Offered to upgrade IAH-SAT for $239 on an L fare. They even taunted me with the fact that there were "21 other elite members eligible for an upgrade, with 1 seat remaining" but I passed.

Worse things can happen than being stuck in the first coach row for a 30 minute flight. :)

Something is fishy with the flight...shows' zero's across the board, but the seatmap in F is more than half empty...as is most of the E+ section in the back. Probably going into an oversale situation...or another technology glitch.

March 24th ORD-CDG 1K on W fare

Offered $1609 upgrade to "BusinessFirst" or $5309 upgrade to "GlobalFirst"

2 seats in F, 3 seats in C shown as available.

Mobile.united.com wait list has me deep in the "don't bother" range for my SWU (requested at ticketing in January).

Declined.

Folks, lots of non-TODs (aka HODs - hundreds of dollars) being posted here. The idea, as I understand it, is to try and get a sense of how often UA is offering deeply discounted first class upgrades when they probably shouldn't be.

I suggest we limit this to <$250 for a domestic upgrade and <$500 for an international upgrade. Anything more than that is likely some type of fare differential upgrade, and at those prices, unlikely to get any takers anyway.

Also, suggest you provide the date of ticket purchase and date of flight because that allows people with ExpertFlyer to look at fare differentials. If you're worried about someone messing with your reservation, wait until you've flown it to post. Further, indicating whether this is a segment on a connecting itinerary is helpful (i.e., your actual fare was A-C and this is an A-B segment) in auditing fare differentials.

Moderators: feel free to delete this and incorporate in the OP, but I want to get the message out.

OLCI 3/24/12 - 12:17 PM
Flight 678 + 275 - 3/25/12

My status is Prem. Gold - 5 minutes prior to online check in becoming available - reservation shows an option to upgrade to first for 15,000 miles or $816. Two segment itinerary from PHL-ORD-LAS tomorrow.

Do online check exactly at T-24 - and during check in offered upgrade on the ORD-LAS segment for $129. PHL-ORD segment wasn't available for upgrade. So, one can only assume that accepting the offer would prevent others with a higher status from getting an upgrade. Early bird gets the worm?

Go figure.

So is this how it is supposed to work now with the conversion to the Continental way of doing business? Seems a very odd way to do business - but then again - nothing would surprise in the airline business these days.

DEN-BWI tomorrow on Q fare with F2 for $69.

Are there any people on the waitlist?

Yup, 10 people including me on the list as of now. F is now booked full. UA just collected $138 for 2 TOD pax, I guess.:td:

Well, I can't assume that those 2 seats were priced the same. Funny thing is that I called 1K line and CSR said $69 is a special price just for 1K passengers... no one else was offered buy-up or if not the same price.

Pure Houston-style TOD - $245 fare difference from Q to M

Here's another one...and the difference between upgrading on the view itinerary and the check-in option is stark

3/25
ORD-PIT
1K
H fare ($202) with published M fare of $400

If I click redeem upgrade, it offers me one for $227 [which frankly doesn't make sense as it's above the upfare to M]

At check-in, offered upgrade with 1 seat available for $79

Currently booked to 15/16; haven't checked-in yet but already see folks on the list

It's a short flight, but a bit infuriating to be offered a TOD upgrade offer...I was planning on going for 1K this year (but trying to come as close to 100 as possible), but if this nonsense continues, I may just say forget it

Still happening ... :td:

(This is a repeat of last Friday, Monday, Friday... for the same routing and fare classes).

3/26
DAY-ORD-HPN (3638 & 3441)
1K on T fare.
Offered $99 buy-up to F on "Print Boarding Passes" screen.
3441 is F6/R5/RN5
Before OLCI the buy up for ORD-HPN was almost $700, reflecting a slight reduction from the fare differential to B (no M on this routing) of about $800.

Was Auto-Checked-In at T-24h.
CPU for 3638 received at T-4d.
Cannot see U/G list on ual.com or mobile.united.com. Will try iOS app later.

EDIT: Got the CPU for 3441 at T-24h.

Checked in for DEN-MSP tomorrow. There were 3 unbooked first class seats and the view fare classes said R3. I was first on the upgrade waitlist with 3 seats up front available, but then popped down to second after a few hours. Still no problem.

Now First Class is booked full and the waitlist has disappeared. What used to be 3 First class seats and 1 coach available is now.

Y4, YN4, B3, M3, E2, U1, H1, HN1, Q1

So from what I have learned in this forum, basically 3 flyers have most likely been offered a TOD upgrade upon check in, hence the disappearance of the 3 First Class Seats and the reappearance of coach seats.

Am I correct in this assessment?

I'm new here but I think this offer fits in:

UA1568 BWI-IAH for 26MAR12

Offered to upgrade my economy T-fare to First (R-fare?) for only $229 with only 2 seats left in First and 7 people on the upgrade list. Declined: econ+ instead.

But if I were premier and lost my compl. upg. to some random no-status dude like me with $229 to burn, I'd be kinda upset.

It seems likely that 3 coach passengers were moved to F. These could have very well been elites on a higher priority than you that hadn't yet checked in (or anyone on an instrument sponsored upgrade), and so would never have appeared on the upgrade standby list you were looking at (note: that is not the "waitlist"). Or these could have been purchased upgrades. And if so, there's no way to know whether they were legitimate buy-ups (usually HOD) or deeply discounted TODs.

Remember, the upgrade standby list you can see online is only relevant for upgrades cleared at the gate.

PEK-ORD: OLCI Offered HOD Z->F while on waitlist
 

and I took it!

PEK-ORD
3/24
1K
Z Fare

When aircraft switched to old 777 (for the last time after several flip-flops), I figured I had a good shot at a mileage upgrade, so I signed up and paid the dues. CC charged and mile deducted. And put on waitlist.

At check-in, my rez still shows waitlist, but lo and behold there is an offer to buy-up to F for $529. So I took it.

Will be interesting to see how this one gets sorted out and how long.