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

This just happened to me on UA869 SFO-HKG. Changed onto this flight 7 days out at P2 PN0 PN0 R0 with BF booked 38/52. Agent did not do the re-ticketing cleanly, and I had the "R Class Requested" notation instead of "Upgrade Requested," and the GPU went back into my account. I've had the upgrade clear automatically in this circumstance before, so figured I'd wait it out at least until check-in.

This morning, the flight goes R3 but I'm still "R Class Requested." Called it in. Very nice agent, but she was skeptical. I had to give a long explanation. Which was followed by a lengthy hold. She finally returned and said "your upgrade is all set." Sure enough, confirmed into R.

I am really curious what the sweep schedule is for the upgrades. I am sure many times we are calling in just because the next sweep hasn't happened yet. Of course we have to in order to prevent being jumped in line, possibly jumping the line ourselves in the process.

Just increasing sweep frequency could be a big help but.... we know the story.

I assume that the root cause issue is that inventory releases are somewhat variable and its not possible to time the upgrade sweeps to them, at least that was my interpretation of UA Insider's (Shannon) explanation when this was (last) looked at soon after merger.

Doesn't cover the hosed reservation issues of course...

Every time I've cleared off the waitlist in advance on a long-haul, it's happened in the early morning hours - between midnight and 3 a.m. Pacific Time. Although I don't doubt sweeps happen other times, I think that's when the R releases are most likely to occur.

Yup. To the extent there is any ethical issue here, the fact that anyone can jump the queue pretty much overrides it for me. It's a jungle out there.

Yeah I think that was material here. If nothing else, the fact the GPU was sitting in my account and not applied to the reservation was I think critical to the agent's willingness to clear me. I got the sense she would not have done it otherwise. Seemed very "by the book." (Also knew exactly what she was doing and was very pleasant about the whole thing.)

And btw, UA869 is still R2 for Friday ;)

And that's exactly when I used to get notifications back in the good ole days of EF. It was always a happy middle-of-the-night Buzz from my phone.

I have started setting EF to check for I availability on UA flights, and I got a ping about an hour or so ago that I had come up on an IAD-CDG flight I had also been monitoring pretty much daily on UA.com. I immediately checked and, sure enough, R had also gone from 0 to 9 at some point since yesterday. I called UA, withdrew my waitlist with miles and copay (which had not cleared, of course), waited 5 minutes and then went online and reapplied for a miles and copay which cleared immediately. I realize there may not be exact correlation between I and R, but they often seem to become available about the same time.

I have never seen I greater than R. The risk though is that there is very frequently R space when there is no I space, so you will miss a lot of R with this strategy.

+1.

However, it is still an alert that could allow one to check to ensure one's upgrade went through, albeit limited to I-class space.

The root cause is they don't have a waitlist. A waitlist by definition clears the next person the minute the spot becomes available. PMUA had this, current UA does not.

I was on a z fare waiting for ON to open (waitlisted).

As of this morning, still on waitlisted. But saw that ON = 1. So I called to have it processed.

Now confirmed in First.

On a flight last week, I was #1 on the waitlist for a GPU and there were three seats open within about 2 hours of take off. I was watching it like a hawk, and then saw R1. Waited a minute or two, no email about my upgrade. So I wasn't going to take any chances, phoned in. First agent said "I can't do anything, it's under airport control". HUACA. Second agent took about 30 seconds to process the upgrade.

The weird thing is, she used a "new" GPU from my account to process it, not the GPU that was waitlisted. So I had basically used 2 GPUs for the upgrade. I waited a couple of days after the flight, no redeposit of the extra GPU. Emailed 1K, and within 4 hours got a nice email with 1 GPU redeposited.

In this situation I didn't "queue-jump" because I was #1 on the list. But someone else easily could have. Just encourages me to queue-jump again in the future... very annoying...

Meanwhile as others have commented, I am noticing fewer and fewer flights with R availability at booking time... it's a bait and switch game. Many other things about United have been really improving over the past several months but this issue remains a bone in the throat...

Seems like the second agent did you a favor to take a new GPU; by the time they grabbed back the old one an processed it, R may have been 0. Still would have been nice to then process the redeposit for you...

But I want to pick the bone a little- if R=0 at booking, how is it "a bait and switch?" It would be so if R>1 at booking, and then someone at UA manually manipulated R to 0 as you ticketed. Otherwise, if R=0 at booking/ticketing or someone beat you to the R space before you could upgrade, I don't think this is "a bait and switch."

lol someone started a thread within the past month commenting on how they believed there is more R space now than in the past.

Seems about the same to me. Available TPAC, difficult TATL unless you're willing to connect. The one thing I have noticed is a willingness by UA to open R within a week or two of departure even when the BF cabin is booked pretty full. I recently cleared into open R on SFO-HKG-SFO with both cabins booked over 40/52.

One suspects he meant that if R=0 for most flights until just before checkin opens, the published benefit that instruments like GPUs and RPUs can be used for upgrades prior to flight time is a bait and switch.

Exactly this.

routine check today ... flight on 12/21 showed R9. Sure enough both tickets still waitlisted :rolleyes: . Called and got them cleared.