Just cleared EWR-LAX...second week in a row. On a G-fare!

I think I'm going like this war with Virgin...

I am GS and my success rate sucks! And when I dont, I am far down the list. I was 15th on the list once. This week 5th and no FC upgrades handed out at all. And we are talking a 20 FC seat cabin. Next week already, nada. 100% booked. UAL is all about selling FC or giving it away for minimal $$ at the expense of CPU's... So those dreaming of GS pampering, it really is no different than 1K (and have read this from others). When I had Presidential Platinum for 2 years with Continental, it was great service. Upgraded 100% 6 days in advance.

What flights are you taking?

Well... A heavy route. IAH to YYC and sometimes ORD to YYC. First leg is from TPA and usually not a problem. This route is heavy Oil and they spend the $$. But I do too or I would not have GS. My point is that it is not the way it used to be. GS had more value in the past and appears to not these days... Who knows, maybe I am just having a bad day/week with this stuff as the two flights I had to rely on CPU in the past week, I got snubbed and sat way down the upgrade list.

But based on your previous post you speculate that it is all because of people buying up to F. Do you really believe that's the case on a route like this, where there are plenty of people flying in paid F?

I think I might have just got 3 CPUs out of 8 this year. All others are confirmed upgrades with GPUs/RPUs. I don't have faith in CPUs anymore. Just pick the best seat in Y and live with it.

I'm not saying you were mistaken, but I just cannot imagine a GS ever being 15th on a list. A GS on a N-fare trumps a 1K on a Y-fare (at the gate), right?

It sounds like that route is incredibly exceptional. Did you really have more success before on the same route? Is it maybe related to the increased oil activity?

The qualifications for GS are still exceedingly high.

No. I had plenty of lower level premier ahead of me because they had Y or B. That trumps GS with a lower fare class (I know lower level with Y does). Not to mention the 6 - 8 GS's I travel with that also were not upgraded but were ahead of me as well. I have no idea what is going on - its a mystery. I guess everyone is just buying F and/or using RPU, etc. all the time and they are clearing. I have no issue with RPU's for the most part. And of course when I purchase F as well But CPU's... No faith anymore...

traveling tomorrow? which flight? i am on the 12:50 hoping to SDC to the slightly earlier one.

Or put it another way, if you don't want to be pissed, just pick whatever flights that are popular, pick the best E+ seat and live with it, coz you may not get the upgrades anyway. I was in UA1414 two nights ago, PMCO 752. I could have made it to PMUA 753 and shoot for the upgrades, but I think if I don't get the upgrade, the bulkhead PMCO 752s are actually better than 753s.

Now I just get the domestic flights in UA when I am planning to sleep. If you want a more spacious seat to work, get PS and use the RPU, or go to AA or DL. Their exit row seats have enough room for you to work with GoGo WiFi.

IIRC, UA had claimed that lower-level status members with Y/B fares would not trump GS on lower fares. Now, we know how good UA IT is at actually implementing things the way UA says they should work...

There's no way it will ever work as claimed. You will have a lot of folks from Silver, GLD, PLT, and 1K, asking to force the instant upgrade before GS purchased the ticket fairly late. When the GS looked at the app or the manifest, there could be a lot of folks getting cleared before him because they purchased the instant upgrade fares before the GS purchased anything. This entirely depends on the PN inventory the flight has before the day of departure, not to mention the fact that some of them use miles+copay/GPU/RPU.

I saw six names with the same last names in the red-eye PMUA 753 from LAX-EWR. Guess how that could happen?

I would say the best value of MP is 1MM with LT GLD with the companion for international *G lounges. LT GLD with 1K is more than enough with this airline.

753 is an sCO model only.

Frequencies are higher, fares are lower, and upgrade chances are way better (mostly flown by 738s ... very few A320s)