Oh how I long for the good ol' days
 

As a CO Plat from 2001 to maybe 2008 or so I was upgraded probably 99% of the time between IAH and DEN. Last night there were 60 people on the list on a 20-seat 739 (already full in FC) and I was #25.

I was wising that I was in 12A on a 145 as I played shoulder hockey with the gentlemen in 7E.

<sigh>

Sounds a lot like during the booking process it does not factor in your status and whether PN inventory is available. Just the fare you are about to purchase and the lowest F fare. Then after ticketing, a different system kicks in and sees your status, sees if PN is available, then offers you to buy up to Y/B/M to snag the instant upgrade space.

I am not a "buy up to F" type of customer, so I always disregarded those annoying messages. It is not as bad as the check-in kiosk machine asking me want to pay for the privilege of earning 2x or 3x miles?!? That is a total waste of time and annoys the heck out of me. I have to suffer that when checking in a bag [usually my golf clubs]. How I would love for a bag drop to be a simple 2-3 step process:

1. Scan Card
2. See "Travel Options" with Checking Bags as one of them among re-print BP/Change Flights/Change Seats or whatever and I can press the Checking Bags option
3. Confirm/Change # of bags I am checking in

Done! All of that should take less than 20 seconds.

Way OT sorry.

That's exactly what I've concluded from the patterns I've seen.

April was a terrible month for me for CPUs...nine segments on UA metal and only one upgrade...and that was on a LAX-SFO flight that I really did not care about:rolleyes: In contrast, I was 6 for 6 on AA...all transcons and all in advance! I am continually thankful that we made the decision to move the bulk of out travel to AA and others!

You're a 1K now. And that close to GS. Do you not think GS status will get you far better CPUs?

Each boarding pass takes at least a minute to print in BOS, EWR, IAH this week
 

Forgot all about the check-in procedures. Once you pass all the check-in procedures, you will still have to wait for boarding passes to print out. Those machines were very, very and very slow in Boston, Newark, and Houston this week. I had to wait for 1 minute to get one boarding pass printed. Any similar experience for others?

No complaints for CPUs this year. See my signature line below.

I'm 0/5 this year but I have a MIA trip tonight. The IAH-MIA cleared right at 48-hrs (F was wide open 7-days prior), SEA-IAH cleared at 15-hrs (F had two seats open when I checked in last night, I was #1 out of 3, I figured higher elites had not checked in, was very surprised when I got the upgrade notification this morning)

I am 1 for 4 (25%) CPU's this year. Success on PDX-SFO IIRC. Longest non upgraded flight this year will be the one I'm on now.

Just boarded LAX-ORD and will end up #1 on the upgrade list. Only 9 upgrades cleared on this 752 and from check-in I hovered between #1 and #3 on the list. As much as I wanted to clear, I don't think there were any shenanigans. Two upgrades cleared at the gate and only 1 GS on the flight (called by name at the gate). UA wanted $5XX for the upgrade at check-in, too rich for me.

14/15 as 2013 1K
 

Batting 100 this year (13/13) until last evening's SEA/IAD red-eye. Wound up 10th on the UG list (737-900) with middle of the road fare class. You never know. I do try to book birds with relatively large pointy ends and off-business peak times (and avoid SFO except as a HNL gateway). This is much better and more predictable (last night not withstanding) than last year. I don't think the last few seats last night were TODs - several of us got >$1300 offers - way too rich for most mortals.

about to cancel my trip for tomorrow for personal exhaustion reasons, but alas still have not cleared CPU again.

While I know you've given up UA internationally for greener pastures (smart move) - what's kept you on UA domestically? Nonstop routes that the likes of AA/AS don't offer? Specific times you need?

all depends on the origin/destination/day/time.

eg:

-Today, mid-morning MSP-EWR E-170: There was an open F seat and all 5 of us who were flying in F were upgraded. So any premier flyer in that flight was upgraded
-Monday, early morning ORD-MSP A319: There were 59 names on the upgrade wait list in addition to the ones who did get upgraded.

Upthread, or in another thread, there was some discussion that I'd like to re-open. People make a lot of cheap corporate Y fares, TOD's, etc., but posts like this about enormous lists -- and there are many such posts -- suggest that part of the problem is good old fashioned swelling of the elite ranks.

I think there's a colorable argument that the merger has permitted people to concentrate more of their travel on UA, and that's part of why people are feeling so much pain in terms of CPU's.

Between the time that United instituted UDU's and when Jeff took over, I was at 98% UG no matter where I went!

Yes, many of us long for the days prior to COdbaUA.

There are three reasons...when the fare is substantially less than the competition...nonstops where the competition connection is difficult...and if the client (usually the Feds) provides the ticket (the primary reason). Our organization used UA as a preferred carrier for nearly 35 years until the CS and discounts all but disappeared (it did not help UA that they made our Governor General do two Gander stops on the CDG-IAD route in 2011) AA stepped up and gave us excellent CS and good discounts and continue to do so!

So I continue to fly UA on occasion...April was the most I have flown them in 18 months, mostly LAX-IAD!...I prefer to fly AA when I can...the flights I made on them in April were LAX-JFK and two LAX-DCA, both routes we used to fly UA exclusively! All I can say is that customer service difference between UA and AA is like night and day and while this may change in the future, right now UA is always the second or third choice (or worse!)

You would think so, however most of the flights I took on UA last month were with my GS boss (he has been a GS since GS started!) and in only one instance was he upgraded out of the seven flights he took with me...not much incentive to hurry to 4MM and GS (this and the nearly 100% upgrade experience on AA this year)...this will probably happen in the next couple of years especially since I no longer fly UA (or any domestic carrier) int'l any more!