blueman2

LOL!! Yes!! Actually, these were for upgrades I am sponsoring for my son and his girlfriend. I am doing my best to not fly UA myself, but still have to every once in a while. Reminds me how frustrating UA is!

mdjtlj

Here's my example:

- I applied a RPU to a DCA-IAH segment (Thursday), was waitlisted
- Got an email at 5:59 EST on Wed indicating that waitlist had expired
- Got an email at 6:02 EST on Wed giving me my boarding pass (coach)
- Got an email at 6:05 EST on Wed telling me that I've been upgraded to 21A

So went and checked-in again, and took my seat in F, it booked into class PN. That's all very strange, considering I was willing to spend an instrument which is a liability for them.

I did watch the space via EF, nothing ever opened.

Still waiting for the RPU to re-deposit, since the waitlist expired and a CPU was applied by UA to the reservation. Wonder how long it will take or how hard I'll have to fight for this.

channa

I think you can win this. You can't get upgraded inside the 24, and you have an EUA email, so you got an EUA not a RPU upgrade, give back the RPU. hehe

Whether it's worth the trouble is another story.

PHXonUA

I have a two segment flight coming up on Saturday (PHX-IAD-CDG). GPU applied at booking but both segments waitlisted. There are 4 seats left in First on segment 1 and 2 on segment 2.

With such a low number of First seats left I don't think R will open on either flight before departure.

Two questions:
Can I ask them to rescind the GPU request and have them redeposit it so I can reapply it at check in?
Should I do that based on what eveyone knows so far?

Thanks for any input anyone has.

channa

1. You can't reapply it at checkin. Only if there is upgrade space available can you use an upgrade within 24 hours. The system is not capable of waitlisting inside 24 hours -- that's the limitation that all of this is working around.

2. I would let it ride, because at least you have a shot of clearing at the gate. Hopefully you have a second GPU handy in case space does open inside the 24, in which case you can jump the list by using that instead of the one that's tied up in the waitlist.

SteveDCA

Is it true that the computer system right now thinks 1Ks and Platinum fliers are the same status, and if so, could this have anything to do with the UG clearing problem?

SteveDCA

So is it better to not check-in at T-24? If you do then the upgrade waitlist freezes you out. Or does this happen at T-24 whether you have checked in or not?

channa

The EUA system certainly sees 1Ks over Platinums (96 hour window vs. 72 hour window).

Not sure about the airport upgrade system (that's a separate system with separate logic). Maybe one of our GA's could tell us if there's a separate command to add someone to the 1K upgrade list vs. the Platinum upgrade list. If so, then there probably is separate logic for 1Ks.


You're frozen out at T-24 irrespective of checkin status. If R opens up inside T-24, there's nothing they can do to upgrade you with the RPU/GPU you already redeemed.

You can still pull a second RPU/GPU to upgrade if R opens up, irrespective of whether or not you checked in.

pdx1M

The babysitting continues:

RPU listed for my brother for couple of weeks (EWR-SFO so not real hopeful). Surprise - this morning it is R1 ^ but he is still waitlisted . Call the GS desk and the agent seems to understand and says she'll clear it which she does promptly. ^ Of course, in doing this I discover she has pulled a new RPU - the one previously applied expires this month and she now pulled one with Sept expiration. Back on the phone to another agent. He seems to understand the issue immediately and goes aways for about 90 seconds and returns the Sept RPU. ^ Both calls (GS desk) picked up without wait. ^

So - the screwed up system that can't manage to do the upgrade correctly continues to need babysitting but at least this morning the required fixes and the time they took seem greatly improved. ^ It's really great how UA is training us to do their job for them (managing booking information) and then complimenting them for how easy they are beginning to make it for us to do it!

FlyWorld

Question about this. If you apply RPU on Domestic flight and it doesn't clear then it should be re-deposited at T-24 then you go into the secondary queue then you might clear with CPU. Right? On Intl flight, there is no secondary queue (no CPU program). So, if you apply GPU for Intl flight, and it doesn't clear at T-24, then what happens? If a GPU can't be waitlisted within T-24 and it does not clear before T-24, that implies it's impossible to use a GPU within T-24?

pdx1M

Don't think this is right. What you cannot do within 24 hours is to waitlist a new R(G)PU. If you previously had one applied it stays attached to the record and can be used to clear an upgrade. For domestic this should have the effect of improving your priority (instrument upgrades ahead of CPUs) while for international it means you can still clear at the gate.

daslax

So here's an interesting one. Waitlisted for R on a 6/10 LAX-JFK flight, got an expertflyer notification that R space was available, sure enough I'm still waitlisted. Call 1K line and was told yes, she could see that I am on the waitlist using RPU's and yes, she could see that there was space available. But was told definitively there was nothing she could do and I needed to wait for the system to "automatically" process. She said it could be 1 day, 2 days or several days... but she can't do anything, I just need to wait.

This is where it's interesting - found this thread to get the real answers and promptly called back (less than 10 mins later) to insist on getting it resolved. Ready to insist on a supervisor, wait for 30 mins, etc... instead the agent says "actually your upgrade has already processed". Check united.com and sure enough I've been confirmed with seat assignments in C.

Did the first agent realize the error of her ways and get resolved? Or perhaps the agent going into the record had some effect which triggered the waitlist clearing? Seems less likely that it was a coincidence that a sweep just happened to occur in this timeframe since R had been open for at least several hours.

In any case, UA Insider, can someone PLEASE instruct the agents on how to manually clear these - it's really frustrating to not only have to babysit your reservations for waitlists to clear but THEN have to "agent shop" to find someone who will do what needs to be done.


UPDATE: Looks like the original agent who said there was nothing she could do did end up resolving this after we hung up. Just noticed that an email of my itinerary was sent before I called the second time AND 2 more RPUs have been pulled from my account. So she did the cancel and resubmit method, now I have to babysit the redeposit of my RPU's.

2cardinalalums

I tried last week on my outbound flight to HKG for May7. The night before T-23, R=1. I called and they said they could not do anything. <24hr is under airport control.

I had more GPU, so I suppose I should've called back to try some other phone agent?

exerda

I would have kept calling until I got an agent to clear it.

channa

Inside T-24, the waitlisted instrument if frozen and nothing can be done with that.

If R >= 1, you can upgrade, but they would have to pull another instrument. Maybe it wasn't clear to the agent that you were willing to do burn another SWU/GPU.


Nothing gets redeposited at T-24. Your upgrade is frozen, but it allows you to get on the airport upgrade list. That's why the upgrade instrument is in limbo -- the waitlist is gone, but the upgrade is still "used" because you're still awaiting it at the gate.

CPU is independent of that. CPU is still running inside T-24, because CPUs don't waitlist. The system limitation that all these acrobatics are designed to work around is CO's inability to waitlist inside 24 hours. Since CPU doesn't work off a waitlist, CPUs can (and do) continue to operate inside the 24-hour window.

As for your int'l flight question, you would go on the airport upgrade list, and the GA could clear you if there's space. If you do not clear at the gate, just like a domestic upgrade, after the flight, the instrument is supposed to be returned to you.