anc-ord772

And in real time like Apollo used to do.

mmack

"the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong....time and chance happeneth to them all" unless you are a FTer

Jorgen

Whew, way to reply five months later!

I don't know, I decided to fly NZ instead after weighing chance of upgrade vs chance of random MX cancellation.

Downunder girl

I usually fly ex SYD on a Tues/Wed and have cleared every time. Since 2006 my status as ranged from 2P, 1P and 1K. The worst time was when I was 1K (go figure) - where I got the upgrade in the 48 hour window and my 1P daughter got cleared with assistance from SYD ground staff, about 20 mins prior to boarding. It was a very close call and on fares that are not cheap ex SYD. UA W+ fare upgrade lottery.

The last time we flew UA TPAC, I decided to do a rare F buy up that we got offered about 1 month prior to travel, although we were on the C upgrade list. So we did Y-F! That was cool. On the way home, SFO SYD, we were on the VDB list but the flight wasnt oversold. At SFO gate, asked if we could do miles and co-pay and magically 2 seats appeared.

I have usually had to fly ex USA on a Saturday or Sunday night and have cleared all of those flights as well, but usually try to route via SFO. Unfortunately I do have to travel in our school holidays and it can be quite a close call with upgrades.

In the past, I would source flights that had the upgrade availability and prior to lie flat seats, it wasnt hard to come by if you booked in advance. Over the last few years, it has got so much harder to find any availability.

why fly

Well I have a choice
Fly Thursday Oct 17 lax or SFO- SYD
Fly Friday Oct 18 LAX or SFO- SYD
Today there are MORE seats "open" for upgrades BOTH flights on Fri! there are even way more E+ seats on both those flights on Fri... so should I book my flights for Fri or Thursday?
today looking at seat availability Fir sure seems better.

aacharya

More seats open in fare class or by the seat map?

Why not book Friday?

Lurker1999

All of those flights are RN/R = 0 right now.

10/17 LAX: F7 A5 J9 C9 D9 Z9 P4 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H3 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N0
10/18 LAX: F9 A8 J9 C9 D9 Z5 P0 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U0 H0 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N0

10/17 SFO: F6 A4 J9 C9 D9 Z9 P4 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N0
10/18 SFO: F5 A3 J9 C9 D9 Z6 P0 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W1 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N0

So for now they're selling more discount business fares for the Thursday flight but you're also over 4 months out at this time.

Kacee

So there are no seats open for upgrades right now. In other words, it's a total crapshoot/guessing game. Per prior post, UA revenue management thinks the business seats are less likely to sell out on Thursday. That's an indicator, but no guaranty you'll do better with a waitlisted upgrade that day.

mmack

We're looking at the same situation on the return SYD to the US in Sept. Overall, we decided to bite the bullet and choose the best schedule for us and pick the best seats we could find in E+ for the SYD-LAX flight. Right now only 4 seats are taken in C so we're hoping our UG will clear. EF alert is set!.

It used to be that time on the waitlist helped in clearing the UG but I don't think thats true any more.

Kacee

This remains a stated a criteria for upgrade priority.

(btw, your approach makes a lot of sense)

debracey

Having flown UA between OZ and USA many times, here are my observations:

Friday/Saturday/Sunday departures (either direction):
* No chance of upgrade to biz or first unless GS. Even then, only a small chance.
* All levels of elite will get an upgrade to E+ from any reasonable fare. That upgrade may be undesirable, however.
* E+ is not worth it on the 747, and I would only accept one if:
* The E+ upgrade was an aisle
* I was in an E- seat in the middle or aisle with someone next to me
* In my opinion, an E- aisle seat with an open middle seat is better than 747's E+ offering
* I would not pay for the E+ seat, but I am only 5'10". People over 6' would probably enjoy the (very little bit of) extra legroom

Other days:
* Should be able to get an upgrade if high tier elite (higher than Gold)
* Gold might get it if you're lucky
* Silver ... nope

I generally prefer sitting in the back (rows 50 and higher) because there are fewer people back there and it is quieter in my experience. I never eat any of the food they offer, so the fact that rows 50+ get no choice does not bother me. Why anyone needs to eat on these flights is a mystery to me, the flight times are not in line with meal times. Yes I am usually very hungry by the end, but I can starve for 1-2 more hours and eat in LAX/SFO.

Flights are generally more crowded coming to the US. Usually the flights to OZ are relatively empty. Not sure why this is.

mmack

[QUOTE=debracey;20885026]Friday/Saturday/Sunday departures (either direction):
* No chance of upgrade to biz or first unless GS. Even then, only a small chance.
QUOTE]

Interestingly, since we started flying to SYD, a lot of upgrade availability shows up on Sundays SFO-SYD: we are almost on a flight to Australia leaving
Sunday.
Last week there was R=9 Sept 8 SFO-SYD for several days in a row.

debracey

Yeah, Sunday is actually reasonable going to OZ, mainly because you dont land until Tuesday... which is usually less than ideal.

Still pretty low chance IMHO.

why fly

wow! i guess i have some thinking to do....
thanks!

debracey

As a UA 1K you might get the upgrade. That's a big might on Fri/Sat/Sun. Last couple flights I've sat next to 1Ks in the back (they're usually 1/2 on the last while I'm a number too high to count...)

If you're travelling with a partner, your best bet is to book E- way in the back, on opposite sides of the center section. People are unlikely to sit in the middle. The middle section underseat storage is much larger than the side sections. Be warned the "middle of the middle" seats are very odd and have no partitioned underseat storage.

Be warned, the farther you move back, the less likely you'll get what you want to eat. Eat something beforehand. Take the veggie sandwich midflight, it's usually pretty good. When you get off in SYD, hurry up to immigration as fast as you can and you should be able to get through fast (UA flights are scheduled to arrive before the main block.) Once through, eat in the terminal.

If you have US global entry, stick to the right of the immigration thing, you'll be able to use the automated gate and should be able to breeze through in < 30 seconds.