Same flight, R availability depends upon on-going connection
 

For an itinerary KIX-SFO-SEA on 5/5, the 1st leg is on UA 886, then, among the many connections offered to SEA, there are two direct flights. The 1st has approx 2 hr connect time at SFO, the other with approx 5 hrs. Looking at upgrade (R) availability on *Flt 886*, the Grease Monkey script shows R0 for the earlier connection & R4 for the later connecting flight. BUT the 1st leg is on 886 in both instances! Is there a rational explanation for the R0/R4 juggle? Oops, maybe not a bug, but a feature?

Take the earlier flight. They'll zero it out then sell your R availability for tens of dollars to someone else.

How timely... I encountered this issue today.

I just booked a ticket for SEA-IAH-MSY-IAH-SEA. When booking the reservation I noticed that the 2:25pm IAH-SEA flight was R0 or R4 depending on which MSY-IAH flight I chose. I booked the itinerary where IAH-SEA was showing R0 due to price.

However, after I ticketed the reservation and went to upgrade it with an RPU... the correct R4 was showing for IAH-SEA and I was able to confirm the upgrade. I think what you're seeing is a glitch and if you booked it you'd be able to upgrade 886 after it's ticketed.

Had the same thing a few days ago ... the flight, SFO-ORD showed R8 when you looked at it alone .... R0 when paired with an 8 pm onward flight to East Coast and R8 when paired with a 9 pm onward flight to same city on East Coast.

Spent 30 mins on hold, then another 30 with res agent who finally confessed it made no sense, opened the R availability and upgraded me.

I assume it is a glitch or bug ... hope so.

Does UA use married segment logic for upgrade inventory? NW used to do this.

I know UA has used married segments in the past for award and upgrade inventory. One easy fix (for upgrades) is often to just book using multi-city. In the past, this also led to reduced fares (i.e. more availability in lower fare buckets otherwise blocked by married segment logic).

It's called Married Segment logic. This is an unfortunate by-product of the new united.com. When booking a reservation, UA (and almost all airlines) are only willing to sell a certain number of seats in any given bucket for the combination of flights you are searching for.

For example, SEA-IAH-MSY (as the poster above me mentioned) may only have 1 F seat left because although SEA-IAH is F9, IAH-MSY is F1 so UA can only sell one F seat on those combined flights. This is true for any fare bucket in the system including R/RN.

Now, having said that, UA did add back in the "fare class" links on existing reservations which will correctly and properly show the individual fare classes for each segment of your itinerary rather than using married segment logic. Since married segment logic does not apply after you have purchased your ticket for things like upgrades (unless you are on the same flight number) the SEA-IAH flight may show R9 but the IAH-MSY flight will likely show R0 because there's only 1 F seat left.

For through ("direct") flights that have a stopover somewhere (e.g. LIH-SFO-SEA) then the fare buckets you see are correct. "R" will be a representation of "R" for both flights which must be greater than zero at the time the EUA system runs to get the upgrade. One way to avoid this is to book the ticket as a multi-city itinerary so that LIH-SFO appears as a separate flight in the reservation from SFO-SEA. At that point the EUA system will process you separately for the flights and if R>0 on at least one of them and you're next in queue you'll get the upgrade.

Hope this helps. This is by design.

-RM

Hi FlyingProf, was this showing R0 when you were looking at it in the shopping path, or when viewing your already booked reservation? When looking for R availability, viewing connecting flights in the shopping path is not as reliable as viewing each flight separately. If R shows 0 when booking a connecting flight, but, is available when viewing separately, then, as SEA1K4EVR, has mentioned you will be able to upgrade it after it’s ticketed (e.g. After ticketing, view reservation and then select the 'upgrade reservation' link found toward the top of the itinerary). Also, one good tip to note is that, when upgrading after ticketing, the process will also waitlist you for any segments that may not be available.

Shannon

This matches my experience. I booked LAX-IAD-LHR and IAD-LHR was showing R0 during the shopping experience, but a search specifically for IAD-LHR alone showed R9. After the trip ticketed (4 hours) I was able to apply an upgrade and it confirmed immediately

R Inventory Question - There for one flight and not the exact same flight.
 

I am looking at doing SNA-SFO-NRT-BKK and return BKK-NRT-LAX.

I find W inventory on all the UA flights, but it doesn't show any R inventory for all 5 segments.

I look further down and the exact same flights but the NRT-BKK and BKK-NRT are ANA flights and the other flights have R inventory. I called UA and they said yep not available unless you switch to the ANA flight but then you won't get the full use of the SWU. The BKK segments I know will wait list but the other three are available now, just not unless I fly ANA on the BKK back and forth.

It doesn't make sense to me, but then I'm not surprised I guess with the CO system.

I tried to search and I'm sure it has to be discussed somewhere so if anyone knows where please let me know, otherwise I am wondering if there is some way around this?

Thanks in advance.

This has nothing to do with SHARES.

When you look at the flights, is SFO-NRT-BKK one flight number, or two flight numbers? What about BKK-NRT-LAX?

If it is one flight number, then the upgrade will waitlist; if they are two flight numbers, the upgrade should waitlist, but the available segment should clear from the waitlist immideately.

Most likely the NRT-BKK legs don't have R availability so it doesn't show for the XXX-NRT leg. Lookup XXX-NRT by itself to see if there is R availability. If there is, then you'll be upgraded XXX-NRT and waitlisted NRT-BKK.

No it isn't one flight number all separate. But it is married segments. I just looked and 837 by itself shows R so I will try and do all five segments separately.

Looking to book W on all UA metal:
UA849 No R
UA837 No R
UA881 No R and it really doesn't so I expect to be waitlisted
UA882 No R and it really doesn't so I expect to be waitlisted
UA890 No R

All W but have to book UA flight number but ANA metal:
UA849 Has R exact same day, time and flight number
UA837 Has R exact same day, time and flight number
UA9711 Operated by ANA
UA9710 Operated by ANA
UA890 Has R exact same day and flight number

There is no such thing as married segments for upgrades-- it is just a glitch of how R availability is displayed.

Try buying the ticket you want (you can always cancel it within 24 hours). Go to request the upgrade and see what happens. It should show available.

You are 100% correct thanks. It doesn't show up when they are married, but when it is actually upgraded it is segment by segment. All booked, ticketed and ready to go.

I have all R now except the BKK to/from, which I knew.