JNelson113

LOL! Love it!

The next lady did clear it, so now I'm set.

I told the first one "but if I bought the ticket right now and put the instrument in, the upgrade would clear immediately". She then transferred me to interminable hold music. I finally hung up.

The thing is, though, they do clear people in the wrong order the way the system exists right now, because when R comes open it doesn't immediately start upgrading from the top of the list (which it should). A person purchasing a new W fare ticket and requesting an upgrade will clear, whereas a Global Services Y fare would not automatically clear and would remain on the list.

Until the system is fair, I think that this is a reasonable workaround. At least this way everyone has the opportunity to get the upgrade through diligence.

escapefromphl

I agree, R should not be showing up while people are on the waitlist. If they can't fix it calling up to grab the seat is entirely OK.

Syzygies

I just called to successfully clear a waitlisted GPU for tomorrow (domestic p.s. service, new equipment), after I was checked in.

ExpertFlyer showed multiple R capacity. To second-source this, searching for a new one-way ticket on United's site showed mileage upgrades available with purchase, to anyone.

After a long hold, the agent lectured me on exactly what to say in these circumstances. Basically, as little as possible, just the unadorned facts with no inflection: I requested an instrument upgrade, it has not cleared, there is availability now, could you please clear it?

Saying that United.com is offering the upgrade with miles to new purchases is the simplest way to support one's assertion that there is R capacity.

I understand the "hang up and call again" school of thought, but some empathy for the agent's view could help the per-call success rate. There is no common language here, and the agent is attempting to match one's request against many alternative scenarios. Thus, say as little as possible, with no ambiguity that could be confused with a different request.

Syzygies

Ok, the five R seats are gone, the plane is absolutely full, no one is showing upgraded, and the first name on the upgrade waitlist is the same name that was ahead of me yesterday. (I was second.) If I hadn't called, I wouldn't have been upgraded.

There's no way to know how many of these seats were given away to new purchases as "R capacity" (using miles or instruments to upgrade) and how many of these seats were simply sold or upsells. But this example sheds some light on the moral quandry. Calling to claim "R" inventory is more like taking a NYC parking space than like stealing from the waitlist. The spaces will be gone, they'll never reach the intended recipients.

In other words, as amply remarked already, the UA system is broken here.

SidewinderX

I am within 24 hours of my flight, tried to upgrade with miles. No R space cleared and I got waitlisted at T-24. Checked in, resigned myself to waiting at the airport. Then saw my EF alert for 4 R spaces. I called and the first agent told me they couldn't do anything. Got transferred to a dead line and then called back.

Second agent confirmed the space, confirmed I had tried to upgrade, and then confirmed my upgrade!

Great success!

Kacee

This would seem to confirm you jump the queue by calling in the upgrade. Agreed, someone's going to get that seat, it might as well go to you. Particularly since in this situation, if the system was working properly, you would have cleared at number two as soon as R went to five.

unhappyflyer

[QUOTE=UA-NYC:2

Of course, any joe schmoe could have purchased a ticket at that point and upgraded on the spot.[/QUOTE]

After this entire issue became apparent in Mar 2012, United issued a policy no instrument upgrades would be initiated within T24 for this very reason. Has that policy changed.

LeviFlight

Interestingly, i have a GPU moved from one flight i was canceling to another. There was something going on that made this a bit of an issue, not sure what. Anyway, my flight was logged as "R Class Requested" rather than upgrade wait listed. 5 days out the international segment has cleared, US segment still pending.

UA-NYC

The rule is no waitlisting inside T-24 - if there's R space, you can upgrade on the spot. That's why "jump the queue" always works. Great system.

rgrunnah

Another queue-jumping success story to report:

Was GPU-waitlisted for SFO-SYD tonight. Woke up this morning and noticed R inventory of 2. Called 1K desk and followed advice from Syzygies (above) when speaking with the agent. She came back on the line after a several minute hold and advised that she had confirmed me in BusinessFirst for the flight.

This although there were two people ahead of me in the upgrade queue.

I certainly feel that it's unfair that someone who is proactive and calls in can get upgraded while those with higher status or on a more expensive fare will probably lose out on the upgrade (if inventory is super-limited and they don't call in). Even more unfair is that any Joe with NO status but 67,500 MileagePlus points to burn could have just as easily jumped in front of me this morning and snagged the equivalent of a $9,000 one way fare - over a GS that actually purchased their ticket! United should absolutely fix this glitch.

That said, to the nimble go the spoils in many arenas in life, and no one ever made it to top by sitting around waiting for fairness to happen.

EmailKid

Don't feel bad, they probably weren't FTers

EmailKid

alexperi

Possible data point that the waitlist is beginning to work the way it should:
Waitlisted for TLV-EWR today.
For the past several weeks BF has seemed to be about 3/4 full (using the seatmap as a guide which I know is not perfect).
At T-40 approx flight status showed 35/50 BF booked.
At T-27 approx received email saying cleared waitlist into BF.
When I checked in online at T-15 approx, flight status showed 50/50 booked in BF and there were over a dozen people on the upgrade standby list.

I take this to indicate that there were tons of people on the waitlist, there was plenty of space available, they held everyone on the waitlist until almost the last moment, and shortly before check-in opened they cleared the first several off the waitlist (and being 1K I made the cut).

This does not change the annoyance of them being so stingy with R space in advance, but at least it's something.

Kacee

Seriously. The thing is, it's a brilliant revenue maximizing strategy. I get nervous about spending 12+ hours in back and start looking for P and Z fares.

LEONIDES

I am on a 787 hop from IAH to ORD tomorrow, and as best as I can tell, there was no R inventory on this flight. Are they even clearing any R or RN spaces in advance on these domestic 787 routes? Almost the entirety of the F inventory on this flight is open right now, since it is a holiday. I am 1K, so I should have cleared at the 96-hour mark, but apparently not.

Do they even both processing CPU upgrades in advance anymore? Is this restricted to only the 787 domestic runs? If so, I may try to skip the 787 runs into ORD, and just book on the 737 hops.

TommyC80

You need to be specific about what you're asking for. If you call and ask for my "upgrade" to clear, they may think you're asking about CPU, and say that you have to wait for the airport or system to clear it.

I have never had a problem anytime I have mentioned that I was either waitlisted previously with miles/instrument OR I want to use miles/instrument and R is now available