aacharya

Sigh. It's Europe in summer. Not HODs. And nothing to do with your admittedly major breakdown going to PTY. But give those tired discussions a rest when it doesn't fit the thread topic.

Europe.
Summer.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...urope-u-s.html
Says it all.

FlyWorld

Aacharya, I was making two points here:

1. R space has been drastically cut across the system during all time periods, and

2. The link to the PTY story was specifically about points 15 and 16 wherein I explained how sCO processes upgrades differently from sUA.

Those are not tired discussions. They are, in fact, completely pertinent to the discussion at hand.

The rest of the PTY saga is irrelevant but I did not bring that up here.

AZjohns

You know, I'm good with any learning tool out there. But, anyone who hides the price of the subscription on their web site, I'm personally not comfortable at all with signing up for a "free" trial.

txp

I forgot the exact cost of the subscription but it's about $200/yr, give or take a few TOD.

aacharya

The subject of this thread is not finding TATL R space in Europe in Summer.

How it morphed into how UA gives upgrades, which are, I guess I need to repeat, irrelevant to the subject at hand, or HODs, which are even more irrelevant as these are almost always noted domestically, and maybe only offered at OLCI internationally, baffles me. It was probably a slippery slope when the OP then took the advice, and asked 'Why doesn't UA open more R/RN".

Is R reduced across the board - yes? Did it directly impact to lack of TATL R in Europe?

Based on EF lookups on other programs besides UA and on the other thread I posted - no.

Yes, the OP found AA on his exact flights, but I can cite the four RN tickets I booked on UA to CDG and BRU
in June and July. Doesn't mean anything without objectively looking across all dates and EU city pairs.

Let's let facts dictate the discussion, not our thinly veiled contempt of all things UA.

People post on FT to ask questions and get some solutions to their issue. Let's focus on that.

cesco.g

Valid points, mitchmu! Beating the drums might (hopefully) get the deserved attention in the end.

gengar

I'm seeing this too, even off-peak. What I noticed most being cut is advance availability of R space. I've gotten lots of EF notifications the night before what were potential travel dates from alerts I forgot to cancel, and then I look and the flight is R9. I have a bunch of alerts set up for summer flights, so we'll see how those go if space doesn't open up in the mantime.

Of course, it may just be time to give up GPU usage and find another carrier on which to spend premium TATLs, just like I moved my premium TPACs off UA previously.

FlyWorld

The question is about R space and I was explaining that R space was pulled by the CO team that took over UA. That observation is relevant to the fact that OP cannot find R space.

The HOD and sCO standby manual upgrade comments are pertinent because they explain why CO has taken away R space and what they are doing with that space.

We are not supposed to talk about each other and your inflammatory comments about my 'contempt' are off topic.

JackieC2

Agree that advance R space is more difficult to find. Trying to find R space for ORD-SIN in Jan 2014 and can't find one day with R available or any other flight to Asia. I don't care what days I fly - plan to stay 5 nights. Last year at this time was able to book ORD-NRT; ORD-SYD; and ORD-ICN for several months in advance.

Very frustrating!

FlyWorld

My experience, with sUA before 3/3, was that I could find R space to confirm an upgrade anywhere in the world, any time I wanted to travel, when I was looking 2-4 months out, and if I was flexible on dates within 1-2 weeks.

Granted, I couldn't always meet those conditions, so sometimes I had to play the lottery (which I won, 100% of the time, by the way, except for one single segment).

But, when I was flexible and looking a few months out, I almost never had any problem enjoying confirmed upgrade space to the places I flew.

I agree with that though I find it helpful that txp has said it's ultimately been a useful tool.

goodeats21

I agree that R space has become more limited. I am also annoyed that the R space that is out there is more difficult to find.

I don't use Expert Flyer, so I don't know if it is different, but UA.com is horrible at accurately showing R space.

There is the already reported "glitch" that shows zero R space on a multi leg itinerary, unless every leg has R>0. I assume that everyone complaining about no R space is aware of this glitch, and is searching by segment...if necessary when using EF.

I have been pretty lucky so far this year. By searching A LOT, I have found confirmable R space for 6 TPAC legs recently booked for 2013. I have had to be flexible by a day or two...and the "add-on" (Intra Asia) segments are sometimes waitlisted, but I can live with that.

These were booked anywhere from 2 months to 10 months in advance of travel. I do realize that based on my location, I have many routes available to check...I can route through ORD, IAD, EWR, SEA, SFO, LAX, IAH..all without too much trouble. I did take one sub-optimum SEA routing to take advantage of R space. Not ideal to have 4 hours in domestic F...but whactcha gonna do.

Good luck.

halls120

That was my experience as well. Now, it's a lot more difficult, and I've found that I have to look at least 4 months out to get anything.

txp

Plenty of RN, R, and even I availability for traveling in the next few days TATL. This is the most bizzare pricing model I can think of. People like me who don't like playing the upgrade lottery will be flying another airline where we can get a more predictable upgrade.

Sugestion to UA. Treat the RN inventory similar to lower fare buckets in Y. Release it long in advance to make sure you fill in some of your seats on each flight. Don't release it at the last minute.

SFflyer123

Join the club. GPU's are becoming more and more worthless. Last year, I was able to use 1 of the 6. Threw 5 into the garbage can. Tried to use one one on a domestic flight, but I couldn't even use the GPU for that!

UA is smart. Give out these GPUs to get you to fly 100,000 miles with the illusion that you'll get 3 roundtrip business class trips in return, but in reality, you get jacked.

FlyWorld

Once.