krispykrme

None of my upgrade has cleared yet this year

UA901 SFO-LHR x2
W
Booked 5/20/14
Departure date 7/15/14

UA 927 FRA-SFO x2
U
Booked 5/20/14
Departure date 7/30/14

UA889 SFO-PEK
W
Booked 5/9/14
Departure date 9/5/2014

None of them cleared. Frustrated with United. GPU are not useable out SFO.

Pathetic

WineCountryUA

A little early to state total failure on any of these.
Let's hope something happens before departure.

Chris83

1. IAD-DXB
2. Traveling on 21 October
3. U
4. Y-C
5. Purchased on 19 June
6. Cleared on 4 July (110 days in advance)

PaulInTheSky

Route: JFK-LAX-SFO-HKG-SIN
Fare Class: W
From/To: Y -> C
Booked: 04/16/14 (79 days before departure)
Cleared: JFK-LAX 04/16/14 (79 days before departure) (cleared at booking)
Cleared: LAX-SFO 04/16/14 (79 day before departure) (cleared at booking)
Cleared: SFO-HKG 04/21/14 (74 days before departure)
Cleared: HKG-SIN 04/16/14 (79 days before departure) (cleared at booking)

Route: SIN-NRT-HNL-LAX-EWR -> SIN-NRT-HNL-IAD-EWR (after SDC)
Fare Class: W
From/To: Y -> C
Booked: 04/16/14 (79 days before departure)
Cleared: SIN-NRT 07/04/14 (2 days before departure)
Cleared: NRT-HNL 04/16/14 (79 day before departure) (cleared at booking)
Not Cleared: HNL-LAX Only two folks got upgraded out of 24 seats in CO 753, sounds like a lot of P/A purchases on this flight.
Cleared: LAX-EWR 04/16/14 (79 days before departure) (cleared at booking)

SDC to:
Cleared: HNL-IAD 07/06/14 (cleared at booking)
Confirmed: IAD-EWR 04/16/14 -> No upgrade space available

Ultimate trip -> All Flat-bed seats except the last leg on Q300

tonykline1947

1. IAD-NRT
2. 8/31/14
3. W
4. Y-C
5. 7 weeks
6. at booking

tonykline1947

1. NRT-EWR
2. 9/3/14
3. W
4. Y-C
5. 7 weeks
6. at booking

danhunterpost

1. ORD>IAD>NRT>SIN
2. 8.27.13
3. Q
4. Y-C
5. Booked 7/9, cleared IAD>NRT leg at booking. ORD>IAD is an RJ with no F cabin.

1. NRT>SIN
2. 8.27.13
3. Q
4. Y-C
5. Booked 7/9, cleared 3 weeks before departure

KSchmitty

I feel your pain. I have been trying to plan a trip out of SFO to use my GPU's and spend some time out of the country. So far, I'm not seeing many options. Please do update if any of your trips clear. Thanks!

danhunterpost

Really?

Upgrades traveling to Asia from west coast

Specifically post 12, seems to be tons of availability....

but I guess this is just Asia, or NRT....

SFflyer123

Bingo! SFO is a bad place to use GPUs. Too many elites. It's better to Asia than it is to Europe, however. SFO-FRA nonstop is horrible to upgrade on.

Kacee

Please feel free to gift me yours

I've burned twelve of them ex-SFO over the past 18 months.

If you can't find R right now - to both Asia and Europe - you're not searching properly.

krispykrme

I have to call bs.

I am batting a cool 0.00 % this year.

Show me R inventory on UA889, 901.... Blah blah.

I am extremely pissed off on UA889 that was booked 4 months ahead with only 2 seats booked back in may. UA still have not cleared in over 2 months.

When I booked on 901 back in may, it showed over 18 seats available. Did not clear either ( H class).

I am officially done with UA. Why bother give me SWU that I can't use?

I already qualified for GS this year. But this is going to be last year I will use UA.
The level of service versus fare I paid, I am done.

Last year I was not able to use all of mine swu too.

88 UA. Switching to BR.

LukeDaniell

1. BOM-EWR
2. 7/12
3. W (two tickets, separate tickets but same fare)
4. Y-C (BusinessFirst on a two-cabin 777)
5. GPUs requested 11 days before departure
6. Both upgrades cleared at gate

//

Sponsored two family member upgrades from BOM to EWR using my GPUs. Neither family member has status with United. Both were booked on a W fare (separate tickets, but same fare). R=0 at the time of upgrade request, which was 11 days before departure.

24 hours before departure, family members were 1 and 2 on upgrade standby/wait list (which was quite long). Both cleared.

Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised to see my family members on top of the list and eventually clear, despite being ticketed on the lowest upgrade-eligible fare (W-class). At departure only two seats were left in BusinessFirst, which they got. And the economy cabin, which was nearly full, very likely had waitlisted passengers (perhaps 1Ks) traveling on fares higher than a W fare.

An article written a while back hypothesized that there is a "mystery element in United's upgrade priority", and this "mystery element" is lifetime miles. http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...rade-priority/

I don't buy the lifetime miles theory, since I wouldn't make the top of any list if that was the criterion. Also, the article is outdated in that it doesn't take into account the new PQD requirement. That said, I do wonder if there is a "mystery element" that comes into play (of course, beyond Premier status and fare class).

I've been a 1K for several years. Last year, I earned over 250,000 PQMs. This year, I've already earned 105,000 PQMs and crossed the $10,000 PQD threshold for 1K status through 2015. In fact, I crossed the 100K-PQM/$10,000-PQD threshold for 2015, just days before sponsoring the upgrades for my family members on my GPUs.

I wonder if any of these factors played a role in landing my family members on top of the upgrade waitlist and ultimately clearing on yesterday's BOM-EWR flight.

Any thoughts or theories?

krispykrme

I will never understand UA logic.

On 901 with empty first class seat, full business.

No one got cleared for upgrades. There were 1 GS before me. Cleared 0 to business first.

Why fly with empty first when UA can use that opportunity to make long time customer happy?

I am already over 1 million miles with UA and GS again this year. While I booked a low H class for my personal vacation. Why not upgrade 5 passenger from BF to first and upgrade 5 to business. Instead you have a couple pissed off GS?

I have no luck this year out of SFO. I put up with crappy US services so I can have miles for my kid to fly home from college and award tickets for wife to go home to china.

This is my last international flight with UA. Ever since increase in redemption rate and merger with CO diluting GS to a pointless tier.

I have booked my next three trips to Asia on EVA/SQ. For total of 16k I get much better service and lounge.

Nice way for UA and Smisek to piss off more of your GS customers. I have used 0 of my GPU. Batting 0.00 is ridiculous for someone that flies over 150k miles in J every year since 2006.

exerda

IAD-MUC, traveling 9/9, W fare, sCO 764.
Booked in March, applied GPU at that time.
Cleared a couple of weeks ago.

Meanwhile, my wife has been in standard Y award on the same flight since booking. Neither saver Y nor saver C have opened up.

I hate the inability to use ExpertFlyer alerts.