UA-NYC

Keep checking back, it's likely to drop as it gets closer in (funny how it never rises). And at T-24, it will likely be even cheaper.

exerda

You could book a B fare, which as a Silver would be eligible for instant upgrade (and which would get priority over even higher status pax traveling on lower fare classes if it goes to day-of-departure). That's "free" in that you're not paying anything extra for the upgrade, I suppose.

You could get someone who has RPUs (a 1K or Platinum) to sponsor your upgrade.

As far as sitting and hoping, well, keep in mind that that $690/person upgrade fee isn't necessarily the one everyone else is seeing. GMs might be getting a $189 offer.

RJNYC

My CPU cleared at T-23.5 ^

I agree that if anyone (elite or GM) wants to spend an extra $700 to sit in F on a sUA 757 for 4 hours they can have at it. To me, the issue is that no offer was made to me (the elite) while the GM got an offer despite the fact that we are on the same flights, ticketed in the same fare bucket.

GoAmtrak

SFO-IAD
K class
Offered $1,159 Y->F at booking (no R inventory)
Declined

IAD-TPA
G class
Offered $209 Y->F at booking (no R inventory)
Declined

TPA-IAD
G class
Offered $109 Y->F at booking (no R inventory)
Declined

IAD-SFO
L class
Offered $479 Y->F at booking (no R inventory)
Declined

dcdavido

I'd love this to be true, but have zero data points to indicate this might be the case. At first Kiosk upgrades were "a mistake" that wasn't supposed to happen until all elite requests had been satisfied. Yet, we continue to hear reports. I do believe they are constantly testing the market to see what price will cause all FC seats to sell. Example: going TPA to IAD on President's Day. FC price (not buy up) $230. About $15 more than lowest price coach. It's mostly government traffic or vacation traffic - and FC doesn't sell on President's Day, so they zeroed in on $15 above coach. Fill it up and they get $15 more per seat than giving it to elites or (god forbid) op-ups to GMs. They'll zero in on the right price for each market and each flight. You don't want to sell a seat for $15 more than coach, and miss out on a $69 upgrade or even worse a $1500 full fare purchased.

PRASM seems to indicate that it is more difficult (and potentially costly) to attract new customers when you drive off elites.

abaheti

LAX-ORD, flight 472, 757-200, 905am

I was number 2 on upgrade wait list day before at check in and until I went to bed with two seats open. Ended up as number 5 when boarding with all seats sold.

In front of me two women couldn't find row 2, were told they are in first class, starting cheering saying "Really? I had no idea. Wow, I guess it was worth paying for whatever that was on the screen. United is great."

A bunch of us did not look amused. I can't swear to it, but do not believe I was offered a buy up at web check in.

emanon256

Booked saver economy Thursday to Sunday for DEN-ORD-YUL R/T YUL-EWR-DEN. Offered buy up to F for $129 per way during booking process.

exerda

Bingo. IMHO those who chant that UA has a responsibility to sell the seat for whatever they can don't "get" that there is a cost to selling that seat, too, and lost revenue opportunity from elites who get mad that their upgrades aren't clearing anymore, or worse, who see behind the curtain and see a TOD being offered to others while their own upgrades (even when supported by instruments or miles + cash) just flounder.

I think UA has severely underestimated the cost of attracting and retaining new customers (as well as what it takes to do so; hint: cheap upgrades to a subpar domestic F seat aren't what it takes to attract pax who make their purchasing decisions primarily on which flight is cheapest in Expedia, Kayak, etc.), as well as underestimated the value of repeat business by proven repeat customers (e.g. elites).

star_world

I think you are severely overestimating the impact that non-elites purchasing upgrades are having. Plenty of people in this forum (again I'll say it, the most critical judge of UA's performance you'll find anywhere) report upgrade rates that are unchanged from previous years. The people who are impacted are those who fly very frequently on routes where the gap between the cheapest fare and an M or B fare is either zero or negligible. On routes such as these, it's far more likely that elites will fill the F cabin through the purchase of these fares than through CPUs. Much more likely than it was on UA in the past, because this upgrade path didn't exist.

Based on the reports here, these are the people who have seen upgrade percentages drop precipitously. I'm just not seeing non-elites buying TODs having the effect you would have us believe it does.

A perfect example of this, by the way, is ORD-IAD - if you fly for a 1-2 weeknight trip with less than 7 days notice you'll pay a fare of around $660 r/t (E class, refundable). An M fare is only marginally more than this, and if you purchase said E class ticket you'll be offered an upgrade to F for $89 or so. This is exactly the type of route where people will just pay slightly more, take the M upgrade and not play the CPU lottery. If this was a route I flew regularly I would be convinced that CPUs were virtually non-existent for elites, because they effectively are due to the fare structure. But it's 1Ks / GSs that are getting those M fares, not non-elites.

anc-ord772

Wait for it....

Wait for it....

There it is.

That's the problem.

I agree with exerda. Seriously though UA has no real brand to market these days. Except that explorer card guy.

UA-NYC

Not sure I agree with this - while some say they're unchanged, many others have talked about how their UG % has plummeted. Don't think I've seen any who say it's gotten better since 3/3.

M fares are red herrings these days - it's the V-up pricing (usually offered with a 14 day advance purchase) which is magically offered again inside T-24. And with SHARES magic "dynamic pricing", they can offer whatever F buy-up price they'd like.

Plus, it's been documented many times that not only can GMs get cheaper offers than elites, the offer can also be made to those on award tix while there's still a full UG waitlist.

y2k1jetta

If I had a penny for every time I read 'I'm leaving UA, lack of upgrades', I'd be a rich man.
If you leave UA, who will treat you better? AA,US,DL, lol. Good Luck.
Flying hub to hub on world's biggest airline and looking for an upgrade?
Best move to another airline.

exerda

My u/g % has fallen quite a bit, and I buy a mix of fares all across the board (low S/T/L/K/G; mid-priced Q/W/V; an occasional M/H/U/E), but almost never Y/B. I think mine has to do with being at a hub, and one with a lot of government traffic doesn't help--but certainly it's nonetheless a big falloff from pre-3/3. There's no way it's all M/Y/B purchases (not when they're still selling Q or below at one week out!).


Plus, it's been documented many times that not only can GMs get cheaper offers than elites, the offer can also be made to those on award tix while there's still a full UG waitlist.[/QUOTE]

Yep, both of these are big issues IMHO and IME.

UA-NYC

Many have left for AA, and I have yet to hear of a single flyer who said they weren't close to 100% on AA (I went 11/12 myself, and on my miss, picked the worst possible week (Fashion Week) to go to CDG ).

The grass is greener at AA now (though US of course lurks in the future)

MatthewLAX

AA is better. There is no question about it. My upgrade record was perfect and they have a much better product than UA--better food, better service (consistently good), and Wi-Fi. I stick with UA for other reasons--closing in on MMer status, Star Alliance, and most importantly, the ability to do confirmed same-day changes +/- 24 hours of your confirmed flight.