I thought married segment availability explicitly meant that

is NOT the case.


Am I confused on this?

I might be wrong, but in my experience married segment logic has only applied for purchasing but not upgrading. The only time I've seen any sort of issue is a "direct flight" with the same flight number. In that case people have reported difficulty upgrading one segment when the other does not have availability in R.

The display R inventory is the lowest amount available on any connecting segments. Just like any other fare class but not the really the best approach for displaying R -- hence the confusion.
A has R=2 (if viewed as a single segment)
B has R=0
C has R=1

A-B will be R=0 for both
A-C will be R=1 for both

However in all cases 2 upgrade request will clear for A.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...st-flight.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...h-flights.html

I see this type of thing happening all the time. The only way to get round it is to search for, and book, everything as multiple destinations, when R availability will display correctly. So, for example, LHR-LAX will show R=0 whereas LHR-IAD will give, say, R5 and IAD-LAX say R9 on the identical flights. The same thing applies to round trips.

Also, never check the Mileage Upgrade box when searching. I find this eliminates some flights which do have R availability. It's almost as if UA then knows what you're looking for and so hides it. Leave the box unchecked and let the system give you all flights so that you can see for yourself. And use the Greasemonkey tool so that R availability is easy to spot.

Right. But in this case:
2/10 EWR-LAX is R2
2/10 LAX-HNL is R4

When booking a one-way trip EWR-HNL on united.com, the flight shows as R2,R4 *and* it fares out as EWR-LAX + LAX-HNL (two separate segments covered by two separate fare bases).

So that all seems okay. But then:
2/10 EWR-LAX is R2
2/10 LAX-HNL is R4
2/13 HNL-EWR is R3

When booking a round trip EWR-HNL//HNL-EWR, the outbound segments show R0, R0 and the return shows R3.

So in this case, the individual-segment inventory on EWR-LAX-HNL is R4,R2. But the married-segment availability on EWR-LAX-HNL (fared as a EWR-HNL trip connecting in LAX) is R0. This is technically possible with married segment inventory but it's not something we've seen before.

Thanks Astroflyer - I think ticketing vs upgrading was the thing that confused me.

Safe travels

You're right. The question to ask is was this intentional or a bug. It's either:
1) United wants to add married segment logic to the upgrade buckets.
2) There's some sort of error in the booking engine that's taking the married segment logic of the fare you're trying purchase and applying it in the display of all fare buckets, including R.

My bet is on the former. The only way to test is to book it and try to upgrade it. Let's hope the OP goes ahead and reports back on the experiment.

OP here.

So as mherdeg so wonderfully pointed out, I want to restate the facts:

2/10 EWR-LAX R2
2/10 LAX-HNL R4
Booked as EWR-HNL

2/10 EWR-LAX R2
2/10 LAX-HNL R4
Booked as EWR-LAX-HNL

2/10 EWR-LAX R0
2/10 LAX-HNL R0
2/13 HNL-EWR R3
Booked as EWR-HNL-EWR and EWR-LAX-HNL-EWR

So I booked it! And went online to process upgrade. I was able to u/g HNL-EWR using RPU. EWR-LAX-HNL showed as "waitlist only".

I called UAMP. Asked the agent to book a new flight, but I wanted to u/g right away and check "R" please. Gave her 2/10, EWR-LAX-HNL. She confirmed R2/R4.

I said, ok, no need to book it, I already have the same exact flights booked! Can you please upgrade them?

Sure, she went to u/g them, and was speechless when she couldn't! She had no idea, (at least she didn't LIE like the first agent and try the direct/married/etc segments).

So, I hung up.

I went back into the reservation, and saw the out of sync, call UA. I did, to have the HNL-EWR cleaned up. Agent was great...but also couldn't u/g the outbound.

Went BACK into the reservation to choose seats (after syncing) and tried one more time. POOF...was able to u/g (about 4 hours after ticketing) using RPU!

So...long story short...it worked..FINALLY!

I saw this the other day and posted about it and someone said it was married segments...didn't make sense to me but I am far from the savviest FT'er!

It is all about married segments. As I said above, search/book everything as separate segments and the problem goes away.

There ought to be a 'divorce' button in Expert mode on .bomb for such occasions. :)

LOL That quip made my day :p

Actually, in all seriousness, it seems that after the re-syncing and what not, the segments somehow got divorced??? Either that or the R inventory changed.

It would be great to have UA Insider weigh in on whether they intend for married segment logic to apply to CPU's, RPU's, and GPU's.

R space varies based on the prior connecting flight
 

Admittedly I haven't been at it as long as most of you, but this is a new one on me. Looking at a BOS/PEK r/t next June, and as I explored the various connecting options, EWR seemed best. But then I started noticing that the amount of R space on the EWR>PEK flight was varying based on which connecting flight I took from Boston before it. See for yourself below: if I take the 9:30 flight, R=2 on UA89: fine, but too quick a connection for my taste.

However if I pick the 8:30, R drops to 0! What gives? Is it a bug, or are they really so sophisticated that they're trying to nudge me toward taking the later flight from BOS?

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3769/1...b42a77_c_d.jpg

Not a bug, I think this is called married segment.

Old news, but always good to be reminded.

Seems like agents also face same issue. They will see no upgrades available when, in fact, they are (if searched by segment rather than origin to destination).