Jun 28, 2019, 10:46 am
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.
Releated thread
Difference of"Upgrade Requested","Segment has been Waitlisted","R/PZ class requested"
Changes to UA's Fare Classes (19-20 October 2018)
Archive thread: Upgrade still waitlisted even though R (now PZ) class is available {Archive}
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.
Releated thread
Difference of"Upgrade Requested","Segment has been Waitlisted","R/PZ class requested"
Changes to UA's Fare Classes (19-20 October 2018)
Archive thread: Upgrade still waitlisted even though R (now PZ) class is available {Archive}
Upgrade still waitlisted even though PZ (previously R) class is available
Jul 17, 2016, 8:49 pm
#46
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another thing to watch is what revenue bucket they are opening for the flights, and the PN bucket. a flight that is P9/PN0 is less of a good candidate for R opening than one that is say P9/PN3 or P9/PN9. if your flight is J9/P0, that's not such a good candidate for R to open. anything with J<9 the waitlist is probably going to only start clearing a couple of days before departure.
That has nothing to do with when inventory management opens R. Check only once a week and you are very likely to miss out on R.
Jul 17, 2016, 10:05 pm
#47
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the agent has absolutely no idea what revenue management team is going to do, so i wouldn't put a lot of stock in their belief about R opening. DEN-NRT is regarded as sort of a difficult GPU upgrade relative to the other NRT flights.
in the rare cases when i fly UA revenue anymore with an instrument i check for R once a day, usually first thing in the morning because that is when it is convenient. i check more often inside T-7 days to departure.
another thing you can do if you have expert flyer is set an alert for I. pretty much anytime I is open, R is also open...but there are many, many times when R is wide open (R9) and I is 0. the I open strategy works best inside 5 days to departure.
another thing to watch is what revenue bucket they are opening for the flights, and the PN bucket. a flight that is P9/PN0 is less of a good candidate for R opening than one that is say P9/PN3 or P9/PN9. if your flight is J9/P0, that's not such a good candidate for R to open. anything with J<9 the waitlist is probably going to only start clearing a couple of days before departure.
as in all things YMMV.
in the rare cases when i fly UA revenue anymore with an instrument i check for R once a day, usually first thing in the morning because that is when it is convenient. i check more often inside T-7 days to departure.
another thing you can do if you have expert flyer is set an alert for I. pretty much anytime I is open, R is also open...but there are many, many times when R is wide open (R9) and I is 0. the I open strategy works best inside 5 days to departure.
another thing to watch is what revenue bucket they are opening for the flights, and the PN bucket. a flight that is P9/PN0 is less of a good candidate for R opening than one that is say P9/PN3 or P9/PN9. if your flight is J9/P0, that's not such a good candidate for R to open. anything with J<9 the waitlist is probably going to only start clearing a couple of days before departure.
as in all things YMMV.
Agree. R can open at any time of day, but it is most likely to open in the early morning hours (as Chavala noted above). If you check first thing in the morning, you'll catch it.
Yup. The very best indicator is when a flight goes P0 PN0 R0 to P9 PN0 R0 to P9 PN9 R0. You're very likely to see R within a day or two in that progression.
That has nothing to do with when inventory management opens R. Check only once a week and you are very likely to miss out on R.
Yup. The very best indicator is when a flight goes P0 PN0 R0 to P9 PN0 R0 to P9 PN9 R0. You're very likely to see R within a day or two in that progression.
That has nothing to do with when inventory management opens R. Check only once a week and you are very likely to miss out on R.
I do appreciate everyone's help. ^
Jul 17, 2016, 10:48 pm
#48
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Jul 18, 2016, 1:38 am
#49
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In my recent experience, this doesn't matter anymore. Upgrade waitlists are being processed as expected. I have stopped looking for R as the only benefit is to cut the line. Hopefully UA continues to make it difficult to find/see R when there is a waitlist to prevent line cutting. It should just work, and at least in my recent experience, it has been.
Jul 18, 2016, 6:24 am
#50
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In my recent experience, this doesn't matter anymore. Upgrade waitlists are being processed as expected. I have stopped looking for R as the only benefit is to cut the line. Hopefully UA continues to make it difficult to find/see R when there is a waitlist to prevent line cutting. It should just work, and at least in my recent experience, it has been.
Jul 18, 2016, 6:26 am
#51
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Jul 18, 2016, 8:12 am
#52
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In my recent experience, this doesn't matter anymore. Upgrade waitlists are being processed as expected. I have stopped looking for R as the only benefit is to cut the line. Hopefully UA continues to make it difficult to find/see R when there is a waitlist to prevent line cutting. It should just work, and at least in my recent experience, it has been.
I caught open R on a waitlisted GPU as recently as January on SFO-HKG. If you read the thread there are several more recent reports than that.
And btw, this is not about "cutting the line" - it's about (i) making sure others don't cut in front of you (if you're already waitlisted), and (ii) best practices for finding open R (if you're not waitlisted).
Jul 18, 2016, 7:09 pm
#53
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yes, flight # changes ... A319 to A320 ... there are plenty of reasons why after loading a schedule change Friday night suddenly R becomes available.If you have a flight 40 weeks out you don't check every day ... unless you are desperate. I have had good success checking around 'schedule change time' which is often 3-5 months before departure on Saturday morning ... just my 2 cents.
Jul 18, 2016, 8:16 pm
#54
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Jul 18, 2016, 9:16 pm
#55
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yes, flight # changes ... A319 to A320 ... there are plenty of reasons why after loading a schedule change Friday night suddenly R becomes available.If you have a flight 40 weeks out you don't check every day ... unless you are desperate. I have had good success checking around 'schedule change time' which is often 3-5 months before departure on Saturday morning ... just my 2 cents.
not sure if it is still the case but there used to be some quite long thin A320 routes very good for RPUs (eg, PHL-SFO and IAD-SMF -- the latter now a 738 mostly but was a 320 for the longest time)
Jul 18, 2016, 9:32 pm
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Jul 18, 2016, 9:44 pm
#57
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Jul 30, 2016, 6:19 pm
#58
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I just wanted to say thanks to everyone in this thread for the help.
I decided to look outside this routing for R space since I was doing a look back on R space opening up on the DEN-NRT route and not seeing good evidence of it opening on the Saturday flight.
I saw a SFO-NRT (and IAH-NRT, ORD-NRT etc etc etc flights) hanging around on Friday but no R space. I checked again this morning and the SFO-NRT route had R1. I called United and switched the flight around and grabbed the R space (which is back to zero now).
I would never have accomplished any of this without all the advice here, thanks everyone!
I decided to look outside this routing for R space since I was doing a look back on R space opening up on the DEN-NRT route and not seeing good evidence of it opening on the Saturday flight.
I saw a SFO-NRT (and IAH-NRT, ORD-NRT etc etc etc flights) hanging around on Friday but no R space. I checked again this morning and the SFO-NRT route had R1. I called United and switched the flight around and grabbed the R space (which is back to zero now).
I would never have accomplished any of this without all the advice here, thanks everyone!
Oct 14, 2016, 8:54 am
#59
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Applied an RPU to waitlist an upgrade on a flight yesterday. Today morning noticed that the flight was R1; checked again about 5.5 hours later and the flight was still R1. Had some downtime, so phoned it in and pushed the upgrade through.
I also waitlisted an upgrade on the return portion and this does not inspire a lot of confidence.
I also waitlisted an upgrade on the return portion and this does not inspire a lot of confidence.
Oct 14, 2016, 10:30 am
#60
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Applied an RPU to waitlist an upgrade on a flight yesterday. Today morning noticed that the flight was R1; checked again about 5.5 hours later and the flight was still R1. Had some downtime, so phoned it in and pushed the upgrade through.
I also waitlisted an upgrade on the return portion and this does not inspire a lot of confidence.
I also waitlisted an upgrade on the return portion and this does not inspire a lot of confidence.
And I am 100% confident that if someone would have bought a ticket and applied an upgrade in the interim you would have missed out.