How to View Upgrade Inventory?
 

I am an almost 2 million miler/1K and have come to really not trust the "new" United aka Continental website when it comes to upgrades.

I have just booked trying to use SWU and each are waitlisted.

13-Sep ORD-FRA
24-Sep MUC-ORD

With this new convoluted website is it possible to see the number of seats available for Upgrade?

I am also flying this summer LAX-HNL (changed the equipment to the Cntl 757 from UAL 777...UGH) and from LIH-SFO (again equipment change to Cntl gear) all Upgrades are waitlisted.

While I can appreciate waitlisting the smaller 757s.....my ORD-FRA is on a 747 so I can't believe all of the Upgrade seats are taken already.

This new program has been BRUTAL!

From the Forum FAQ:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16138120-post40.html

Thanks for the information. It is quite helpful!

Now, good luck in actually finding uprade space and, once past that hurdle, getting United to process the upgrade correctly!

;)

Hey, hey, it's not that bad - I'm 4/4 using SWUs this year. Of course, it required a lot of babysitting but I'm used to it, having little kids and all. What drives me nuts the most is the fact that UA releases a lot of R inventory w/i 24h of the flight when all waitlisted UGs are expired. It's still a crap shoot whether one is properly transferred to the airport/departure management wait list or not. My MO has been to monitor R inventory using EF and to call in as soon as the space opens (even w/i 24h of the flight).

What is EF? Is there any automated way to do this? Maybe I should spend a few minutes writing a script.

Expertflyer.com

And by callling in you may get to "jump" over some people who are ahead of you on the waitlist!

I just went to the expertfler site. It looks like to get the information I will need I will have to purchase either the Basic or Premium Plan.

Without sounding cheap is the service worth the price? Does the additional cost substantiate the Premium plan over the Basic Plan?

Can't speak to EF, but you can see upgrade inventory on the UA.com site. I think that you still need to set it to "Expert mode" then when you click on the "Fare bucket" link for a flight, it will show you those with upgrade/award availability (e.g. R for Econ to Bus upgrades).

Depends on your travel patterns, but I've bought it for the first time this year for the alerts--mostly fare class availability alerts so I can see when upgrades or waitlisted segments should clear or when a flight is available for award booking, etc. There are also seat alerts available (e.g. if you're stuck in Y, you might as well try to get the best seats--so put in an alert for when/if those seats open up).

While I did so as a hedge against UA's flaky IT behavior post-3/3, I think it's worth it overall for me anyway.

At this point I don't care since I may get "jumped over" by someone who decides to apply the GPU w/i 24 hours of the flight and beat all of us on the WL. It's the survival of the fittest - Darwin would be proud to see that his theories work in the UA world, too. Those who evolve thrive, others get extinct (or not get the UG in this case)

To the OP, EF services proved invaluable to me. I use it for UG space and award availability monitoring, all kinds of alerts (seat, UG space, award space), fare/space availability, ...

How can I change to "Expert mode" at the new UA's site? Thanx!

viewing r class
 

anyone have a quick and dirty way to do this without calling UA?

thanks

From the Forum FAQ: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ilability.html