Ugh, this has finally happened to me and I have no idea why.

Tomorrow I'm flying SEA-LAX-LHR. I applied a GPU and SEA-LAX cleared immediately while LAX-LHR was waitlisted. It continued to show properly as waitlisted in my reservation.

I just did OLCI and sure enough my name isn't on the mobile.united.com upgrade standby list and my waitlisted segment in the reservation is now gone.

Time to call UA and get the run around with probably no resolution. Here's to hoping they're able to fix this before I go to the airport tomorrow...

-RM

Now that you're within 24 hours, do you see any R space? I'd you do, I remember one member suggesting you call in and upgrade with another SWU. You can later contact UA for the original SWU returned to your account.

I'm waiting for R space but the flight is J2 so it's unlikely to get R space unless they dump the two seats into all buckets which I've seen happening less and less lately. I'm not within 24 hours. I'm only 24 hours from my SEA-LAX flight.

-RM

IME, w/in T-24, the F seats have shown up as 'R' -- so hopefully that will happen to you. Also, my understanding is a GPU/RPU-supported PNR has 'higher priority' than the CPU (within the same status group). I agree that if you do see R space open up after T-24 - call & ask to have the existing GPU extended/cleared to the other leg. (You should not have to use some other GPU & then call & get the 1st one redeposited later, esp. since it's possible they (MPSC) won't be able to 'find' it - the orig. GPU -- after the fact!)

Could it be that the dropping off the upgrade standby list arises because either:

1) it is a multi-segment itinerary with a domestic connection: the waitlisted GPU is removed at T-24 of the *first*, domestic, segment, but the airport upgrade list for the international segment has not been built yet (as it is outside T-24) when OLCI for the first segment is done. No checks are then performed to gather "lost" GPUs when the airport list finally opens.

or

2) OLCI (even within T-24 of the international flight) is the culprit and in such instances airport checking would be advisable... This could be the case if you did not get a boarding pass but rather a doc check message.

I always get doc-check with either OLCI or the chickens at the airport, so now I do agent check-in only. In the single instance I experienced the "expired waitlist", the GPU did correctly put me on the airport list after an agent checked me in... but this is just one case...

There's always something new at UA. The agent has me on hold a lot while she's talking to someone at the 1K desk who now has my original agent on hold.

But the agent came back to me and said I used an RPU and not a GPU which won't work on LAX-LHR. DUH! I used a GPU online because that's all I could use and my account history shows that I redeemed a GPU. She's getting confused and now going back to talk to the 1K agent.

Still not resolved and not getting anywhere after 25 minutes on the phone.

Sucks UA puts passengers through this BS.

-RM

Sorry to hear that! GL w/getting it all straightened out!

Just to clarify, the original 'waitlisting' (with an instrument) does expire at T-24 (of your PNR). Then you get added to 'upgrade standby list' that eventually goes under 'airport control'. You are still on the upgrade list, but just can't see yourself until after OLCI of your first flt. I noted that you said that you've already done OLCI for the 1st flt, so am not sure what's going on w/your PNR that you are not showing up on the 'upgrade standby list' (under 'flight status').

Yeah, thanks.

I got nowhere with UA. I had three people tell me that because the flight is over 24 hours out I won't appear on the upgrade list online which is bull$hit. I've been waitlisted many times on international flights and as soon as I check in for the first flight I appear on the mobile.com upgrade list for the connecting flights. My last experience where I didn't clear ahead of time was HKG-NRT-xxx-IAH. I checked in and appeared online as a standby for NRT-xxx. R space opened at 24 hours out and I called and got cleared no problem.

I know the waitlist expires at 24 hours - but I'm not 24 hours from LAX-LHR.

They all told me to wait until 5:51pm to see if I show up on the LAX-LHR list online. If not then I am to call back. And do what I have no idea.

-RM

Not that people want to hear it, but I'll repeat that the solution to getting back on the list after OLCI is to deal with an airport agent. It is an airport function and the phone reps don't deal with it so they're looking at different systems and they don't do it as part of their regular work. That's why they always sound like they have no idea what you're talking about when you call in: they really don't.

What a PITA it would be to have to schlep to the airport the day before departure to handle this. Would it not be possible to get a Service Director on the line who could patch in someone who does have access to the right system (at the airport or elsewhere)? What's the point of 1K1Call if the 1Call doesn't function to solve the actual problem at hand?

Now past the T-24 hour mark. The two J seats have not been released into the "R" bucket.

There are 3 names on the standby list on the website and I'm not one of them. Go figure.

Between this and the lack of seeing inventory availability online I might be done with UA. Will evaluate after this trip.

-RM

In the next revision to the mobile site, they'll remove visibility into the waitlist. That's clearly the new strategy here. Don't fix anything and remove all the tools that allowed us to see the failures. This is worse than I ever thought it could become.

Exactly. My guess is that our ability see upgrade lists is not long for this world.

Yet PMUA phone agents were able to do just this very thing if an upgrade did drop from the waitlist [which was the exception and not the rule as with PMUA, a waitlisted upgrade carried over to t-4 hours where it then seamlessly rolled over to the airport waitlist]

Welcome to September 2012. That option doesn't exist anymore.