L Dude 7

I recently received my first "free" upgrade on the new United. As Gold, I've batted exactly .000 in getting upgrades on my domestic segments. However, on a recent SFO-PEK flight, I got bumped up to business. Before boarding, I had noticed that business still had availability. Then I boarded the plane, find my E+ seat, no one in the middle seat. Looks like movies are ok. Should be an ok flight.

Then somebody asked me to switch with them because was in the row in front. I'm in a good mood and tell her yes without even asking where the seat was. I go back to her seat, and it turns out the middle seat is empty there also. And it has a better view of the screen. It was surrounded by chinese schoolkids on their way back home, but they seemed well behaved. (There were many empty seats in E+. It was mostly empty when I checked my seat assignment. I'm guessing that a chunk of the passengers were just placed there rather than paying the E+ charge.)

Then I settled down with a book and we started to head out to the runway. The pilot announces a delay due to the loading of freight. Shortly after, the flight attendant asks if I had moved from my original seat. I said yes, and then she asked me to move up to business. I thought "wow", this is how they reward people that let families sit together. (After a bit, I thought it probably had more to do with my status and fare paid, but the first explanation makes for a better story.)
I head upstairs because, well, I've always liked the upstairs on 747s.
I short while later the pilot announces that we thought we would be ok moving people around, but it was still too close for comfort, so they were going to take us back to the gate. (If only I had grabbed a few more snacks at the RCC or Singapore Air Lounge.)

Alas, the few of us that moved up didn't have quite enough wait on us, so we had to pop back to the gate to move the cargo around. They tried to be quick by going to the domestic gate. That seemed like a good idea until they realized there was no 747 tow-bar there, so they had to go fetch one.

I had a two hour connection in Beijing. After the dealys, I was able to rush through immigration, customs and security at PEK and arrive at my connecting flight just in time - to watch the plane take off without me. Oh well. At least there were noodles in the Air China lounge. (If only United had more food in SFO, I might have already been in the air.)

PHLyer82

I was really confused reading this and putting it all together and then got the connection with the title. A little slow I guess.

Great luck. I've never received an op up internationally, but have always hoped! Good to know there is always a chance even if it is 1 in a million.

Kacee

Um, so the story is you got an op-up SFO-PEK due to weight distribution issues? Really hard to follow this very lengthy post.

PDXPremier

++1....on a side note, in the last week or so I've seen Kacee posts EVERYWHERE on the UA forum but you have over 1,000 posts so have you been hiding somewhere? Either way, welcome to the UA forum

Kacee

Thanks

L Dude 7

Yep. The quick version would be "plane had weight distribution issues. I got an op-upgrade after being seated in E+. However, pilot was still not comfortable with weight distribution, so had to go back to gate to adjust some freight. Because of this, I missed my connection in PEK. If all of us 4 op-upgradees would have added a little more weight, then I may have made the connection."

It looks like this post has been bumped over to a new thread title, so it may be a little less confusing...

fivesixseven

Which is a good thing, or to say: I'd be interested to get some insight into how often op-ups happen and at what kind of routes. So hopefully this thread will fill with more reports.

love_to_travel

I got an OP-UP IAD-GVA last year. It was awesome ^

A very long time ago, on my very first international trip (HNL-NRT on Northwest Airlines), I was upgraded to Business class just by asking the check-in agent. I didn't know back then how lucky I was. I guess things were very different then.

tegelad

Remember that CPU's and Op-Ups are so rare anymore, getting one makes anyone the happiest "extremely talkative" person in the whole wide world.

I am very happy for the OP; however, :-) it makes me a bit jealous, since I feel the only thing I get is a large bag of lemons every flight I take .... If I could only find the vodka to go with the lemons ....

+-ADT

lhrsfo

I bought a LHR-YYZ-SFO Y ticket on my UA miles for my son, so he inherited my *G status. At the AC gate in LHR last week, he got the beep and the op-up to Business. This is the second TATL in a row where he gets an op-up. Sadly, it never happens to me!

Red Raider LV

I got one SFO-NRT in May. I was supposed to be seated in E+ on the 744, so getting moved upstairs to J was a major improvement, and a great surprise.

Acornragazzo

I was flying ICN-SFO on 8/26 with a group of 18 people. Most people were on separate reservations and there were lots of newly minted 2Ps in the group. I had upgrade to J with Miles & $ but when we went to check-in about 6 or 7 of the other people in my group were given Op-ups. It wasn't all the 2Ps in the group but all the ones who got upgraded were 2P. Has anyone seen this many people get op-uped (is that a real word?) before? I've mostly been flying international carriers lately and am wondering if this is a normal UA thing or it was the freak accident I think it was.

SEA1K4EVR

Yes.. I've seen lots of people opped up before on flights where business wasn't very full but economy was packed. Not a freak accident.. it happens.

aacharya

Funny. I get CPU'd 66% percent of the time. That's "rare"?

Oh, were you making a snide, and OT remark about CPUs? There's another thread for that.

andersmj

Hi All - just curious to get your take on the following situation and response from united. I filed the following complaint through the 1Kvoice email:

Flight UA101. MAN to IAD. The flight was oversold in coach. There were 4 empty seats in BF. Prior to take off, the FAs moved 2 passengers from coach to BF to free up space in coach. One of the passengers moved to BF was sitting across from me and was NOT a 1K member (as he is a co-worker of mine). As I am a 1K member, I am curious as to why someone of lower status would be chosen for a free upgrade to BF before a 1K. In addition, I was in seat 11D and the passenger next to me in 11E was very large, and took up at least 20% of my seating space with their girth. As there were no other seats in coach available, I inquired as to whether I could move to BF (as 2 others had already been given free upgrades). There were still 2 BF seats available. The FA told me that there were, in fact, no open BF seats as those were reserved for crew. I know this was not in fact true as a) there were 3 people in the cockpit and as 2 have to remain there at all times, only one of the seats was reserved for crew and b) I looked at the open seats all flight and one of them was never used. I had to fly for 8 hours crammed into a very small space. I was unable to eat the meal or perform any work as I had no room to move.

I got the following response from united within 2 days (surprising, I know!!):

Thank you for contacting United Airlines regarding your August 17,2013 travel. In reviewing UA101, I do not find that this flight was oversold. It did leave with open seats in both cabins.
I apologize for the other difficulties you experienced during your flight with us. It certainly was never our intention for you to share your seat with another passenger. Customers should always be treated with dignity and respect, as we strive to provide safe and comfortable accommodations for all our valued customers.
Customers who are unable to sit with armrests down and seatbelts fastened without encroaching on adjacent seating space will be required to purchase an additional ticket. We are not required to provide additional seats or upgrades free of charge. Our Inflight staff is often successful in arranging alternative seating for customers in these situations. Again, I am truly sorry we were unable to meet your needs that day.
While I cannot undo your frustrating experience, as a gesture of our concern please accept the electronic travel certificate which will arrive via separate email. Please allow at least 3 days for processing.

While I appreciate the gesture from United, I fly 150K miles per year on business and really am not interested in a travel voucher. What perturbed me was the flipant response that 'the flight was not oversold' as when I checked into the flight, the had a sign up at the counter saying the flight was oversold and were looking for volunteers to take the next days flight. And then they had to move 2 folks from coach to BF to free up seats. And the small fact that there were absolutely no open seats in coach. What I really wanted a response to was why they do not pick their 1K members to move up to BF if coach is oversold. Not a response where the essentailly call me a liar and refuting that the flight was oversold. Just curious if this is worth pursuing further.

Thanks in advance.