Puzzling upgrade status
 

Flying round trip PDX-TPE starting on March 17th (Saturday). Original booking was B fare economy upgrade availability is showing the following:
Flight: UA837
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Fare Class: United Economy (W)

Available Cabins: F4 FN4 A0 ON0 O0 J6 JN6 C6 D0 Z0 ZN0 P0 PN0 R0 RN0 IN0 I0 Y9 YN9 B8 M8 E8 U8 H8 HN8 Q7 V7 W5 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N0 XN0 X0

I booked the trip on 2/20 on a economy B fare and applied a SWU immediately. I am 1K and still wait-listed. Is this normal? Perhaps this is just an unusually full flight for a Saturday but I thought that if there was inventory a B-fare with SWU for 1K status would clear immediately.

I really care about this one as I am turning from a MUC-PDX at 8:30 the night before this departs. I guess I am suprised that there is NO upgrade availability whatsoever showing for the flight although the seatmap has empty Biz seats :confused:

If there was upgrade inventory then it would clear immediately. But the inventory you need is for R or RN (I bolded them above) and that is at nil right now so you're waitlisted.

Business availability is actually fairly low for a 747 flight a week out. I would not expect any upgrades to be cleared until the day of the flight. (You could be pleasantly surprised, but I wouldn't EXPECT to get an upgrade processed before that.)

Also, B-fares for domestic flights can be upgraded at the time of ticketing with only slightly reduced availability vs regular F (you don't need R availability for those CPUs for Premier members), but for international flights you need R availability as stated by SBM12.

Why does the OP's Fare Class say United Economy (W) if the OP purchased a B fare? Is there a codeshare or something involved?

Thanks for the responses. I guess I just found it a bit odd that a Saturday flight to Narita would be that full but it appears the same situation is on the LAX flights as well. It will be nice if I clear at the 96 hour window.

MSPEconomist,
I was just using the expert mode on united.com to see what the availability was. I did book B fare and on my itinerary it shows six seats remaining in Biz but I'm waitlisted

Can someone explain to a rookie 1K how you pull up the cabin availability list that the OP posted?

Xianrocker,
That was accomplished using a greasemonkey script for the chrome browser detailed in the following link:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewan...w-on-steroids/

Just click on the fare class link on the right when you make a reservation (or a dummy one)

The script I referenced simply shows the availability in Chrome without clicking the link

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ferrerid=22732

I try to fly mid week, Monday through Thursday.

Many people flying xUSA to Asia on business travel fly on Saturday so they have an extra day to hit the ground running. Exactly the opposite of domestic flying patterns. And, it only takes a small group of 5-6 people flying together to a meeting to wipe out ordinarily-available premium seats on routes which are authorized for premium fares by many businesses.

I agree that J6 is not a lot of seats (for sale) at this stage one week away from the actual flight. Some people may have purchased fully refundable business class seats and may cancel, and a few people in business will get upgraded to first. However, this is looking like you will have to wait for a battlefield airport upgrade. Just beware, many upgrades requests are dropping off at the 24 hour mark and not being added to the airport upgrade list. I am sure United is aware of this, but not sure if they are doing anything about it. This bug can go for you or against you, depending on if your reservation is dropped or if other people's reservations are being dropped.

Seeing that you are on a B fare, I assume that it is flexible. (Yes I know, B often carries change fees....)

On the 17th, UA has upgradable space SFO-KIX. You can then connect to NH KIX-TPE.

TG has space LAX-BKK (though that may be a bit out of the way).

Flying round trip PDX-TPE starting on March 17th (Saturday). Original booking was B fare economy upgrade availability is showing the following:
Flight: UA837
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Fare Class: United Economy (W)
Which fare did you purchased B or W?

What is the difference between R and RN? I noticed several other fare buckets also have N's following the fare class identifier

I'm assuming is there are not enough fare bucket letters remaining so a second letter was added of N

Well, here is how it turned out
 

So I'll try to put some closure to this sad tale of the new United:

1.) Booked the Economy B fare round trip 1 month out from the flight from PDX =>TPE

2.) Immediately applied GPU (SWU( at the time

3.) Immediately wait-listed

4.) Nothing happened at 96 hours(I am 1K)

5.) at 24 hours, email message received that wait-list had expired ( I was in the air from MUC-ORD) so I didn't see that until I got on the ground.
6.) checked in online

7.) flew 1st-class PDX-SFO and checked into United club.

8.) Agents in united club confirmed and showed me that I was #1 on Upgrade list

9.) nearing departure headed to the gate and checked with the GA.

10.) GA looked at some piece of paper had a discussion with another GA and said "You will not be getting upgraded". I asked why and he said "That is how the system works now". I walked away very puzzled.

11.) checked mobile .bomb and sure enough, I was no longer #1 and they were clearing names that were previously below mine.

12.) called premiere line and was told "I am sorry sir, I don't know what is going on, the system is new".

13.) GPU/SWU was deducted from my account (Will it get returned?))

So anyone want to take a guess at whether this is how it is supposed to work? The GA at SFO was pretty short with me(borderline rude) and I did not ask for a supervisor. I want my upgrade back as I DAMN sure would have taken my chances with a UDU on the 1.5 hour flight and now used a GPU:mad:

Too bad -- there are so many glitches as you can read about in other threads. Indeed, you should get your SWU back. But you may have to be patient and diligent, with repeated follow-ups if necessary, given what a mess things are.

In the future though, I wouldn't expect an upgrade on a W fare on the weekend, especially on a Saturday. A lot of people are competing for upgrades nowadays.

If I can find upgrade inventory to the region I am flying to as opposed to my specific destination within that region, I book the indirect route, period. I can suffer a 1 to 3 hour flight in economy, on LH, OZ, NH, etc. This thread gave OP options for a different routing. Lesson learned I hope, one which I too learned the hard way.

But is was not a W fare, it was economy B which is supposed to be a instant up based on availability. This ticket was 2.5x the price of a low tier economy fare.

not on international flights.

More specifically, only on CPU-eligible flights. Instant upgrades for all Premier members on Y and B full-fare Economy tickets and for Premier® 1K® members on M fares are available on all flights that are eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades, per this table:

http://i.imgur.com/vg2ly.png
Source: http://pss.united.com/web/en-US/cont...e/default.aspx (Captured on Mar 18 @ 5:55PM PST)

That said, the new policies are beyond confusing and extremely convoluted. It's 99% UA's fault that you spent extra $$ for no reason. For you to be #1 on the list and then not get the upgrade is maddening. The only consolation I can offer is that countless other people have had the same thing happen since 3/3 (aka the Elite Benefits Rapture).

Still not understanding, from the link you posted:
For regions with a *, Global Premier Upgrades are not available on flights booked in fare classes Z, P, S, T, K, L, G or N.
Regional Premier Upgrades and Global Premier Upgrades are not available on flights booked in fare classes Z or P in any region.
All flights between continental U.S. and Hawaii are eligible for Regional Premier Upgrades and Global Premier Upgrades with no Economy fare restrictions.
All multi-cabin flights operated by Copa are eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades, Regional Premier Upgrades and Global Premier Upgrades without fare restrictions.
Instant upgrades for all Premier members on Y and B full-fare Economy tickets and for Premier® 1K® members on M fares are available on all flights that are eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades.

None of this nonsense makes any sense to me at this point. Again, from the linked page:

Priority within 24 hours
New waitlist requests for MileagePlus Upgrade Awards, Regional Premier Upgrades, and Global Premier Upgrades can be made until 24 hours prior to departure. At 24 hours from departure, waitlists will expire and automatic processing of upgrades, per the priority listed above, will continue. As customers check in, they will be placed on an airport upgrade standby list. This standby list will clear starting at two hours prior to departure, based on Premier status, fare class and time of check-in. Learn more about the upgrade standby list.

*Fare class structure in priority order is J, C, D, Z, P (for upgrades from United Business® to United First®, or United BusinessFirst® to United Global First® on three-cabin aircraft) and Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K, G, N (for upgrades from United Economy® to the next higher class of service on all aircraft).

**On intra-Asia flights between Hong Kong (HKG) and Tokyo (NRT), Singapore (SIN) or Ho Chi Minh City (SGN), and between Tokyo (NRT) and Seoul (ICN) or Taipei (TPE), Complimentary Premier Upgrades, will begin to confirm 24 hours prior to departure.

***Complimentary Premier Upgrades on award tickets will be prioritized after the lowest paid fare class.

Again, this suggests that I should have been given the upgrade based on my B fare and my #1 positon. The GA simply denying it and removing my name without any reason given other than "this is how the system works" when it is obvious that none of them actually know HOW the system works.

You bolded your answer:

Complimentary Premier Upgrades do NOT apply to International flights.

I used a GPU which was deducted from my account

a better answer is
Complimentary Premier Upgrades do NOT apply to many International flights.

See Upgrade benefits in the 2012 MileagePlus program for a more complete definition.

I would also request a $400 or so refund for the difference between GPU upgradeable fare and lowest fare. I think you're entitled to it as they didn't actually at least waitlist you at the gate.

There are no clearance windows for GPU and RPU. It is only CPU that has the windows for the different status levels.

I am referring to your #4 where you said nothing happened at 96 hours.

A problem at looking at the online waitlist is it only shows those that have checkin. You can be #1 and then a higher fare or a higher status person checks-in and your position will drop. You can never know your true position under everyone has checked-in.
Additionally the gate list is ordered differently (different tie-breaker) then the sweep list which is also still active at the same time as the gate list -- apparently you can clear from either list, this is one of the more confusing and non-transparent part of the new (pmCO) system. (I'm still learning this -- but this is my understanding from threads in the PMCO forum.)

My position went from # 1 to not even on the list with at least 28 on the list after they dropped me off.

sorry -- must of missed that in your early posts

this should cover you

R = Upgrade from Economy to Business (3-cabin) or Economy to First (2-cabin) (non-elite)
RN = Upgrade from Economy to Business (2-cabin) or Economy to First (2-cabin) (elite)

See http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewan...he-new-united/

What if there is no R or RN listed
 

I have a relative of mine waitlisted for business on a 3-class PMUA TATL flight.

The availability shows as:
Where is R/RN?
What's up with the PN? Are B-ups offered on TATL 3-cabin flights?

Details:

• W fare
• GPU from 1K account for general member
• Both applied before 3/3 (via CO and UA agents at different times).
• Outbound (PMCO) cleared immediately
• Return waitlisted segment (PMUA) is listed (R class) in the res.

(Sorry if this has already been addressed)

I think if you are checking the availability from "View Current Reservations", somehow it doesn't show R/RN. However, you can still see R/RN if the flight is not attached to GPU/RPU. I think it's a glich???

Thanks. I figured this out a few minutes after my post. The PN is still confusing.

On flight searches if a particular fare class available is zero, that fare class is not displayed. So if missing, it is zero. You see that for paid fares classes also.

No YBM instant upgrades on non CPU eligible flights, beleive PN=P by design and therefore while meaningless on non-CPU flights, PN will track P.