Slow UG Processing at Gate
 

Was on a CLE>BOS flight yesterday. Asked about the UGs 45 minutes before departure and got a nasty glare from the GA, "We haven't processed them yet." Wait patiently. Boarding process starts, 20 minutes to departure. Ask again. Get another glare, but the GA finally takes 2 seconds to hit the button on the terminal and print out the new BPs.

Is this the new normal. Haven't had many gate UGs since 3/3, but my recollection is that it used to be a pretty prompt and predictable process.

Why would the GA process them anytime before 20 minutes out anyways, especially at a hublet?

+1.

But to answer the OP's question, processing upgrades at gate can take a while & some agents (according to reports) let F go out w/ empty seats when people are still on the upgrade list.

Cheers.

In my experience, this is the new normal. pmUA used to run them before they started boarding, now you have to wait. If you're already on the plane, you get to play salmon. (Battlefield upgrade).

Right, but OP's thread title didn't match his content. It wasn't the time taken to process, but when processing began.

This seems silly - you're already well underway boarding at that point. Is the airline expecting to sell F seats between 45 and 20 minutes out? Trying to crank out a few more TOds?

Check in cut off is 30 min at smaller airports and 45 min at most larger airports (CLE included). If there is space in First after check in cutoff, why not process it as early as possible to get it done.

Flew IND-ORD a few weeks back. Number 1 (and _only_ name) on the UG list. 6 booked, only 5 checked in at the 30 minute mark. At T -29, called my name and handed me the BP for First. That's the way it should work.

Playing salmon is never fun, especially on a completely full plane. I ended up doing this last year at EWR when my upgrade cleared 5 minutes after I boarded the plane.

PMUA did it right.

At T-30 (checkin deadline) they printed the BPs and called the upgraded passengers. UA was able to see the passengers who were on inbound delayed flights, so they could judge whether they had open seats due to inbound misconnects; and then they would ask the n passengers they might have seats for to stay in the boarding area.

I had that happen when they processed GPU's for one of my international flights. The speed in which they processed the upgrades actually went in my favor. I had time to select a better seat before all the upgrades were processed.

+1. It literally took them less then 60 seconds to process and hand out BPs. Why wait?

This is normal for PMCO, so I'd assume that's what they're doing UA-wide now.

I declined a salmon run/battlefield upgrade last month IAH-DCA because there was no room in the First bins for my carry-on and I would have had to swim upstream to retrieve it when we landed. I was settled in so simply not worth the hassle. If the GA had processed the upgrade when I boarded it would, of course, have been a different story.

Connecting flights - late arriving F passengers?

They already have seats though - I'm talking about, when it's booked to 16/20, why are you waiting on processing those final 4 F seats until halfway through boarding.