JpMaxMan

So as a united 1k I was upgraded a few days out. At that time I went online and opted to pay for a mileage upgrade for my wife. At the time there appeared to be about 4 open first class seats. Her upgrade never came through. Get to the airport and they are battlefield upgrading a few people. I asked at the counter because we had opted to pay miles. The gate attendant who barely spoke English was like: she is gold elite and third on the list. I tried to explain that it wasn't a complimentary upgrade. After boarding as I am typing this she just got upgraded. It is unclear if this was to her gold elite status or to the miles. All I am left wondering is what the hell. Also per an earlier post I had to flag the FA down to get a pre take off ginger ale. Can I have my continental back now?

bseller

Do you mean the part about being TOTALLY UNABLE to upgrade anyone at any time, EVER, inside 24 hours?? Or something else??
GMAB.

Dave

RobOnLI

What's the problem here? She was #3 out of how many on the list? I'm guessing a ton.

Mileage upgrades are categorized with RPU's and GPU's that are waitlisted and then sorted by status. So it's highly realistic that a gold on a mileage upgrade is behind two battlefields that are Plat or 1K or GS using miles/RPU/GPU. Nothing wrong here.

-RM

Luvs2snowbordbut1kSEA

Congratulations- you have it! That's the system that YOUR CO CEO chose!

Thanks!

aacharya

Don't be too sure. For all the OP's drama, if the OP used his miles, then she'd be right up there at #1, as 1Ks were previously upgraded during the sweep.

Often1

OP doesn't have any facts here.

The UG order at the gate would be:
1. GS (remember, there are such things as walk-ups)
2. -UP's who didn't make it as instant UG at time of purchase, sorted by fare class, then status).
3. - Certs & miles sorted by status

While #1 may not have had anybody in that bucket, it's more than likely that there were elites in #2. Remember, a Silver on a B beats a Gold on an el cheapo fare, even if its a Miles UG.

All of this is clearly posted on the UA website. It makes sense, it's fair (although one can disagree with bits & pieces) and OP doesn't have even a shred of evidence that his wife wasn't treated right in this instance (not to mention that she was UG anyway).

Presuming that OP's wife was on a discount fare with a miles UG, she falls into the third category of UG and behind 1K's and Plats to boot.

Where's the beef?

In The 216

Will all RPU's/GPU's that are waitlisted be processed before an CPU's, regardless of status? For example, would a passenger with no status who has a seat waitlisted with an RPU 30 days out have their upgrade cleared before a GS who is just #1 on the CPU list?

golfingboy

Not a big deal, but I was perplexed last weekend on SFO-IAH [Sunday]...

F sold out after the mass cancellations from Sandy... Then all of sudden 3 days before the flight the system showed F7... Then a few hours later it went to F0 and remained that way until departure. I checked religiously as I am a bit of a nerd watching how the upgrades take place and what transpires as more people check in...

At T-24, there were 12 people on the cleared list with F already booked full.... A few hours later the cleared list grew to 14 with F still showing booked full. The next morning the list had 15 people on it... I refreshed the list on the app every 15 minutes or so and about 2 hours before departure the list was 17 and I never saw F open up...

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?

cordelli

It's good to have all the vital facts in the story.

sf4dfish

my friend and I just flew sfo/iah and we are both 1K's. We paid the same price for our tickets and bought them the same day. He applied an RPU and was waitlisted, I did not. At the gate on the ug waitlist he was third and I was eleventh. He cleared and I did not

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?

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?

This is exactly as expected. Instruments are ahead of CPUs.

Often1

Suggests UA followed it's pubished procedures:
1. As a 1K on a cert, you were in the #3 bucket of priorities (#1=GS; #2= -UP fares)
2. As a 1K without a cert, your friend fell into the CPU bucket in the #4 bucket. So, he came behind all those above which bumps him way down and is pretty consistent with what one would expect on an elite heavy / high-fare heavy route.

Boghopper

I believe GS get special priority, but the kettle with an RPU would be ahead of all other over-entitled CPU deadbeats.

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.