On BOS-SFO right now. Not many elites on the flight because upgrade list was nearly empty (2). Yet a fair number of GS's and tons of buy up kettle in F (overheard "I bought an upgrade for really cheap") I used RPU because CPU is hardly ever happening for me anymore as a lowly 1K. Just my experience.

it was a 739 so sCO. I have not noticed any difference in how the lists clear. And I should add a disclaimer, I am GS, so I almost always clear. What is different is that often I clear later, or at the gate.

While I usually get the upgrade, what bugs me is the incessant selling/pushing, its so out there. Its like a bunch of nasty crack hos swarming you in the tenderloin. Really shows me they don't value me as a customer, rather I'm a mark they will attempt to take more money for with ever dropping prices.

UA is doing two things differently, (1) they are holding back far far more seats from P/R and trying to sell them, and (2) they are selling more TODs out of those held back seats and dramatically cutting the asking price for F the day before the flight (which allows them to sell the TODs cheaper.

I have a good view point, I am 99% of the time the first person on the plane, so I know who boards as GS (when that happens) and I out of curiosity check the lists and then will compare to the manifest.

I do not care if they sell F for $1 before CPU's. What makes me extremely displeased and has since this BS started is not allowing elites to partake in the low ball offers.

Thankfully my routes are a) less than 733 miles or b) transcon so I use a lot of confirmed instruments and only play the CPU game on short flights.

Not many elites traveling this holiday weekend.

THIS!

I will make the argument that you get more revenue long term by treating the highest level elites well as we fly the most. That said, if the data shows that offering TODs maximizes revenue, then why not offer to elites first?

Occasionally I do get an offer but the amount is really high. If that's what others are getting offered, then I can live with that. There seems to be differing info on this point.

Oh yeah, I forgot. I don't feel like things have gotten any better on the CPUs. I am out of SFO, and I am almost exclusively flying hub to hub. I'm around 33%.

Thanks for the laugh... off to refill my coffee and grab some paper towels.

Most of my segments do not have CPUs (international, PS, 1 cabin Barbie jets) so I don't this play out in real time. Having kept up with the thread that's probably a good thing.

The publicly available revenue data seems to show that what they're doing does NOT maximize revenue. Revenues have fallen since the SHARES cutover, and UA now lags their competitors in terms of revenue per seat mile. This, after several years of being the industry leader.

That said, they can selectively use data points to drive their position and agenda. Jeff likes to talk about their robust SHARES platform allowing them to dynamically price E+ seating by seat and demand. While I completely believe this is what they're doing, what they're neglecting to mention is how much more difficult it is for agents to do E+ upsells at the gate, that they're probably selling fewer of them than they did in the PMUA world.

It's really about what data they choose to present and how they spin it.

This is a really good point. It's all well and good to price discriminate, but when you're charging $122.3965 for one E+ seat and $122.3968 for another because your system has calculated a slightly different demand for the two, it starts to be confusing and feel obnoxious.

More likely, when it takes 15 minutes to process each one at the gate.....

UA must not like you guys, who did you offend?

But seriously, this GS has been (last few months, its started in December and ramped up in January and even more in February) getting lots of upsell offers. Upsell offer at ticketing, upsell offer by e-mail, upsell offer at check in, upsell offer when I got to print my boarding passes at the airport (if you miss this, you miss the BEST UPSELLS, these are the cheap ones). The notable thing is the price always goes down, not up. Sort of a reverse auction.

If you want a cheap TOD, pick a flight with R/A showing, and go reprint your tickets at the EasyChick'n machine. You will get a cheapo upsell offer.

I have noticed no difference in CPU success depending on subsidiary fleet, either in advance or battlefield. The only flight last year for which I was the sole recipient of an at-gate CPU was on sCO SFO-IAH. And I've ended up failing at #1 on sUA flights.

I also don't buy the theory that future bookings have any bearing on upgrade success.

YTD I am 20 for 26 with CPU's which is more upgrade misses than all of 2012 but I chalk it up to smaller metal with almost all 8F/12F mainline birds. My flying patterns have remained the same.

My next groups of flights are scheduled to be on 16F/20F/24F planes so hopefully my UG percentage goes up some.


SunLover

This looks like useful advice to me. Thank you.

It's definitely useful--though IME it takes a kiosk to trigger the offer. The online site doesn't seem to do so in those circumstances.

As a side note, I've been waitlisted for upgrade with RPU several times when R has gone positive once within 24 hours, and didn't clear; I had to call an agent. I know there are apologists who say, "Just wait, and it will happen," but given the way R > 0 seems to trigger upsell offers, that's not a chance I'm willing to take. And if in so doing I bypass others waitlisted with instruments, so be it; UA should fix their crappy upgrade system!

At BOS right now waiting for flight to IAH. F space available (A2/R2, booked 6/8 on A319). Check-in at kiosk, offered buy-up for $532 (ticketed K fare). M 1K Instant Upgrade is pricing at $706, so no discounted offer here.

No changes on upgrade list so far that I can fathom, so we'll see what happens.

Upgrade cleared @ T-50 (was #1), and they gave away the last upgrade at T-40.

So, I'm now CPU'ing about 35% this year...woo-hoo!