I'm not familiar with that either, but it could very well be the answer here!

What was your coach fare? W, V, or H?

DEN-ORD (777 intl config) this Sunday. Seat map shows the bulk of J open. No buy-ups or instruments on offer.

And now an EF notification that R has opened. A check on the website reveals R=9. Buy-ups are still unavailable, however.

Tomorrow'sTOD
 

ORD-LGA, S fare: this AM, outside T-24, offer was for ~$350. Just now, inside T-24, getting an offer for $129.

S fare to cheapest F (V-up, 7 day advance purchase) is $199

"Urban Myth" my A$$.

I don't consider $129 a TOD...

Is this thread intended to highlight all fares where the buy up offered by UA does not make sense to you?

It makes sense to highlight all offers that do not jive with the supposed buy-up "rules" nor what's been posted by UA Insider...this qualifies IMO.

as long as the offer is given out equally to elites and non-elites, i'm fine with it

I do agree with you, this looks odd...

Perhaps one of the results of SHARES? (Remember, UA's Rainey said one of the reasons they selected SHARES was it's functionality to allow dynamic pricing of add ons... He mentioned E+, I think. So, why not F? Nobody bought at $350, X seats still available, let's see if we can sell them for $129?)

Where do you stand on the CPU list? How many elites on the list?

Was offered $79 upgrade on a recent ORD-ATL. Plane was an upgauge from a 735 to a 739 and had many J open.

I was #4 out of 20 or so - but then R space popped open, so I used one of my Oct expiring RPUs (have had two LGA-ORD or vv flights fail in the past two weeks, so plenty of ones about to expire sitting around, thus me using them on 733 mile flights ;))

And there's been plenty of documentation of non-elites getting cheaper offers than elites, so I have no confidence that's not the case with my flight

If United wants to sell F and C seats in this fashion, as others have noted, as long as everyone else gets the same opportunity to accept the offer, fine.

Of course, this makes instruments we earn as frequent flyers less valuable, and makes the CPU a virtual joke. I'm going to have 2 GPUs expire next month - because I don't trust that they will be worth anything on the transcon I booked, I've already "bought up" to F on that flight.

Yes, I'm sure I'm behaving exactly like Rainey wants me to, but in the long run, this strategy undercuts brand loyalty. here's what I mean.

Just yesterday I got an offer from DL on some TATL flights - they are selling seats in C to LHR for $1000 less than currently available on UA using miles and co-pay. In the pre-merger era, I would always default to UA, because I wanted to keep 1K or 1P. Now, I'm actually considering the DL offer. It won't cost me miles, and it is vastly cheaper than the UA price. Yes, I will sacrifice UA miles and status attainment, but so what? What do I really lose by not qualifying as a 1K or Plat? As long as I maintain Gold on UA, AA and DL, I'll get decent benefits, and I will have a wider selection of flights to choose from.

It's going to be interesting to see just how far UA goes in devaluing its FF benefits.

Amen.

Presuming that you are on employer-paid travel, I would find it extremely hard to justify the $1K price difference no matter the cost in status. I am a strong believer in giving employees substantial flex in how & what they fly, but at some point there is a reasonableness issue.

On the other hand, the day of the freebie UG is coming to an end. The same threads appear in varying forms for all four, soon to be three, legacy carriers. There is less competition & capacity at a time when there is greater demand.

But, domestic F does not really command the price differential commanded by intl. premium. So, chicken & egg. If a given carrier wants to up its premium product(s), it may be able to charge more. But, there are limits. For example, while TATL C/J may be $8K, that's not doable for TCON.

Bottom line though is that those who swear they're jumping ship over UG issues are kidding themselves. Price yes, but meaningful perks will all level out at the bottom of the barrel with 12-18 months.

I was booked in W