Mar 31, 14, 3:57 pm
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Waitlisting for awards
Click for the current rules from United
Waitlisting options
Waitlisting can only be done over the phone, not online.
You can not book a standard award and then waitlist for a saver award.
If waitlisting for a higher cabin, best if done at the time of booking or soon afterward.
If done more than 24 hours after booking you may be charged an award change fee.
Generally, the waitlisted class mileage is deducted at time of request and will be refunded if unsuccessful
When waitlisting for a higher, state you are waitlisting for I (or IN if a plat or higher) -- do not use the word "upgrade", it may confuse the agent
If waitlisting for a segment when the rest of the segments are already in the higher cabin, there is no refund if unsuccessful
Member experiences:
Note: The correct priority term here may, in fact, be a code that is one of WAX, WBX, WCX, or WDX depending on status. The is per GG ONESTANDBY lines 32-55.
Note: PR-1 status is given to those who "paid" the requisite miles for an upgraded seat (i.e. biz) when only the non-upgraded space (i.e. coach) was available. The PR-1* status is to clue the system (and agents) in so that it is clear that you have been "displaced." (NOTE: once you have obtained PR-1 status, should there be any change to your ticket, e.g., an involuntary reroute by UA due to missing a connection, the PR-1 status will most likely get dropped and you must have it reattached (esp. before any UGs are given to others).
Unfortunately at T-24, many GAs do not get this concept. Use the above to plead your case but be prepared to be unsatisfied. One method that can get you to a higher level of understanding is the UC. Their staff seems to not only have a better understanding of the issues, but they can contact the gate and exert some influence on the less informed GAs, AND they seem to have more of an interest in helping PAX. If you can get into the UC, it will be worth your while.
**Note: If you get the UG on the long haul, the higher level of award miles you are using (like with the GPU) are considered used up regardless of the short haul. You will not be charged the lower level # of miles (i.e. refunded the diff between the lower level and the higher level you paid in advance), rather the higher level award miles will be considered spent. That is the risk you take when you do Plan B.
Related thread - Understanding the United Upgrade List Comprehensively
Archive of past posts - Consolidated "Waitlist for Award Seats Questions/Issues [ARCHIVE]
Click for the current rules from United
Waitlisting options
- Waitlist for alternative flights times / routing
- Waitlisting for a different cabin
From the above link on waitlisting for a different cabin: You may redeem miles for travel in United Global First, United First, United Business or United BusinessFirst, even if the space is not available. In these cases, United Economy in the same award type must be confirmed, and the front cabin will be waitlisted. If the courtesy waitlist does not clear, it will expire 24 hours before itinerary departure, and you will automatically be added to the airport upgrade standby list upon check-in. In these cases, you will be confirmed on a space-available basis by a United airport representative at the gate once the flight has closed for check-in. For United BusinessFirst and United Business travel awards, the difference in miles will be refunded when the United BusinessFirst or United Business class segment of the trip could not be confirmed. Waitlist requests may only be made over the phone with your local United Customer Contact Center.
You can not book a standard award and then waitlist for a saver award.
If waitlisting for a higher cabin, best if done at the time of booking or soon afterward.
If done more than 24 hours after booking you may be charged an award change fee.
Generally, the waitlisted class mileage is deducted at time of request and will be refunded if unsuccessful
When waitlisting for a higher, state you are waitlisting for I (or IN if a plat or higher) -- do not use the word "upgrade", it may confuse the agent
If waitlisting for a segment when the rest of the segments are already in the higher cabin, there is no refund if unsuccessful
Member experiences:
- You must have a confirmed segment to waitlist for different cabin and/or a different flight.
- Can only waitlist for UA/UX operated flight, cannot waitlist for partner flights. Can waitlist for UA/UX flights on a mixed itin.
- The maximum number of WL segments in a PNR is 2.
- When confirmed segment is on a partner, you can waitlist for UA operated alternative.
Note: The correct priority term here may, in fact, be a code that is one of WAX, WBX, WCX, or WDX depending on status. The is per GG ONESTANDBY lines 32-55.
Originally Posted by hughw
The agent should give you “PR-1 status”* which gives you top-priority status and moves you to the very top of the upgrade standby list, ahead of employees and everyone else trying to upgrade with miles+cash. If one agent won’t put you on the list as a displaced Business class passenger with "PR-1 status"* then find another one who will. With this status, the odds of you getting a business class are very high if there are still open seats (or if anybody no-shows).
If the agents in the airport are all clueless you should direct them to look
up “gg onestandby” in their system (they’ll know exactly what this is)
and look around lines 85-89 which spell out the details of the procedure for
this award.
If the agents in the airport are all clueless you should direct them to look
up “gg onestandby” in their system (they’ll know exactly what this is)
and look around lines 85-89 which spell out the details of the procedure for
this award.
* note "PR-1" may not be the correct term, see the Wxx note proceeding this section
Unfortunately at T-24, many GAs do not get this concept. Use the above to plead your case but be prepared to be unsatisfied. One method that can get you to a higher level of understanding is the UC. Their staff seems to not only have a better understanding of the issues, but they can contact the gate and exert some influence on the less informed GAs, AND they seem to have more of an interest in helping PAX. If you can get into the UC, it will be worth your while.
**Note: If you get the UG on the long haul, the higher level of award miles you are using (like with the GPU) are considered used up regardless of the short haul. You will not be charged the lower level # of miles (i.e. refunded the diff between the lower level and the higher level you paid in advance), rather the higher level award miles will be considered spent. That is the risk you take when you do Plan B.
Related thread - Understanding the United Upgrade List Comprehensively
Archive of past posts - Consolidated "Waitlist for Award Seats Questions/Issues [ARCHIVE]
Consolidated "Waitlist for Award Seats Questions/Issues"
May 28, 22, 11:12 pm
#1426
Join Date: Nov 2014
Programs: UA 2MM
Posts: 1,596
Originally Posted by eye84u
X to I waitlist for nearly 336 days (been waitlisting since X space was first bookable)
May 29, 22, 12:00 am
#1427
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 47
Originally Posted by N104UA
Very nice, did you by chance look to see if any I fares were bookable or did the wait-list snap them up?
May 30, 22, 4:37 pm
#1428
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 69
Originally Posted by eye84u
Actually had a EF alert for I space entire time I was waitlisted as well. Only 1 seat ever popped up a couple days ago but didn’t automatically clear for me as I have a multi-segment itinerary. Someone booked the I fare as the waitlist didn’t change/didn’t move up at all.
May 30, 22, 7:08 pm
#1429
Join Date: Nov 2014
Programs: UA 2MM
Posts: 1,596
Originally Posted by lrm72
My apologies if this is discussed above, but do we know when waitlists do/don’t automatically clear? I thought segments were waitlisted separately so if there was availability it should clear.
If you were looking at the UA website you may see the I1 there if you search at the right time but EF does sweeps so it isn't looking 15,000 times per day for each alert
Jun 1, 22, 10:46 am
#1430
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy - Titanium; Hyatt - Globalist; United - 1K
Posts: 71
Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Using the term "upgrade" did not help, you want to waitlist for I / IN space -- upgrading is a different process. Understand you view it as an "upgrade" but as soon as you say "upgrade", many agents lock onto that word and go in the wrong direction
Jun 6, 22, 6:32 pm
#1431
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Hold it down for The Bay, reppin' Oakland
Programs: Lowly UA silver, Marriott Ambassador/Tit4Lyf, IHG Plat
Posts: 1,748
I don't understand how wait listing interacts with dynamic pricing
It's been a couple of years since I traveled much and I'm getting a bit overwhelmed digging through old posts. I used to waitlist a lot, usually booking a less favorable route in I and then waitlisting for my preferred flight. It doesn't make sense that this would work under dynamic pricing, which is probably why the United website says:
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...l-updates.html
Despite this, folks keep posting on here as if waitlisting is still possible. Here is my scenario. I'd love to hear if I can waitlist for a better flight w/out spending more miles.
In February I booked a very reasonable (60k miles) mixed itinerary in I from LHR to SFO with a stop in DEN for mid-August. The DEN-SFO leg is currently listed as XN w/ upgrade pending.
I don't mind staying in coach for DEN-SFO, but I would strongly prefer to fly non-stop LHR-SFO. Can I waitlist for the non-stop? If so, what happens if I availability opens up, but at a higher mileage price? When I opens up now it seems to range from 62.2-62.8K. That's not a big difference and I'd be happy to pay it, but what if the difference is greater?
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...l-updates.html
Despite this, folks keep posting on here as if waitlisting is still possible. Here is my scenario. I'd love to hear if I can waitlist for a better flight w/out spending more miles.
In February I booked a very reasonable (60k miles) mixed itinerary in I from LHR to SFO with a stop in DEN for mid-August. The DEN-SFO leg is currently listed as XN w/ upgrade pending.
I don't mind staying in coach for DEN-SFO, but I would strongly prefer to fly non-stop LHR-SFO. Can I waitlist for the non-stop? If so, what happens if I availability opens up, but at a higher mileage price? When I opens up now it seems to range from 62.2-62.8K. That's not a big difference and I'd be happy to pay it, but what if the difference is greater?
Jun 6, 22, 7:41 pm
#1433
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Hold it down for The Bay, reppin' Oakland
Programs: Lowly UA silver, Marriott Ambassador/Tit4Lyf, IHG Plat
Posts: 1,748
Originally Posted by escapefromphl
I have done waitlisting on a different routing before, though I don’t think you can waitlist for a different routing unless you are already confirmed in the same class.
Jun 6, 22, 7:50 pm
#1434
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 13,394
Originally Posted by lexdevil
It's been a couple of years since I traveled much and I'm getting a bit overwhelmed digging through old posts. I used to waitlist a lot, usually booking a less favorable route in I and then waitlisting for my preferred flight. It doesn't make sense that this would work under dynamic pricing, which is probably why the United website says:
The backend is capable of adding any number of waitlisted segments to your PNR, which will clear if inventory is available. This is completely decoupled from any form of pricing or collecting payment.
Success would involve convincing an agent to add such segment(s) to your reservation, using whatever logic necessary. So far, there is still only one price for I class (the "chart price"), ignoring close-in surcharges, so there could be some merit to the argument. But the nails are going into the waitlisting coffin, for obvious reasons.
Jun 6, 22, 8:03 pm
#1435
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Hold it down for The Bay, reppin' Oakland
Programs: Lowly UA silver, Marriott Ambassador/Tit4Lyf, IHG Plat
Posts: 1,748
Originally Posted by findark
Don't worry, agents don't think it makes sense either
The backend is capable of adding any number of waitlisted segments to your PNR, which will clear if inventory is available. This is completely decoupled from any form of pricing or collecting payment.
Success would involve convincing an agent to add such segment(s) to your reservation, using whatever logic necessary. So far, there is still only one price for I class (the "chart price"), ignoring close-in surcharges, so there could be some merit to the argument. But the nails are going into the waitlisting coffin, for obvious reasons.
The backend is capable of adding any number of waitlisted segments to your PNR, which will clear if inventory is available. This is completely decoupled from any form of pricing or collecting payment.
Success would involve convincing an agent to add such segment(s) to your reservation, using whatever logic necessary. So far, there is still only one price for I class (the "chart price"), ignoring close-in surcharges, so there could be some merit to the argument. But the nails are going into the waitlisting coffin, for obvious reasons.
Re: there being only one price for I, I see varying prices on LHR-SFO in June, from 62.2-62.8K, but that's not much of a variation. It does still leave me wondering how waitlisting would work. Would they pull more miles?
Jun 7, 22, 10:37 am
#1436
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 13,394
The one price is 60.0k miles, and you are seeing the close-in booking surcharge which does vary non-predictably.
Realistically, if you had a waitlisted LHR-SFO added, if it cleared you would then have both routings confirmed at the same time. This would trigger a human to look at the reservation, and they would very likely delete LHR-DEN-SFO. However, such human could choose to collect payment at that time.
Realistically, if you had a waitlisted LHR-SFO added, if it cleared you would then have both routings confirmed at the same time. This would trigger a human to look at the reservation, and they would very likely delete LHR-DEN-SFO. However, such human could choose to collect payment at that time.
Jun 13, 22, 7:58 pm
#1438
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 18,329
Originally Posted by leftysauce
Can I book a econ saver award on a partner, connecting itinerary and then waitlist for a econ saver on a UA-operated, non-stop flight?
That said, it’s worth asking about. The system can do it; there’s just no policy to account for it.
Jun 13, 22, 8:12 pm
#1439
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: Chicago
Programs: AA Gold
Posts: 313
Originally Posted by jsloan
Technically — as in, according to the rules of the program — you cannot waitlist for a Y award.
That said, it’s worth asking about. The system can do it; there’s just no policy to account for it.
That said, it’s worth asking about. The system can do it; there’s just no policy to account for it.
do you mean there's a rule against this specifically or nothing mentioning about waitlisting for Y?
Jun 13, 22, 8:13 pm
#1440
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 18,329
Originally Posted by leftysauce
do you mean there's a rule against this specifically or nothing mentioning about waitlisting for Y?
