Kacee

It's a big issue on DL, at least if all the threads on the subject on the DL forum are any indication. Lots and lots of complaint about only DMs getting upgrades, and no one getting upgrades on transcons. We'll see what happens with AA after the merger.

DonTomPat3

Ah let's see:

Silver: 3/29 - CLE-LAS (hardly a surprise), LAS-CLE (again), CLE-BOS (on a 757)
Gold: 0/2
...and 34 more segments on UX and US.

PV_Premier

by and large the days of making the cut on a hub to hub route on a fare class lower than W are gone. i've had a few exceptions, eg, monday night transcons from EWR-LAX clearing on deep discount fares, but these are anomalies.

for transcons out of SFO (excepting flights to MCO, FLL), you basically cannot clear it without an instrument and if you are on a fare class lower than U or H, you'll probably have to call in and bypass the list to even make it then.

I've missed on SMF-IAD and -IAH lately on middle ground fare buckets. In the past even as a gold for V fares those were reasonable slam dunks, especially IAH.

LarkSFO

I got a CPU yesterday! SEA-SFO.

Then I same day changed 3 times throughout the day (Thanks United!) and finally went standby on a 4th flight.

The flexibility was priceless.

The fact that I went from F, to bulkhead, to middle seat in E+ is inconsequential to me, at least for this trip.

105 miles in to the trip I crossed the 1K plateau, but since I will still travel from SFO in 2014, and will primarily travel when all business travelers travel, I do not anticipate my upgrade rate going up all that much...

I want to learn more about 'gaming'* the system by buying higher fare classes to see how this affects my upgrade percentage.

(* is it really gaming when all I am doing is spending more money?)

At least I have 10 'guaranteed' upgrades with my GPUs and CPU's...

golfingboy

This red-eye route was tough when there was only one red-eye flight [CO days], however, last night had four. That is the most I have seen for this route.

Probably amped the flights up for holiday travel. Looking into Feb, the route goes back down to 2 red-eyes on a Thursday night.

PV_Premier

you're just making it that much easier for the house to win your $$, that's about the only game in town ex-SFO when it comes to CPU. paying more to have better CPU chances out of SFO is only going to make your wallet lighter.

even your GPUs and RPUs are going to be tough. start learning to watch R like a hawk inside T48. that's the only gaming that you can actually win at.

roadkit

Recently flew NRT-IAD on NH2 (UA codeshare) on an S fare.

Fare basis does not permit an upgrade under any circumstances -- no GPU, no miles/co-pay.

So getting an OpUp from ANA staff was most welcome. But wouldn't UA have rather cashed out one of my GPUs or my miles +cash? Really?

mgcsinc

Don't think it was up to UA.

In any case, traditional explanation is the need to protect premium cabin integrity (revenue).

747FC

Sorry, but I am not flying UA too much these days. I have a question: How does one find out their standing on an upgrade list prior to T-24? Thanks.

mgcsinc

You can't. My guess is that the person you were responding to misinterpreted their position on the "upgraded" list, or properly determined the position based on the fact that they were the first to be upgraded.

747FC

Thanks.

exerda

Technically, there are a few ways one can find out waitlist positions prior to T-24.

If you have a connecting flight, you can check in for all segments at T-24 from your first flight--for flights originating in Asia, for example, you may have downstream segments which are significantly more than 24 hours out (though 48 would be a stretch unless you have a really long routing).

There are also some timezone-related issues with check-in; I've checked in at T-40-ish before for a flight leaving ANC at 11:58pm due to this bug.

For either of these, your position on the list is only worth so much given not many others have checked in, of course.

You can also call in and try to convince an agent to tell you your position; sometimes it works.

mgcsinc

All of that is true. I guess it would be better said as "the visible waitlist is completely useless for determining waitlist position before T-24, and mostly useless thereafter.

747FC

Related to posts above, does UA send notifcation of upgrade clearance?

mgcsinc

In theory. Some have reported that they never get the notifications.