Thank you. I will go ahead and process the GPU. Did not want to burn it on the domestic F which is currently very empty.

Dilemma:

Thursday afternoon:
EWR-HKG R0 - 11 seats unassigned in seatmap, J9, JN9, C8, D8, Z7, ZN7, P4

ORD-HKG R0 - 17 seats unassigned in the seatmap, J6, JN6, C2, D2, Z2, ZN2, P0, PN0

SFO-HKG R0 - 11 seats unassigned in the seatmap, J2, JN2, C2, D2, Z2, ZN2, P1

Wednesday afternoon:

EWR-HKG R space open -> That might be a bit too pushing for my schedule

My take is it may be a bit too risky for the SFO-HKG, so maybe the ORD-HKG and EWR-HKG are the best bet. Would you forget about the miles to secure the best possible upgrade? I regret that I didn't get this taken care of last weekend. Yesterday morning, R space was there, but afternoon, all gone. I believe the system sweep takes place sometime on Monday.

Why are you relying on seat maps rather than booking info from flight status? You can't draw reliable conclusions about loads from seat maps.

Booking info from the the flight status? Do you mean fare buckets? My take is, if upgraders are savy about BF, they would have go to pick a seat in the seat-map. Of course, looking at J inventory tells you how many more seats they can sell as full fare. IMO, J2 for SFO-HKG is definitely telling you there may not be any seats left for upgraders. Am I looking at it wrong?

assuming the empty seat map info provides any guidance -- should not be relevant to your decision making other than to see if your favorite seat is taken. When J2 and the seat map is 11 or 17 or 2 -- then seat map adds little useful info.

No you can see booking info on the flight status page under "upgrade list." It tells you how many seats are booked in the J and F cabins. More reliable than seat map or fare buckets. I am surprised a "savvy traveler" does not know this.

Will my RPU stick?
 

Anyone have any suggestions/experience with regard to this:

I SDC'd an RPU'd flight over the phone. My reservation indicates that I am confirmed in R. However, the RPU has been re-deposited to my account. I CAN get mobile boarding passes that show my seat number and I am on the upgrade list.

However, when I select to email the boarding passes, my first class boarding pass says 'see agent' on it. I also cannot access a receipt.

Should I be okay? I do not want to go to the airport tomorrow and be surprised that I am now in Y.

Why start a new thread? I think you will be fine, but if out of an abundance of caution you may wish to call UA back and ask why it says "see agent" when you have a seat assignment. (usually "see agent" only shows up when the cabin is overbooked by one or two and you don't have a seat assignment yet)

Sorry, new thread was an accident. I meant to post it in the same thread.

Anyone have any experience with the IAH-FRA flt? Trying to upgrade V fare on Saturday before Thanksgiving.

All UA flights to FRA are a difficult upgrade. That flight currently shows J9 C9 D9 Z9 P0, so not hopeless, but it's probably 50-50 at best.

Expert flyer no longer showing R andRN availabilty
 

Any suggestions on how to get this information now for flights 2 -11 months out? I found it quite useful on my upcoming IAH - SIN trip to know where the GPU upgrades were available when I was looking four months out

I actually meant Nov 20 Wed, and Nov 21 Thu, my apologies. Flight status worked for three days before deparure. Couple weeks out would not be helping, unfortunately.

Yes, it can still be found on the mobile site by changing the date after you've run the query.

Yes, enable expert mode on united.com.

Is it still possible to upgrade Europe-US-Brazil with one GPU (right Fare class given). This connection is not mentioned in the table on ua.com.