Enough w this govt fare nonsense. No one complains about employees of corporations that get 30-40% off Y & B fares so why complain about people on Govt fares. If UA feels the need to offer these fares to Govt employees & allow them to upgrade on them, that's their right & purely a business decision. If we don't like it, go to an airline that handles Govt fares differently. There is plenty to complain about I guess when it comes to CPU's (like TOD 's jumping the line, etc) but the Givt fare nonsense is just "over entitled" elites that think the world starts & ends w their upgrades. The more I read, the more I agree w that "over entitled" comment from last year even though most here on FT have taken what was said out of context & made it into a bigger problem then it is

A good example of whats going on - With Z Fares from LGA / EWR to Central America running apr $1000 r/t (including flights thru IAH & ORD) it's not hard to figure out why some upgrades that were always hard to get are almost impossible now (NYC-IAH / NYC-ORD)as an example). But I'd rather pay $1000 for a confirmed seat in F anyway then $699 for a W fare and the hope of an upgrade

Last year I was 31/32 for CPU's but aged 10 years
This year I'm 0/0 and a much happier person. I have my RPU's & GPU's for Hawaii & the occasional C-F on PS). the domestic first fares on the routes I take are so cheap now, I'd rather pay the few extra bucks and NEVER get another CPU in my life

Mods: please make it stop! :)

Just have one thread for people who would like to discuss - positive or negative - government fares! I personally will happily avoid that thread.

There are plenty out LAX, CLE YCA for example is $260 each way. S fares are often more as are pretty much all economy fares except the restricted fares like L & K.

True. Except for none of the corporations grab sone of my money via taxes to then use it to upgrade their employees ahead of me...

The absolute highest corporate discount UA offers is 40% off Y fares, and that is probably only Fortune 250 corporations that are giving UA $50 million in business a year or more. The norm for $1-million plus spending is 20% and much higher might get 30%, and those don't book into Y.

The government fares are dramatically cheaper and book into Y.

This thread is about CPU rates and government fares jumping to the head of the line is a significant factor in causing the upgrade rates to decline.

Those are a very limited number of routes affected by Z fares. When I was a 1K in December and January, I couldn't even clear SFO-SAN. That wasn't because of Z fares.

Which is exactly what UA wants: dollars today versus long-run loyalty. At the same time, their customer satisfaction rate has dropped to the bottom of the barrel and profits are down. Yeah, they are doing a great job.

It is a significant factor on CPU upgrade rates. If you don't like it, you can just avoid all threads talking about CPUs.

1) SOME of the government fares are dramatically cheaper. People have this notion that government flyers are all buzzing around the country on $250 Y fares. Generally (with very limited exceptions) this is NOT the case. There are also government fares that are between $500 and $1000 each way. DEN-IAD, for example, is $495 each way. If you're curious on other routes, feel free to search here.
2) The government likely provides UA with more spend than those top-discount companies, even with limited route options. Remember that government flyers that generally fly on these YCA fares HAVE to fly on YCA fares by policy, which means:
- Not all of their travel is with one airline or alliance (also means that it's harder to get any status on airlines)
- Many UA routes are not impacted by YCA fares because UA is not the contract carrier for that route.

It is? Do you have numbers to back that up?

I can imagine that if one flies in/out of DC a lot, that their CPU rates may be impacted. On most other routes, probably not.

^ It appears to be something that people have jumped on because it theoretically "could" be an issue without any practical experience of how it "is" or "is not" an issue.

As a data point, I have close to 100% CPU success on mid-level fares in and out of DCA at peak travel hours over the past few months - been travelling there weekly. The only ones I've missed were SDC changes at the last minute, and even quite a few of those cleared.

I was 4/4 on the trip I just took FLL-IAH-SEA/SEA-IAH-FLL - 2 segments cleared at the window and 2 cleared a day or two after.

Let's stick to the topic please: CPUs improving ?

Everything else will be summarily deleted.

iluv2fly
Moderator, UA

Typical SFO based success.
5 failures out of 13 CPU tries and 0 failures on 8 transcon RPUs (usually picked to clear on purchase) YTD
Fails all involved SFO as either O/D and AUS, IAH, LAX, PHX and K/T fares
Not much difference from 2011 or 2012.

+1 I fly mostly SFO-IAH, SFO-DEN, SFO-IAD, and often find GS boarding into economy before us lowly 1Ks :( YMMV

Nice to see that my experience is not an aberration, as shown by DidItClear. For some reason it always seems easier to clear when returning into SFO than departing. Puzzling...

I don't know if this is a fluke, but on recent flights I've been more consistently seeing CPU-window inventory changes track with R availability where it exists. And today, on a A319 midcon showing F3R2, I cleared at T-96. I was pleasantly shocked to see upgrades processed in that scenario, especially my CPU on an L fare. ^

Agree
 

I tanked post-merger. But post-Feb - and indeed all (2013) I'm 18/18. I do work at it...I carefully choose my times and birds with big pointy ends. SFO is always the most dicey and HNL is always the easiest. ORF and TYS are now no-gos, but due to down-gauging.

However... not routinely clearing at the 100 hour window - more often at 48 or less or at the gate.

My perception is IAH-LAX (or vice-versa) is becoming tighter than it was a year ago. Based on 1 or two roundtrips a month. LAX to OGG static (ie great). Maybe less than 50% now.

My CPUs have tanked this year. I fly various routes on various dates [YTD I have flown on all days of the week except Tuesday], but most of them are on Th/F/Sat/Sun... The only route that I clear on a regular basis are PIT-ORD/EWR/IAD... The rest stinks. I only got SEA-IAD on the A319 several weeks ago, because there were last minute cancellations [1.5 hours before departure] which opened 3 seats on top of 1 already unoccupied.

I am fine if it does not clear, but I get incredibly annoyed when R space is available and my window hits, some clear and R is still available, but I am still in Y.