to try bagging an LHR upgrade, and perhaps even the increased traffic driven by the London Olympics.

Of the two options people have offered, I suggest the second in combination with a third that I explain below:

1. Simply wait list to LHR:

+1 Simply hoping for an upgrade if it's not available at time of booking will most likely leave you in economy.

2. Find an alternative routing that at least gets you across the Atlantic in J, and for which you can grab the upgrade at time of ticketing:

Though there is the obvious drag of having to fly switch flights and fly the short intra-Europe legs in coach (or if you're close enough to London, taking a train for that final leg), this is the surer thing.

3. Join expertflyer.com, a good service that costs about $10/month. It enables you to easily check upgrade availability and, more immediately for your needs, has a function that sends you email alerts if upgrades open up.

If I were you, I'd grab the sure thing via #2 (assuming there are upgrades available to other European destinations) but set alerts via expertflyer. Then, if you get an email alert informing you that something has opened up directly to LHR, you'd have to quickly decide whether to jump on it and call UA. You'd need to consider whether the extra cost of the ticket (in terms of the penalty fee for changing and possibly a more expensive fare to LHR - though if you're lucky the LHR ticket could end up costing less) would be worth if for you.

Hope it all works out!

Sadly, it has been this way for quite a while..

Ugh. "Under current conditions" means as much as "in this economy".

I have never had an issue with clearing, and this is as a Premier Gold.

You might want to remember a small event called "The Olympics." My office has disruption plans for the entirety of the summer starting from late June.

I'm now 0/3 on UA flights this year (1/4 if I include a February CO flight). On today's 2:15 PM 319 RDU-IAD I was #6 out of 10 for an upgrade. I spent all last year as a Premier with an abysmal upgrade percentage struggling to make it back to 1P (or whatever I am now) and I still feel like a Premier :(

I mean I can't even see any flights, anywhere with available upgrades
 

I get the olympics, but the site also says the domestic legs are not upgradable. I am trying to go LAX to LHR, but Paris, Dub, FRA are fine as well.

Zippo. Nada. Pre Merger they used to be challenging but with the CA site, I literally get zip.

I guess upgrades are worthless? I even tried other fare classes. Zippo.

COdbaUA sure messed with the world....
 

I've had two flights in the past week with Mrs. DenverDean, same PNR, the upgrade rules on the website look like Mrs. DenverDean's should clear at the same priority as mine, but both times the COdbaUA agent insisted that the upgrades clear individually based on both members status..... She's just a GM...

What am I missing? Granted I work with guys who would welcome a few hours away from their spouse, I tend to get frustrated when COdbaUA mgmt assume that people traveling together should be split up.....

Anyone else having the same thing happen? (Sorry if I missed some other thread on this topic).

Best Regards,
DenverDean

Theoretically, you should keep that together as they should clear the windows together. However, if it is within 24 hours and it goes to the airport list (battlefield), then you should separate (upgrades clear indiv. based on their own member's status) but you can add the companion to the list at the airport 3 hours before the flight.

Sounds like they are still following the old PMCO rules. It is also unclear if the above rules are actually working (upgrade lists seems to have other more serious issues at the moment).

Thanks for the info edcho!

Yes after march 3rd i have noticed a drastic change in upgrades it is rough and no fun any more:td::rolleyes: