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Upgrade still waitlisted even though PZ (previously R) class is available

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Old Jun 28, 2019, 10:46 am
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Last edit by: WineCountryUA
It appears at times, UA will release upgrade space, now labeled as PZ, but the upgrade waitlist is not processed until a later time. During this period of time, a new upgrade request will clear, ignoring the waitlist. This could be a new request or someone calling to request their waitlisted request to be clear (sometimes called -- "jumping the queue"). So as a defensive move, some may try to call to get their waitlisted request cleared if this situation occurs. Over the years agents, at times, have been reluctant or agreeable to doing this. More recently there are reports of agents needing supervisor approval to do this (this may be UA's attempt to prevent "queue jumping").

Another strategy in this situation is to remove a waitlisted request and then reapply. This does risk losing one's place on the waitlist if unsuccessful

At times, the waitlist process seems to be delayed for an extended period of time, it is speculated that this is a situation where the waitlist processing is "stuck" -- this may be due to a ticket out-of-sync issue with the passenger on top of the waitlist or other causes. A good agent will notice this if you call about clearing and fix the situation.

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Difference of"Upgrade Requested","Segment has been Waitlisted","R/PZ class requested"

Changes to UA's Fare Classes (19-20 October 2018)

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Upgrade still waitlisted even though PZ (previously R) class is available

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Old Jun 27, 2018, 3:08 pm
  #181  
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Originally Posted by sannmann
Exactly why this notion of “gaming the system” is fallacious. The system is broken. New upgrade requests bypass the waitlist entirely.
Several years ago, when stalled upgrades were similarly endemic, there was a school of thought that it was better not to waitlist instruments at all, but simply wait until UA opened R, then swoop in for the upgrade.
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Old Jun 27, 2018, 3:10 pm
  #182  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Several years ago, when stalled upgrades were similarly endemic, there was a school of thought that it was better not to waitlist instruments at all, but simply wait until UA opened R, then swoop in for the upgrade.
In the past, when I have had an extra instrument, I would go ahead and upgrade with the additional instrument and then call to get the unused one back. I am not sure if the system will still allow that.
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Old Jun 27, 2018, 3:31 pm
  #183  
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Originally Posted by timbre
In the past, when I have had an extra instrument, I would go ahead and upgrade with the additional instrument and then call to get the unused one back. I am not sure if the system will still allow that.
You can't apply a new instrument to a segment that is already waitlisted for an instrument upgrade. You have to call to have the waitlist request removed.
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Old Jun 27, 2018, 5:32 pm
  #184  
 
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Originally Posted by iluv2fly
I saw a PN available and called GS to have my upgrade cleared. They said that they are not allowed to do that any longer. They said the computer must do it. This was about nine months ago IIRC. I have tried the few times when this situation presented itself again and it was a solid no-go.
My experience as well.
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 12:21 am
  #185  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Several years ago, when stalled upgrades were similarly endemic, there was a school of thought that it was better not to waitlist instruments at all, but simply wait until UA opened R, then swoop in for the upgrade.
at that time it was still easy/possible to monitor R with EF
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 9:46 am
  #186  
 
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Originally Posted by iluv2fly
I saw a PN available and called GS to have my upgrade cleared. They said that they are not allowed to do that any longer. They said the computer must do it. This was about nine months ago IIRC. I have tried the few times when this situation presented itself again and it was a solid no-go.
Interesting, I just upgraded my last two flights with instruments with a phone call and in my case NO R space was showing but F was wide open at about T96hrs.
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 10:28 am
  #187  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
You can't apply a new instrument to a segment that is already waitlisted for an instrument upgrade. You have to call to have the waitlist request removed.
This seems kind of obvious, didn't read full thread above but why would anybody even want to do this? It would seem if you are doing this to push an upgrade through when you see R space open up I have just called and asked to push my previous waitlisted instrument upgrade through. Contrary to other post I have not gotten the "the computer needs to do it" line.
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Old Jul 1, 2018, 7:28 am
  #188  
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Quick question.
Any advice where the TPAC leg is already confirmed upgrade via GPU, but the following domestic flight from hub to DAY is showing as eligible for CPU (up arrow), and now has R >0?
I tried the 1K line and was told I needed to use an RPU, as the Global could not be retroactively applied to the final flight...even after checking with a CSR "lead agent".

I am 99% sure the agent is just bad, but wanted to double check in case there have been some new experiences. I can certainly try again, but wondered how hard to push versus having something noted on the ticket....

Obviously, not a situation where I can remove the cert and reapply, as I would lose the R space on the TPAC.
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Old Jul 1, 2018, 7:52 am
  #189  
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Originally Posted by goodeats21
Quick question.
Any advice where the TPAC leg is already confirmed upgrade via GPU, but the following domestic flight from hub to DAY is showing as eligible for CPU (up arrow), and now has R >0?
I tried the 1K line and was told I needed to use an RPU, as the Global could not be retroactively applied to the final flight...even after checking with a CSR "lead agent".

I am 99% sure the agent is just bad, but wanted to double check in case there have been some new experiences. I can certainly try again, but wondered how hard to push versus having something noted on the ticket....

Obviously, not a situation where I can remove the cert and reapply, as I would lose the R space on the TPAC.
bad agent. Call again.
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Old Jul 1, 2018, 4:26 pm
  #190  
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Originally Posted by cfischer
bad agent. Call again.
Thanks for the confirmation. 15 minutes wasted on the phone just now..mostly on hold...but they finally cleared it.
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Old Jul 6, 2018, 1:33 pm
  #191  
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I am coming to think something has been changed on the front-line agents' computers. I had a couple experiences this week with trying to push upgrades through. In one case I watched the status while the agent worked and saw the booked count go up, but then the agent came back and said it wouldn't go, and the count went down again. This leads me to believe that, at least without involving the help desk, they do need the 'computer' to do it.
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Old Jul 6, 2018, 2:24 pm
  #192  
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Had this happen yesterday, call took 8mins, mostly on hold while the agent talked to a different party. Saw the R count decrease after they cleared it.
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Old Jul 6, 2018, 2:42 pm
  #193  
 
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Today I saw R3 while waiting on RPUs to clear for the littlest Catbert and myself. Called the 1K line. Agent went off to talk to someone for about 5 minutes, came back, said it would take about 5 minutes to complete processing and show up in my reservation, asked which seats we wanted. Finally showed up 30 minutes later, with the requested seats.
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Old Jul 27, 2018, 3:23 pm
  #194  
 
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No luck today :(

I called 1K line about GPU-waitlisted flight. The agent was extremely nice, but she would not do anything. She insisted that there was no upgrade space available and said that I was priority waitlisted and it would be cleared when there were seats available for upgrade. For this SFO-HKG, I saw R1 two weeks again (I did not call) and then became R0. I have seen R2 for the entire day today. I did not check R space in the past four days. Perhaps, I should wait for another day and call again if I am still waitlisted and there are still R2..
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Old Jul 27, 2018, 3:43 pm
  #195  
 
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Originally Posted by Kmxu
I called 1K line about GPU-waitlisted flight. The agent was extremely nice, but she would not do anything. She insisted that there was no upgrade space available and said that I was priority waitlisted and it would be cleared when there were seats available for upgrade. For this SFO-HKG, I saw R1 two weeks again (I did not call) and then became R0. I have seen R2 for the entire day today. I did not check R space in the past four days. Perhaps, I should wait for another day and call again if I am still waitlisted and there are still R2..
Or just have the agent return your GPUs. After doing so, as the agent to apply GPUs to your flights...
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