RPUs still not clearing automatically
May 6, 2012, 5:17 pm
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Is there a way to review past flights and if you used a RPU/GPU with it? I can see when a GPU was removed in the activity section of my account, but I can't see which flight it was applied to. I ask because I'm pretty sure I never had a GPU redeposited after it failed to clear.
The sole purpose is to keep you in the dark.
May 6, 2012, 5:20 pm
#17
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2.2; en-us; MB612 Build/KRNS-X4-1.1.10) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)
The upgrade not clearing should be in the record. What we have no visibility into is the upgrade instruments being charged or redeemmed against that record.
Originally Posted by LAX
May 6, 2012, 5:55 pm
#18
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Up in the Air
Programs: DL MM; UA MM/1K
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An update on the RPU situation. I have a flight BOS-EWR-west-coast, with the EWR-west-coast segment upgraded at booking with an RPU. The leg BOS-EWR was waitlisted since R=RN=0 at that time. On Friday, that leg started showing R=RN=3 (the flight is in June, so this is not an artifact of being within the CPU window). Since this is a short flight, I decided to do a little experiment and wait for a few days to see if the system will catch up in one of its magical sweeps (I even waited over a Saturday night, just in case)..Nope. Availability stayed at R=3 and my upgrade stayed as "waitlisted". I finally called in today and had the agent manually force it (it took her a good 1/2 hour and a call to the IT people). She was very apologetic and nice through the entire process and at a loss to explain why the waitlisted upgrade did not clear. According to her, the pnr was flagged and sent to IT as "another one of those cases" for them to do a forensic analysis.
Moral: If you have a waitlisted upgrade and care about it, you still need to be proactive, periodically check for R space (or set EF for an alert) and then call. Ignore the advice of people that tell you to wait for a few days for the situation to resolve itself. This applies both to GPUs (had to do this in March) and RPUs.
Safe travels to all
Moral: If you have a waitlisted upgrade and care about it, you still need to be proactive, periodically check for R space (or set EF for an alert) and then call. Ignore the advice of people that tell you to wait for a few days for the situation to resolve itself. This applies both to GPUs (had to do this in March) and RPUs.
Safe travels to all
My advice: track R availability and call as soon as you see it. Don't wait for the sweep, I may be on the same flight and I ain't waiting
Happy Travels
DLP
May 6, 2012, 7:00 pm
#19
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: SF Bay Area
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Posts: 1,491
How hard can this be to fix? It's been a problem now for over two months and still hearing account after account of the same problem happening. Either management is dealing with other bigger problems and this isn't high enough priority (really poor management) or SHARES is just that bad. Probably a little of both.
May 6, 2012, 7:17 pm
#20
Moderator, Omni, Omni/PR, Omni/Games, FlyerTalk Posting Legend
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Same experience yesterday with flights for next Tuesday. The 1K agent couldn't clear me since the second segment was cleared at booking and had to call her help desk. Took ~30 minutes to fix.
My advice: track R availability and call as soon as you see it. Don't wait for the sweep, I may be on the same flight and I ain't waiting
My advice: track R availability and call as soon as you see it. Don't wait for the sweep, I may be on the same flight and I ain't waiting
I now set alerts for every waitlisted segment, and some which I may consider burning an instrument on if they show R later. Otherwise, I'd have to babysit every segment manually each and every day...
I already have Global Entry (and by the time it's up for renewal, UA probably won't offer it as a benefit anyway), so it seems like UA could at least give me credit toward my efforts at doing what they should be doing anyway.
May 6, 2012, 8:42 pm
#21
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 2,933
Two schedule changes with mis-connects in Feb., 2013!
Flights & days changed @ no charge, and RPU's cancelled as NO R's available. I ain't-a-gonna burning them on a lottery that drops me from the "What-ever-it-is-list @ T-24.
However, I have the straight skinny from my agent that my RPU's will be redeposited 72 hours from when I hung up the phone! So, unlike ya'all that have to wait a week or 48 hours, I am very, very confident that my valuable upgrades are in the good hands of my main squeeze "Cher's"!!!^
BTW, ain't Alex just cute as a button?
Flights & days changed @ no charge, and RPU's cancelled as NO R's available. I ain't-a-gonna burning them on a lottery that drops me from the "What-ever-it-is-list @ T-24.
However, I have the straight skinny from my agent that my RPU's will be redeposited 72 hours from when I hung up the phone! So, unlike ya'all that have to wait a week or 48 hours, I am very, very confident that my valuable upgrades are in the good hands of my main squeeze "Cher's"!!!^
BTW, ain't Alex just cute as a button?
May 6, 2012, 8:50 pm
#22
Join Date: Dec 2005
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I appreciate the OP started this thread clearly on this subject. It has been discussed a lot on other threads with other titles but I think it is important this gets higher visibility to United scanning this forum.
As I posted on another thread, one of the scariest parts of this problem is it appears that when you are waitlisted with an RPU and it is not clearing, it is blocking you out of any possible CPU upgrade, so instead of getting higher priority with a RPU you get 0 priority. This baloney about the 24hr mark is also horrible.
United needs to acknowledge this issue, alert ALL of their CS agents to the problem, and immediately communicate what the customers and agents need to do as workarounds until this is resolved!
As I posted on another thread, one of the scariest parts of this problem is it appears that when you are waitlisted with an RPU and it is not clearing, it is blocking you out of any possible CPU upgrade, so instead of getting higher priority with a RPU you get 0 priority. This baloney about the 24hr mark is also horrible.
United needs to acknowledge this issue, alert ALL of their CS agents to the problem, and immediately communicate what the customers and agents need to do as workarounds until this is resolved!
May 6, 2012, 9:22 pm
#23
Company Representative, United Airlines
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Chicago, Houston, or somewhere in between
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I got an Expert Flyer alert this morning for EWR-PHX in June, which I've had waitlisted with RPU for a couple of months. Figured I'd see if the "sweep" would work. Nope. I thought they processed at the flight's scheduled departure time?
Down to R1 (from R2 this morning), so rather than risk someone else applying a GPU/RPU/miles and taking the seat I'd been waitlisted for since early March, I called. Agent had to call her help desk to get the upgrade through; it took about 15 minutes.
Down to R1 (from R2 this morning), so rather than risk someone else applying a GPU/RPU/miles and taking the seat I'd been waitlisted for since early March, I called. Agent had to call her help desk to get the upgrade through; it took about 15 minutes.
Obviously, we’re seeing examples where this is not the case. When we see these on the weekend, it’s usually because the process that auto-clears waitlists is turned off when we are in the middle of a schedule change (which usually happens on the weekends). But, as soon as the schedule changes are complete, the process is turned back on – so historically, it’s always been quite seamless. We are trying to get to the bottom of why the auto-clear process is not resuming in all cases. Seeing R become available while customers remain on the waitlist for R is definitely not the end-state. We know this is important and have been researching this with high priority.
Shannon
May 6, 2012, 9:32 pm
#24
Join Date: Oct 2003
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Hi exedra, I’m glad to hear you got your issue resolved. I also wanted to share a bit more about waitlists clearing into R (which is completely different than how Complimentary Premier Upgrades clear). For waitlists outside 24 hours to departure, there is actually no “sweep” at a flight’s scheduled departure time. Instead, the moment R becomes available, the next person on the waitlist should be cleared. So really, if you see R available on a flight, there should not be anyone on the waitlist for R.
Obviously, we’re seeing examples where this is not the case. When we see these on the weekend, it’s usually because the process that auto-clears waitlists is turned off when we are in the middle of a schedule change (which usually happens on the weekends). But, as soon as the schedule changes are complete, the process is turned back on – so historically, it’s always been quite seamless. We are trying to get to the bottom of why the auto-clear process is not resuming in all cases. Seeing R become available while customers remain on the waitlist for R is definitely not the end-state. We know this is important and have been researching this with high priority.
Shannon
Obviously, we’re seeing examples where this is not the case. When we see these on the weekend, it’s usually because the process that auto-clears waitlists is turned off when we are in the middle of a schedule change (which usually happens on the weekends). But, as soon as the schedule changes are complete, the process is turned back on – so historically, it’s always been quite seamless. We are trying to get to the bottom of why the auto-clear process is not resuming in all cases. Seeing R become available while customers remain on the waitlist for R is definitely not the end-state. We know this is important and have been researching this with high priority.
Shannon
The net is R became available, but I did not clear a domestic waitlist with a GPU.
Something did happen. On UA.com, in the upgrade section - the waitlist statement cleared - meaning that I had cleared. However that did not translate to actually clearing. I used 2 GPUs for a roundtrip. 3 segments cleared right away as I had expected and the fourth indicated waitlist.
When R opened that waitlist statement went away like I had cleared, but no dice.
The legacy UA ORD based supervisor was not aware of R and that it should have cleared. But after putting me on hold for 15 minutes, she came back on and cleared.
So there definitely is a problem.
Also - why open up any R class while the upgrade clearing is turned off? Otherwise someone can call in and get the upgrade over the waitlist.
May 6, 2012, 9:38 pm
#25
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: PIT
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When we see these on the weekend, it’s usually because the process that auto-clears waitlists is turned off when we are in the middle of a schedule change (which usually happens on the weekends). But, as soon as the schedule changes are complete, the process is turned back on – so historically, it’s always been quite seamless. We are trying to get to the bottom of why the auto-clear process is not resuming in all cases. Seeing R become available while customers remain on the waitlist for R is definitely not the end-state. We know this is important and have been researching this with high priority.
Shannon
Shannon
glad to hear this is a high priority, since in my opinion this is a much more important issue than CPUs. I was wondering if you could clarify what exactly you mean by schedule changes and how long these usually take to be completed.
Thanks in advance
May 6, 2012, 9:45 pm
#26
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Up in the Air
Programs: DL MM; UA MM/1K
Posts: 613
Hi exedra, I’m glad to hear you got your issue resolved. I also wanted to share a bit more about waitlists clearing into R (which is completely different than how Complimentary Premier Upgrades clear). For waitlists outside 24 hours to departure, there is actually no “sweep” at a flight’s scheduled departure time. Instead, the moment R becomes available, the next person on the waitlist should be cleared. So really, if you see R available on a flight, there should not be anyone on the waitlist for R.
Obviously, we’re seeing examples where this is not the case. When we see these on the weekend, it’s usually because the process that auto-clears waitlists is turned off when we are in the middle of a schedule change (which usually happens on the weekends). But, as soon as the schedule changes are complete, the process is turned back on – so historically, it’s always been quite seamless. We are trying to get to the bottom of why the auto-clear process is not resuming in all cases. Seeing R become available while customers remain on the waitlist for R is definitely not the end-state. We know this is important and have been researching this with high priority.
Shannon
Obviously, we’re seeing examples where this is not the case. When we see these on the weekend, it’s usually because the process that auto-clears waitlists is turned off when we are in the middle of a schedule change (which usually happens on the weekends). But, as soon as the schedule changes are complete, the process is turned back on – so historically, it’s always been quite seamless. We are trying to get to the bottom of why the auto-clear process is not resuming in all cases. Seeing R become available while customers remain on the waitlist for R is definitely not the end-state. We know this is important and have been researching this with high priority.
Shannon
Thanks for responding, however I am disappointed to learn that UA considers non clearing RPUs/GPUs an exception. In my case it is the norm on flights with more than one segment.
As soon as one segment clears (usually at booking) I know the other segment will not. The last two cases resulted with a phone agent having to go to the help desk since the system would not her upgrade "married segments".
I have yet to miss an upgrade because of this mess, and I am grateful for the hard work put in by UA's phone agents and the support personnel behind the scenes, but I have to spend way too much time on the phone to get around those issues.
Thanks
DLP
May 6, 2012, 10:08 pm
#27
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: DCA
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Just speculation, but it could be that when autoclearing is turned off - it really does not turn off the complete processing. In my case I believe, the system processed the waitlist, but autoclearing may have been turned off - hence autoclearing thinks I cleared, but the upgrade processing of the reservation was turned off and hence it did not clear and may not ever had cleared without manual intervention.
To be exact, I noticed my situation at 11am on a Sunday morning and called UA at that time. But while the schedule changes may happen on Sunday - I think it is like 2 to 4 am not 11 am. So R may have opened in the middle of the night, processed my reservation - hence took me off waitlist - as waitlist no longer showed, but with upgrade disabled - it did not complete.
And I can say that R was zero at 11pm the night before - so it definitely opened R bucket sometime between 11 pm on Sat and 11am on Sun.
To be exact, I noticed my situation at 11am on a Sunday morning and called UA at that time. But while the schedule changes may happen on Sunday - I think it is like 2 to 4 am not 11 am. So R may have opened in the middle of the night, processed my reservation - hence took me off waitlist - as waitlist no longer showed, but with upgrade disabled - it did not complete.
And I can say that R was zero at 11pm the night before - so it definitely opened R bucket sometime between 11 pm on Sat and 11am on Sun.
Last edited by cova; May 6, 2012 at 10:18 pm
May 6, 2012, 10:30 pm
#28
Join Date: Nov 2005
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So what is the deal with T< 24 hours? If you have not applied an RPU but want to can you do it within 24 hours if R>0? I thought that was the case for GPUs that you could do it inside 24 hours if R>0. I assumed it was the same for RPUs.
May 6, 2012, 10:40 pm
#29
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 2,933
I don't get it either, what is the answer, if anyone knows?
If you have a GPU pending inside the 24 hour window do buy-up' still get offered to ANYBODY breathing, or what???
Also, per Shannon's response (which I don't quite understand), do RPU's & GPU"s go to a place called Limbo and are never heard from again inside T-24, if they were applied outside the 24 window???
Also, when the weekend schedule changes are completed, they can't do a sweep to clear the RPU's & GPU's, very soon after the fact???
If you have a GPU pending inside the 24 hour window do buy-up' still get offered to ANYBODY breathing, or what???
Also, per Shannon's response (which I don't quite understand), do RPU's & GPU"s go to a place called Limbo and are never heard from again inside T-24, if they were applied outside the 24 window???
Also, when the weekend schedule changes are completed, they can't do a sweep to clear the RPU's & GPU's, very soon after the fact???
May 7, 2012, 12:58 am
#30
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 341
I checked a JFK - SFO PS leg in June today. R/RN was showing 5 with my RPU still showing waitlisted (since Feb). I called UA and the rep had no idea why I hadn't cleared, but was able to immediately clear me.
I am 28k miles from hitting MM status. I really want to continue giving UA my business, but why are they making it so difficult for me to do so?
I am 28k miles from hitting MM status. I really want to continue giving UA my business, but why are they making it so difficult for me to do so?