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Upgrade BS: Did CPUs get cleared ahead of miles' upgrade?

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Upgrade BS: Did CPUs get cleared ahead of miles' upgrade?

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Old Nov 7, 2012, 9:12 am
  #16  
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Originally Posted by Boghopper
Not necessarily. When only a few seats are left they seem to hold upgrades until the gates these days. Why give away free what they can get paid for?
Did you even read the OP's post before rebuttal?
He as a 1K was upgraded at normal CPU time.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 9:16 am
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by JpMaxMan
A down to get a pre take off ginger ale. Can I have my continental back now?
Are you talking about the CO that didn't have RPU's, GPU's, 1K's (which you are now)? Well, other then E+ & more ways to upgrade you still have your old CO. There is plenty left of CO, UA, not so much
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 9:23 am
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by fedup flyer
A few days ago out of SEA ,I had one of those non-upgrade experience.
48 hrs prior to the flight I applied a/n RPU to no avail. I got the "your being rolled to the airport list" at about the T-26 mark. I went to bed with 4 open FC seats on an A-320. The next morning 4 seats still showing open. On the drive to the airport 2 of them disappeared and I can only assume it was due to TOD upgrades. I figured being a 1k and number 1 one the list and on a Saturday I had a good shot at 1 of the 2 seats. Wrong. At about T-1 another one of the seat disappered. Now here comes the weird part. About 45 minds prior to departure the last seat disappears and the guy that got it was not on the upgrade waitlist list at all but showed as an "upgrade cleared" on the web site. Hmmm strange.
Tis is the second time in 30 days I have some weirdness like this happen. So far this year my domestic CPUs are near zero.
Not sure it's so weird.

Obviously TOD's change the dynamic and these can occur very close to departure.

Late checkins (again very close to departure) of any 1) Premier members on eligible Y- and B-class fares, as well as 2) Premier 1K members on M-class fares will jump immediately to the Upgrade Cleared space if R>0 and you'll never see a Waitlist Entry for these people.

At least that's what I believe might happen - "not transparent to you or I, but someone at UA could see it"
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 10:00 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by hhmorgan
Not sure it's so weird.

Obviously TOD's change the dynamic and these can occur very close to departure.

Late checkins (again very close to departure) of any 1) Premier members on eligible Y- and B-class fares, as well as 2) Premier 1K members on M-class fares will jump immediately to the Upgrade Cleared space if R>0 and you'll never see a Waitlist Entry for these people.

At least that's what I believe might happen - "not transparent to you or I, but someone at UA could see it"
How about when F is 0 or when PN is 0? People still continue to appear on the cleared list in those scenarios. Also, those on YBM fares will clear when OLCI opens if there is PN space. Yes, some of them do SDC, but not that many.

In my case, there were five people who appeared on the upgrade list after OLCI when F was 0 the whole time. If anybody wants to know which flight, it was UA 555 SFO-IAH last Sunday.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 10:37 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by Antipode
God forbid they actually follow the published upgrade policy instead of upgrading people out of order just because they complain! I don't get it, where is the bs?
The BS is giving complimentary upgrades ahead of mileage upgrade. If I am dropping miles shouldn't I be upgraded before commentary elite upgrades clear at the gate!?

Originally Posted by hhmorgan
Not sure it's so weird.

Obviously TOD's change the dynamic and these can occur very close to departure.

Late checkins (again very close to departure) of any 1) Premier members on eligible Y- and B-class fares, as well as 2) Premier 1K members on M-class fares will jump immediately to the Upgrade Cleared space if R>0 and you'll never see a Waitlist Entry for these people.

At least that's what I believe might happen - "not transparent to you or I, but someone at UA could see it"
She checked in 24 hours out.

Last edited by iluv2fly; Nov 7, 2012 at 11:29 pm Reason: merge
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 10:41 am
  #21  
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Originally Posted by JpMaxMan
The BS is giving complimentary upgrades ahead of mileage upgrade. If I am dropping miles shouldn't I be upgraded before commentary elite upgrades clear at the gate!?
You have no proof that this is what occurred.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 10:43 am
  #22  
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Originally Posted by DeaconFlyer
You have no proof that this is what occurred.
Except for the gate agent told me why the two people he upgraded were upgraded. One was global services and the other gold. Both complimentary.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 11:06 am
  #23  
 
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More weirdness: I am a GS and applied an RPU waitlist on Monday for an IAH-ORD (R=0) flight for tomorrow (the onward connecting flight cleared RPU into the last R spot immediately). I received a CPU for IAH-ORD before the RPU cleared. I know because a) I received an elite upgrade e-mail at time of upgrade and b) I also received a "sorry your upgrade didn't clear, but rest assured you're on the waitlist" e-mail at 24 hours pre-departure. Strange.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 11:46 am
  #24  
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Originally Posted by ajhun9
More weirdness: I am a GS and applied an RPU waitlist on Monday for an IAH-ORD (R=0) flight for tomorrow (the onward connecting flight cleared RPU into the last R spot immediately). I received a CPU for IAH-ORD before the RPU cleared. I know because a) I received an elite upgrade e-mail at time of upgrade and b) I also received a "sorry your upgrade didn't clear, but rest assured you're on the waitlist" e-mail at 24 hours pre-departure. Strange.
For GS, CPU will trump instrument upgrades. Yes, a GS on a higher fare than you will trump your instrument upgrade once you are within 120 hours of the flight. In your case, RPU is only good to confirm an upgrade weeks or months out, but it will not help you at all for battlefield upgrades.

At least, it is good to know that your upgrade priority is not being watered down when you apply an RPU.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 11:58 am
  #25  
 
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As to upgrade seats disappearing at the last minute. I am a silver and was 20th on the CPU waitlist from IAH to BWI and at checkin a buy up offer appeared for $109(at first I declined) then I saw I was 20th on the waitlist, since I was 20th on the waitlist and wanted to sleep at t-minus 40 minutes I went back to the kiosk(as it was evident I wasn't get a CPU) and bought it. Jumping over the 1k in the upgrade cue, who was huffing and puffing about being 1st on the waitlist and why can't he have his ticket now. Then when I appeared as "upgrade cleared" and I walked past him with my ticket already he was fuming. I loved every minute of it It showed that DYKIA to sit his butt back in coach.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 12:03 pm
  #26  
Ari
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Originally Posted by golfingboy
I honestly doubt the system is sophisicated enough to process upgrades the very minute an F passenger cancelled. Or they zero'd out F on purpose even though there were 7 or so seats available for reaccommodations?
If your flight is very oversold in Y (say, for instance, due to a massive storm and a wave of re-bookings), F0 can happen even when F is not booked to capacity.

Originally Posted by fedup flyer
A few days ago out of SEA ,I had one of those non-upgrade experience.
48 hrs prior to the flight I applied a/n RPU to no avail. I got the "your being rolled to the airport list" at about the T-26 mark. I went to bed with 4 open FC seats on an A-320. The next morning 4 seats still showing open. On the drive to the airport 2 of them disappeared and I can only assume it was due to TOD upgrades. I figured being a 1k and number 1 one the list and on a Saturday I had a good shot at 1 of the 2 seats. Wrong. At about T-1 another one of the seat disappered. Now here comes the weird part. About 45 minds prior to departure the last seat disappears and the guy that got it was not on the upgrade waitlist list at all but showed as an "upgrade cleared" on the web site. Hmmm strange.
Tis is the second time in 30 days I have some weirdness like this happen. So far this year my domestic CPUs are near zero.
At 45 minutes out, it could have easily been someone who just checked in at the airport. Or it was a TOD.

Originally Posted by JpMaxMan
Except for the gate agent told me why the two people he upgraded were upgraded. One was global services and the other gold. Both complimentary.
How do you know that the Premier Gold wasn't traveling on a Y or B fare? Remember the upgrade order:
  1. JN - Premier (Y fare)
  2. PN - GS (any fare)
  3. PN - 1K (B and M fares)
  4. PN - Premier (B fares)
  5. R - Instrument-supported upgrades
  6. R - Remainder of CPUs
The Global Services passenger was obviously upgraded correctly, so the only question is if the Permier Gold was on a Y or B fare. And you simply have no way of knowing that. You are making an assumption that the upgrade list was cleared out of order when you have no idea unless you saw the boarding pass.

Last edited by Ari; Nov 7, 2012 at 3:02 pm Reason: Correct YN to JN.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 12:07 pm
  #27  
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OP did you ask #s 1 & 2 what their status was and if they were using miles as well? or any instrument? as well as their fare basis paid

Once we know the story with # 1 & 2 then and only then can it be determined what took place. Since I doubt the OP has that info, its no different then Romneys people who didnt rely on each States pollings but a Nationwide one, w/o the proper facts you cant make a proper educated determination
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 12:18 pm
  #28  
 
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Originally Posted by JpMaxMan
The BS is giving complimentary upgrades ahead of mileage upgrade. If I am dropping miles shouldn't I be upgraded before commentary elite upgrades clear at the gate!?
Nope.

Only outside of 24hrs are instrument and miles-supported upgrades prioritized over CPUs.

Inside 24hrs they are all the same and it's sorted by status and fare class after GS/YBMs.

Sounds like the system worked as it was supposed to. Which may stink that there weren't more upgrades released prior to 24hrs so she could've gotten the upgrade, but it worked.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 12:33 pm
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by JpMaxMan
Except for the gate agent told me why the two people he upgraded were upgraded. One was global services and the other gold. Both complimentary.
He upgraded them because they were #1 and #2 on the list and your wife was #3. He likely didn't check why they were #1 or #2 (the system sorts it automatically according to the upgrade priority). And if he did say it was complimentary, he probably assumed that it was CPU without bothering to check just to shut you up, or he thinks that all upgrades are complimentary because he hasn't bothered to learn the rules because he doesn't really need to as long as he processes the list as it's presented to him, or he has a funny understanding of what "complimentary" means and lumps instrument/mileage upgrades as "complimentary" because they're "free." He may have said the wrong thing to you, but there's no reason to believe there was any BS involved in the actual order people were upgraded.
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Old Nov 7, 2012, 12:37 pm
  #30  
 
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Originally Posted by bmvaughn
Nope.

Only outside of 24hrs are instrument and miles-supported upgrades prioritized over CPUs.

Inside 24hrs they are all the same and it's sorted by status and fare class after GS/YBMs.

Sounds like the system worked as it was supposed to. Which may stink that there weren't more upgrades released prior to 24hrs so she could've gotten the upgrade, but it worked.
I think you've got that backwards. Before 24 hours it's by time added to the list, and CPUs get added at various times based on status. Inside 24 hours it goes to the more complicated formula, with Ys, GSs, instruments, and various others going ahead of CPUs, with sorting by status within each of those categories.
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