Not bad, especially since you can't use a SWU on a Z, and you basically got a miles & copay upgrade minus the miles ;)

Another TOD
 

Date: Sat March 24
Flight UA 319 IAD-LAX
Fare: Q
MP level: 1K, MM

Offered a $99 buy up to first, with 40 people on the upgrade list. I was number 5 with 4 seats open (kind of surprising, since Q is relatively high and this was a Sat. morning). Declined and ended up *not* upgraded. Not a big deal, since this was a domestic PMUA 767 and I had seat 21H (morel legroom than the available F seats). But I could have taken the upgrade from those above me in the UG list.
Sadly, I do not believe UA when they claim that the TOD issue is either non-existent or fixed.

3/26 ua1685 fll-iah
UA Gold Elite
$119
Fare Code 'U'

Declined

Straight TOD - published fare difference between U and B one way is $305

Could people please also post how many seats are in the R bucket at the time they are offered the TOD upgrade? This would help our understanding of the CPU system.

I thought that I was being offered a ToD on my flights DEN-IAH-DEN, for $37 each way. Upon further investigation, it appears that the fare difference between my E fare ticket and a P fare ticket is exactly $37 each way, so effectively, this is just a buy-up to the lowest F class ticket from a refundable Y class ticket. They even calculated it with our corporate discount (only 10% off on an E fare - I guess we need to do more business with UA)

The return is on a Friday afternoon, so I'm tempted to take it just to sit in F - I don't get to much these days as a PGold. I'm guessing I'll be pretty far down the waitlist.

Flight: United 1635 (CO-operated) EWR>PHX on 2/10
Status: 1K
Fare class: V
Upgrade cost: $99
I was 5th on the UG list with 3 seats open when I accepted the buy-up

UA 32 4/6 MSY-IAH
Fare Class: T
Offered before OLCI $327
OLCI $69 for a GM
Took it for the GM since as a Silver I already got CPU'd at T-24

Flight 727 on 4/2 IAD-TPA, 3 pax

Fare class: K for all pax
I received CPU as a platinum premier
Wife, who was Gold last year, no status in 2012 (but BP still showing Gold???) was offered buy-up to First for 390 dollars
Mother-in-Law - no status offered upgrade for 89 dollars

Declined both offers. In the end, I did receive companion upgrade in this flight at boarding in addition to the CPU at T-48 or so

Im assuming this a TOD upgrade. 1K SFO-ORD on Q fare. Check three days out, RN=0, Buy up to first $804. Same two days out. Now within T-24, RN=2 and upgrade offered at $219. If buy up to first yesterday was $804, where is $219 comning from ?

Pek-iad 4apr
 

I overheard a guy at PEK yesterday frustrated that PEK agents would not let him do a TOD upgrade. Business was not full at all. I was in the 2nd section of business (BTW UA changed 777 equipment again on this route to old config), there were over 20 seats empty in business and 6 empty in first as flight left the gate.

On config issue UA routinely does last minute equipment changes IAD-PEK-IAD. Yesterday the new config came in from IAD to PEK while the old config came in from ORD-PEK. On their respective returns the old config went back to IAD while the new went to ORD. So much for any preplanning on my part to attempt getting a new config. UA did the same config switches on my way to PEK 27MAR. So I ended up with old config both ways. I monitored this daily the last few days and UA is being pretty consistent with last minute config changes.

Date: April 1, 2012
EZE-IAD
1K
Z fare
Offered $549 for F at OLCI, accepted

Fully flat J seats on the new 767 are nice, but for $50/ hour more the F seats are totally worth it. I probably beat out someone from using a GPU, but I think I got a good deal flying in F on a Z fare.
The elites may hate it (including me) but I think TODs are here to stay. Especially as the pattern seems to be that the price drops precipitously at T-24.

What is the official policy from UA on TODs, i thought it was they are only offered after buy ups and elites are processed. Im not saying this is what is happening, but dont really know the official policy. If that were true can I assume from my post just above that either they slashed the M fare at T-24, or they are not following policy which I believe is the purpose of this thread.

4/7/12 (Saturday)
EWR-SEA
1K
K Fare
$409

For the past week, .bomb has offered me the chance to upgrade for $700~. This morning, I did OLCI through the iPhone app, and was offered the upgrade to F for $409. I'm #2 on the list, so I'm hopeful that UDU will clear.

I thought these are only supposed to be offered if all elites are expected to clear? :confused:

http://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho...-NWtkrTZ-L.jpg

Awesome to see that there are 16 people on the upgrade list, but COdbaUA would rather sell the upgrade. I'm flying with two others (1K & 2P), and they got the same offers. I'd be curious to see what a GM is being offered.

What's been stated previously is that buy-ups are offered at all times, to buy up to the upgradable bucket or directly into the next cabin (YBM-ups), and that in cases where the upgrade waitlist (for revenue customers) is shorter than the number of F seats available, then cheaper buy-ups will kick in.

In your case, there is no published K fare for the EWR-SEA market standalone, but the difference between the lowest fare and the M, one-way, is just short of $400 - so in your case, this is an appropriate buy-up amount.