If your buying full Y fares you can even get on a sold out flight as a 1K. Just call and book Y on the sold out flight (a 1K benefit that usually works), then cancel your other fully refundable Y ticket.

Smisek isn't waking up. He is awake. And he's done what he set out to do. He needs to be replaced.

This really is the bottom line.

They pulled R visibility because they have no intention of clearing wait-lists and they don't want us to see that our wait-lists aren't clearing.

It's as simple as that.

Meanwhile, while we sit on the wait-lists that don't clear, they're selling the seats for TOD's to GMs who aren't on the wait-list.

If this were not the case, then they'd fix the upgrade algorithm. The fact that they haven't fixed the upgrade algorithm, and the fact that they've now pulled our ability to view how it's broken shows us their true intentions.

I'm really starting to wake up.

I can get TPAC or TATL fares on world-class airlines for $2-3K RT if I'm lucky and savvy enough to find a Z type fare. A typical W fare is $1500, a premium of about $800 above lowest fare in E.

If I take 4 flights on UA at W fare, I'll spend $6000 and, it seems, sit in E anyway. If I'm able to snag decent discounted Z type fares, the same 4 flights, with good service and good food and guaranteed C seating, would cost $12,000.

On the surface, it looks like a savings of $6,000.

But, I've got to make 1K to get the GPUs to get those savings. So, how much have I wasted on 100K worth of flights at UA's inflated prices to get that reward? And, how much crap and nonsense did do I have to put up with over the course of the year? And, how many flights will I have to fly paying W to sit in E until they even give me a chance to use the GPU?

Increasingly, this is looking like a game that is rigged against us.

sorry but you will have to think of something else this doesnt hold any water

Case in pt, I booked a JFK-IAD-HNL tkt,R=2 on the IAD-HNL by the time the person who was sponsoring me opened my email and applied the RPU R=0 and 2 seats in F were in grey. So the daily check if R>0. Then Bingo its sweep away from us to check on Fri, and then on that Sun afterwards an email from UA that my WL cleared for IAD-HNL 1st time I ever as a 1k after 3/3 got an email telling me I cleared, usually it was me calling in when I saw R>0 and having them manually clear me

Everyone should still be able to see their waitlist status using the PDA site - which is what CO designed it for. The downside is you won't see the list until a few days before departure, and you can't see R inventory (except by using the workarounds posted waaaay upthread), but the information is still out there so we're not completely in the dark until boarding.

United hasn't pulled R available, just a different way of showing it.

Like I've said before, put your hand up for job running UA.

Good, maybe FT can get back to the real world and not the hype you claim in each of your posts.

I'm not clear on what you're saying.

Is it your position that waitlists are clearing normally?

The benefit currently on the website is better than I recall it before the merger. It applies to all premier members and I thought the time before departure that you had to do this was in days (even for 1Ks) not minutes/hours. Also allowing 1Ks to do this on B-fares is quite welcome:

Access to Most Sold-Out Flights: Premier members may receive confirmed reservations – even when a flight is sold out – when purchasing certain full-fare tickets. Premier 1K members may take advantage of this benefit when purchasing an unrestricted Y or B class ticket at least 90 minutes prior to departure. This benefit also applies to Premier Platinum members when purchasing an unrestricted Y class ticket at least 120 minutes prior to departure, and Premier Gold and Premier Silver members when purchasing an unrestricted Y class ticket at least 24 hours prior to departure.

This is only my third post but I too am very disappointed in this change. Not that my voice matters, but I wanted to chime in. I just hope I do not have to venture to SW for my weekly Orlando to Houston trip.

I suspect that's the position of virtually everyone here. It's hard to argue that they are not, apart from very isolated cases.

If most people here believe that wait lists are mostly clearing properly, then it should not be necessary to micro-manage R space after bookings to get an upgrade. Given that it is fairly easy to find R space at time of booking on current site, arguably not much harder than before, the R space issue isn't that much of an incremental problem at time of booking. Why, then, are so many people upset about the removal of R space from the UI on the web site? The only reason I'm upset about it is because I rely on it to clear upgrades after booking. If I'm alone on this point, then I'm curious what others are so upset about.

Well I have one experienced 5 minutes ago. 5 days ago I waitlisted an RPU for a LAX-EWR flt. There is something still messed up that I face issues waitlisting RPU/GPUs. My PNR displayed the waitlisted segment but at T-24 it disappears. I call in to verify that I am waitlisted based on the RPU and not simply by a 1K CPU.

She says I'm #3 on the waitlist and that I am prioritized based on the RPU but that she can confirm me immediately. I assume then it was at least R1. I am now confirmed in F.

What happened with the #1 and #2 people on the waitlist?? I assume they waitlisted using miles/instrument and if R>1 we should have been automatically cleared accordingly. Instead no one cleared and it went to the first person to call in and inquire.

Appalling decision to alienate expert flyers
 

It beggars belief that a key functionality for frequent flyers (aka United's best revenue providers) was removed because infrequent flyers (aka flyers who don't contribute to United's profits) were "confused".

It would be quite simple to keep the expert mode for United's profit generators by having them sign-in and then check their preferences and then show them the fare bucket contents during flight planning.

Is the new United management capable of admitting mistakes and then correcting them? That would be a true test of a customer friendly airline which wants to retain the loyalty of their best profit generators.

Based on Mr Smisek's track record, and this outrageous decision to cripple the functionality of flight search, I wouldn't hold your breath!

Help me, I'm Stupid...
 

Just saw this thread for the first time.

Disingenuous garbage (concern over customer "confusion") and double-talk ("we believe in transparency" as transparency is eliminated) from the designated social media pr flak.

These corp HQ folks must really believe the consumer, incl. those on FT, is dumber than a box of rocks.

So glad to say publicly that after flying with United since I was a kid (DC-8 to Disneyland, as I recall), my November flight will be my last paid UA flight. Cancelling the Chase CC at around the same time.

Way to go Jeff Smisek and United. Keep those likeable changes coming.

--mcz

Standby is not permitted for later flights, only earlier.
It isn't working properly often enough that it is still a problem. IME the R would show up and then, eventually, the upgrade would clear but not immediately like it should. In most cases it probably doesn't matter as the correct people are getting the upgrade but there are enough cases where that is not happening that the company needs to fix it.