If the Gold was on a Y or B fare it makes perfect sense.

Which seems to happen reasonably often with lazy GAs changing flights around. I've gotten a few easy instant upgrades that I never would have cleared otherwise this way.

Wanted to report some good news. Traveling on 6/14, 2 pax (1K and companion) EWR-FLL, N fare. Both CPUs cleared at the 96-hour window and the res was not split :)

Finished #2 of 50 on DEN-IAD yesterday on a T fare. I was surprised to be so high up the list on a relatively-low fare (yeah, I know there are G, N, K, and L still behind me). Saw apparently a couple of buy-ups happen during the last 3 hours.

I've had CPU run on my protected flights recently, even when the ticket was out of sync. It seems to be increasingly robust.

Got the CPU today DEN-SFO.

It helped that the 757 (which I would have missed CPU on) was upgraded to an Int'l config 777. I like the business class seats.

DEN did not seem quite ready for the substitution though - we departed rather late and boarding was 'interesting', to say the least.

Boarding order:

Group 3
Group 4
People in Group 1 sitting in Y
People in Group 2 sitting in Y
Group 5
Group 1 and Group 2 C / F pax were divided into rows 1 through 7 and 8 and above to board through the separate entrances.

Hahahahahaha wth?

I think that deserves an good-humored little note to Jeff about how comical his airline can be sometimes.

EDIT: You should post this in the boarding thread as well.

Looks like catering upfront wasn't ready so they boarded the Y cabin first. Hardly a bad thing.

... except they boarded non-elites with window and middle seats before elites.

First time ever SFO-SNA MIDWEEK and didn't clear on the sweep. One of the flights has 9 people cleared. I'm a 1K and it's midweek ; not the first morning flight? What a lot of RPU's from lower tier flyers? Can't believe that??

On the return leg it's in the 96 hour sweep window for last 12 hours and shows R1 and not a single person has been upgraded.

Something is still dicey; don't know if it's specific routes where they may sub aircraft routing last minute or what.

Could care less for a 1hr 30 min flight in any case. Just first time in flying SFO-SNA in 10 years I'm not upgraded in the time window (even post initial merger issues I was getting upgraded)

V-up is down to $439 r/t on this route...that's cheap. And of course there could be even better offers out there that "we" donw see ;)

$439 RT is about the same as an anytime fare on WN.

Difference with WN is *I* can payup to the Anytime or Biz Select fare on my own with just the fare diff and no change fee. UA I'm hosed. My agency tickets the lowest fare available. On WN it means a Anytime or Business Select fare on UA it's whatever and 200 buck to change it to something even 16 bucks higher. For California in state routes pay up to biz select for me is about 20-30 bucks.

I would PAY UA the pay ups after ticketing - heck I would even go up 80 bucks or so to next fare if they didn't also charge the change fee like UA

I wasn't clear - I was just commenting that you can apparently get a V-up on UA for about the same as the standard fare on WN. I still wouldn't do it though, always fly WN to SoCal, both for the easy change reasons you mention and because it's so incredibly frequent and reliable out of my home airport (OAK).

At check in one seat left in First and I'm 2nd on the list... I was a complete ...... and paid the 59 bucks to confirm it at check in... Yes I suck but so does confirming 9 people at the 72 hour window on a 12 seat aircraft.... What happened to Yield management. Confirm 5-6 then do rest closer to departure