The 96 hour window is only pertinent to CPUs (Complimentary Premier Upgrades), so it does not apply to your situation. CPUs are not even available EWR/IAD/IAH to HNL.

Timing of upgrades clearing (if they clear) is not predictable.

I have a ton of flexibility on getting there, less on the way home (Where upgrades are more important to me) but I can do Mon-Thur on the way out and Sun-Tue on the way back. We are going on a cruise and definitely going out early to see Oahu a bit, visit some old friends etc. Coming back, I was planning on coming right home, but if staying a day or 2 and soaking up some more sun means lay flats, so be it. I haven't even booked the cruise and can book the cruise around the flight schedule easy enough.

I knew that CPU to Oahu was only from ORD and west coast, but I don't figure I have any real chance at that, especially with 4 of us traveling, hell, I am not even sure I have a chance using a RPU

Timing being unpredictable just means I probably have to babysit the reservations for 12 months....

Just messing around with dates and times and such and yes, I am fully aware this is 2016 and I need 2017, but mainly working the process, not the product.

Is this what i am looking for? Midweek P9, PN9, R4 and RN4

So, if I booked this flight today for 4 passengers and applied 4 RPU, we all get instantly upgraded to BF at booking?

http://imgur.com/hLjuPnM

Yes

i don't know if it's just dumb luck or not but 2 seperate trips i have been watching for a few weeks at R0 before booking just dropped substantially in price and all 4 segments had R space, including one SFO-EWR leg.

Technically don't you have to book the flight, wait for the ticket to be issued and then apply the upgrades? I ask because I've seen R5 drop to R1 within the few minutes of booking and ticket being issued. If this can be done at the same time it would speed the process for me.

The new website will theoretically allow you to do both at once.

I'm looking to book a RT IAD-SGN in mid-March using GPUs from economy to business both ways. I see decent W fares on the outbound (~$780) but can't for the life of me find a return fare with R>0. Is this typical from SGN, or southeast Asia for that matter?

Also, is R the only bucket GPUs pull from, or should I be looking at other ones as well?

a 1K GPU will pull from R, a GS GPU will pull from PN.

SE Asia can be tough. Where are you connecting? Might be o.k. to have the short hop waitlisted if the long-haul clears.

The only routing to SGN all UA metal is via HKG, with the final segment on a 737.

I would look at routings via TPE, and possibly NRT, HND, or ICN. Those are all relatively easy upgrades.

Thanks.

I've looked at most of those options. Literally every flight has R0...seems a bit suspicious.

"Suspicious"? Seriously?

If upgrading with GPUs was easy as 1-2-3, this thread wouldn't be 108 pages long.

I didn't expect it to be easy. I also didn't expect it to be impossible.

How does R availability work? Does United allocate a certain number of R seats for each flight, and when they're used, that's it? Or do some flights never even get R seats to begin with?

If it's the first process, it does seem suspicious that there literally isn't one R availability on a random Sunday in March from SGN, routing through anywhere. Do you really believe that everything with United is on the up and up?

It's not "impossible." People who say that about TPAC upgrades are usually not searching correctly and/or haven't done appropriate research in this forum.

No.

Yes.

Well there's your first problem. Sunday Asia-US is always a difficult upgrade. Probably the toughest day of the week. Nothing suspicious about that (unless you consider UA wanting to actually sell high demand BF seats "suspicious").

That has nothing to do with anything. What I know is I haven't flown Y TPAC since I made 1K, and that's 2 or 3 RTs per year.

I couldn't find anything on either Saturday or Sunday returning from SGN-IAD. Maybe all flights started with R0. And if my search techniques aren't ideal, please let me know how I can improve. The purpose of this forum is to learn and that's what I'm trying to do. I've searched SGN-IAD on United.com in expert mode, looked at the details tab of each and every flight what has a GPU eligible fare. I'm not sure how else to search.

If GPUs are offered as a hard earned "benefit", why does United make them so difficult to redeem? You have to admit it's frustrating.