weero

If you are a 1K on a high fare and have GPUs only book flights which have availability now. Otherwise any GM on a T fare willing to fork over dollars or dollars and cash will beat you in the upgrade race.

Maybe not inside DM (outside of SFO) but during the countdown to T-24h.

transportprof

I've never failed to upgrade on a Tuesday departure from the US (SFO or LAX).

weero

I never failed one cheap fares when I was a Premier Exec. And I mostly cleared (I always flew mid week) on higher fares as 1K until about 2010.

But the TOD and HOD upgrade schemes/scams turned this into a no-fly route for me.

LordTentacle

only time I have missed when using a GPU have been when C filled up over a week in advance
often relating to conference events (Oracle openworld always kills me)

halls120

This has been my strategy for the past two years. I burned all but one GPU at booking, because I have no confidence that UA isn't going to extend a TOD/HOD offer to a kettle rather than take care of its elites.

We are just sheep to be shorn at this point.

weero

Well done! Congrats on being the master of your travel schedule ^^^ .

docbert

Booked SFO-SYD-SFO a few weeks ago (out Saturday, back mid-week). Return GPU cleared at booking (was R>0). Outbound cleared the first night.

Next day canceled the ticket as my plans changed. Re-booked a week or so earlier (out Monday, back Wednesday). One GPU cleared about 2 days later. The other a few days after that.

Remember, LAX-MEL started a few weeks ago, so there's 48 more premium seats to Australian every day, and more premium overall than there has been since they ran the seasonal MEL flights many, many years ago...

jgreen1024

I flew SFO-SYD last week on a Thursday - 1K on a W fare and I ended up as #11 on the upgrade list. Coming back this Saturday with C3 showing on the flight and am expecting to sit in the back again - sadly.

weero

vs
Nice contrast of experiences. 10 years ago, I was in the docbert camp but the latter sounds much more like the experiences I had on UA.

Any fare below M will - for me - not clear with absolute certainty. No matter which day of the week and which route. Full fares do clear mid-week unless some GM is willing to TOD or copay on low fares.

docbert

As I said, all of my flights were after the MEL-LAX flight started. I'd love to hear some more experiences in the past ~3 weeks, as 48 extra seats every day has to make some difference to the number of upgrades clearing!

beansb

LAX->SYD on Nov 7th as a 1k I was #7 on the upgrade list (needless to say I did not get it). Not looking good for the return on the 15th. Peak days obviously but still a little disappointing to be #7.

ozflier

My score on MEL-LAX-MEL.

I didn't bother trying via SYD as I had the impression that upgrades were very hard with the smaller J cabin on that service even on mid week days.

I booked 2 x W and 1 x E fare february this year for 3 of us for January 2015 - used 3 SWUs to snare available upgrade seats going over.

Two of us are 1Ks and the other zilch level.

We were w/l for the return at the end of January.

All three came thru last week much to my surprise and pleasure - particularly for my non status son who I had thought would be sweating it out at the gate on the return.

docbert

A sponsored GPU/SWU gets the status of the person doing the sponsoring.

ie, for the purposes of the upgrade, your non-status son is a 1K just like you.

weero

Fair enough ... I just didn't think the capacity actually would matter in the end. On such a long sector there always ought to be enough kettle willing to fork over $300 to $700 to score a bearable seat.
Does that matter in any form outside of DM?

And during DM: TOD > full fare > status as I suffered through many times the last 3 months.

docbert

Which is exactly why it's so silly for everyone to complain about a lack of R availability. If R is available, then anyone can grab it (including someone with no status), and then it's gone. The earlier R is released, the higher the ratio of kettles (who are, on average, normally going to book further in advance) to elites that will grab it.

Of course it matters! The upgrade list is sorted first by status, so when R is released a 1K that waitlisted an upgrade yesterday will get it over a dozen kettles attempting to upgrade using miles+copay that have been on the waitlist for months.

If the R had been released earlier then the kettles would have grabbed it, and the 1K would have had no chance. As someone that's never booked a revenue ticket on United more than 2 weeks in advance (and frequently not more than 2 days in advance!) I'd love to see all R kept at 0 until 2 days before flight and then given out (in status order) to the waitlist - I've got no doubt my number of upgrades would increase.