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Understanding the United Upgrade List Comprehensively

Old Feb 7, 2017, 11:28 am
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Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Types of Upgrades

UA's Upgrades overview

UA has multiple methods for upgrading to a higher cabin. Examples include: Economy to Domestic First, Economy to International Business or Business (ex-p.s. flights) or Economy to Premium Economy ("Premium Plus").

In this regard, seating in Economy Plus is considered Economy.

Not all upgrade methods are available on all flights (see table).
  • Complimentary Premier Upgrades (CPU) are available for most North American flights, Central America flights, and some select Oceania flights. "ex-PS" flights (EWR/JFK-SFO/LAX) and Hawaii-EWR, IAD, ORD, IAH, DEN, GUM, MAJ and v.v. are not CPU eligible. CPUs are available for all paid fares and in some cases on award tickets with certain credit cards. A CPU is requested automatically for all elites as long as there is a maximum of one non-Premier as only one companion on the same PNR is also eligible for CPU. CPUs cannot be confirmed until inside the particular window:
Global Services: 120 hours
Premier 1K: 96 hours
Premier Platinum: 72 hours
Premier Gold: 48 hours
Premier Silver: 24 hours
white text to force line
  • Plus Points (provided to Plats and above) are the upgrade currency of United elites. This wiki of this thread has more details about pricing of various Plus Points upgrades.
  • Mileage Upgrade Awards (MUA) can be requested for all UA flights with a higher cabin on all paid fares. This a varying amount of miles and a $ copay (elites are exempt from the co-pay for CPU eligible flights) -- mileage+copay calculator
    Note the miles and copay are due at time of the request and will be returned if unsuccessful.
  • Instant Upgrades are space available for all elites on Y & B fares for CPU-eligible flights at booking or thereafter. For Platinum and below these require PZ space. For 1Ks and GS, this can be done on Y, B & M fares and requires PN space. These Instant Upgrades, if not cleared at booking, cannot be waitlisted and one must keep checking to see if the instant upgrade space opens up. However, CPUs will process, as discussed above.
  • Paid/cash upgrades are a different mechanism and are only available if confirmable -- no waitlisting. Depending on methods, paid upgrades can clear into almost any fare class. If the class would otherwise be used for upgrades, the cash upsell can show up on the cleared upgrade list.
Plus Points and MUA (also called "miles+cash upgrades") are collectively referred to as instrument-supported upgrades, as they are considered with equal priority once applied. They may also be used on Copa (CM), Lufthansa (LH), and ANA (NH) flights.
Waitlisting for a premium cabin award and all forms of Economy Plus are not considered upgrades.


Upgrade Priority and Required Inventory

All upgrades other than CPU may clear immediately if the required inventory class is available. If you request an upgrade when there is not inventory to confirm your upgrade immediately, you will be added to the upgrade waitlist. The required inventory classes are as follows:

RN class is required for all upgrades to Premium Economy (United Premium Plus)
PN class is required for Instant Upgrades to Business/First from Y, B, and M fares for Premier 1K members, and for all upgrades to Business/First of any type for Global Services members.
PZ class is required for all other upgrades to Business/First except CPUs.

Note: The display of the upgrade lists is rather complicated at the moment. There seems to be more information available than usual, but its accuracy is disputed. The following is how it has historically functioned in terms of public visibility.

Passengers with unconfirmed upgrade requests will be added to the upgrade waitlist. This is not the same as the upgrade standby list which you can see on the Flight Status page. You cannot see this list by any means. The ordering of the upgrade waitlist is as follows:
Fare Class priority is J, C, D, Z, P, O, A, R, Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K, G, N.

Waitlist priority for all flights
  • United Global Services requests
  • PlusPoints upgrades and MileagePlus Upgrade Awards
  • Premier status of the traveler*
  • Fare class
  • Chase United MileagePlus Club cardholders and Presidential Plus cardholders
  • United Corporate Preferred participants
  • United Chase Cardmembers with $25,000 in annual spending
  • Date and time of request



If we haven't confirmed your upgrade by the time you check in for your flight, you will be added to the Upgrades list at check-in, so there's nothing that you need to do after submitting your original request. Our upgrade systems process requests until three hours before flight departure, at which point our gate agents will handle all remaining upgrade requests.

*On flights equipped with United Premium Plus, we will process requests to upgrade to business class for customers ticketed in United Premium Plus (fare classes O, A, R) before processing requests for customers ticketed in economy.

Upgrade priority on United Premium Plus
On aircraft with United Premium Plus, well first process United Polaris business class or United Business waitlists for all members who have purchased United Premium Plus seats, using the same priority order that applies to all upgrades. Well then process waitlists for members with United Economy seats.

New waitlist requests for MileagePlus Upgrade Awards can be made until 24 hours before departure. New waitlist requests for PlusPoints upgrades can be made up until the flight check-in cutoff time.

United will periodically run sweeps from this list. The required inventory class for your upgrade does not need to be available in order to be upgraded from the standby list; passengers on the list will be upgraded at the discretion of United's systems. (You can also think of it as space was opened and then you immediately took it.)

For flights with Premium Plus, those with paid Premium Plus fares will be prioritized above those with paid economy fares even if status is lower. However, GS with paid economy are higher on the list than non-GS customers with paid Premium Plus fares. Therefore, GS with paid Prem Plus, then GS with paid economy, then other Prem Plus pax (1Ks, then Plat, then Gold, etc), then Economy (1Ks, then Plat, then Gold, etc). Not clear if this applies to GS in economy -- certainly not pre-gate waitlist (as they are waitlisted for PN) but unclear what happens at the gate merged waitlist.
How does PlusPoints/GPU/ Mileage Upgrade waitlist for business work with PremiumPlus?

Once check-in starts a new waitlist will be generated for use at the gate. The pre-gate list will continue to process until the flight goes to the gate, typically one to three hours prior to departure. This new list is the visible one on the Flight Status page. Generally they will have the same order, but there can be some differences in priority ordering of the two lists -- usually due to the time tiebreaker -- which is time of request for the pre-gate list and time of check-in (sequence number) for gate list. The visible (upgrade standby) list is not used until the flight is under gate control and the gate agent manually processes an upgrade.

The upgrade list sometimes also shows passengers who have been upgraded. Advance-cleared upgrades will not show on the gate list as cleared -- only passengers who clear after they check in will display with a green checkmark. Some paid Premium Plus fares may show as a confirmed upgrade to Premium Plus.

For both cases, display cleared upgrades will appear in alphabetic order and regardless if checked-in (as long as a seat has been assigned). Uncleared, waitlisted requests will appear in priority order.

Upgrades and Companions
Main article: Comprehensive Companion Upgrade Questions

The following applies ONLY to the invisible upgrade list.

Up to one companion on the same PNR as you is entitled to a CPU based on your status. However, because PNRs must consist only of passengers with the same itinerary, you will only be eligible for an upgrade if all passengers on your PNR have the same upgrade eligibility. For CPUs, you may extend your CPU status to one companion, and then the system will take the status of the lowest passenger on the reservation.

This is a little complicated. Here are some example PNRs:

1K and non-status companion: both are eligible to CPU as 1Ks
1K and two non-status companions: no one is eligible to CPU
1K, Gold, and non-status companion: the companion gets "1K CPU status" but the Gold cannot, so all three pax have Gold priority

The situation for instrument supported upgrades is slightly different. Waitlisting an instrument is also all-or-nothing on the PNR. Either all pax must have a waitlisted upgrade, or none may. If you have a waitlisted upgrade for a multiple passenger PNR, it will have the priority of the highest Premier status on the reservation. Thus:

1K and non-status companion, 2x PlusPoints applied: both are eligible as 1Ks with PlusPoints
1K and three non-status companions, 4x PlusPointsapplied: all four are eligible as 1Ks with PlusPoints

Multi-pax PNR upgrades are all or nothing - you may (or may not) be skipped over if there are fewer available seats than members in your party. If you do not like the treatment of your PNR, you may split it into smaller pieces at any time and be treated as smaller groups or individuals.


Now, what happens if you haven't cleared by check-in?

Multiple pax PNRs are not eligible for the (visible) upgrade standby list. If you wish to be added to the list, you must split the PNR at check-in. This often happens even if you didn't intend to. Note, however, that the hidden list is active until 3 hours before departure and splitting your PNR changes it. Therefore, you may wish to delay check-in until the airport. On the other hand, the tiebreak for the gate list is time of check-in, so you may wish to do so immediately. It depends on your situation.

Companions may be eligible for the upgrade standby list even after splitting the PNR, if it is split at check-in. The behavior of your companion(s) depends on whether the reservation had instruments applied. You may have one CPU companion, who will be waitlisted with your Premier priority but with an effective fare class below X (namely, last). If your companion was on a different PNR originally, or you want to designate a different companion, an airport agent can do that for you. Therefore, the list of 1Ks might be:

1) 1K on an S fare (you)
2) 1K on a K fare
3) Your no-status companion
4) Plat on a B fare

If your reservation had instruments applied, however, this process is different. In this case, if the reservation is auto-split at check-in, all travelers will have your Premier priority with their fare class. Say you are a 1K with three non-status companions, all with GPUs applied. Then you have

1) 1K on a V fare,PlusPoints applied
2..5) you (1K) and your three companions on W fares, ordered by sequence number
6) Plat on a Q fare, miles+cash applied


Frequently Asked Questions

I was #1 on the upgrade list, but someone else got the upgrade instead. What happened?
The most likely answer is that a higher status passenger or fare moved to your flight.

I'm #1 on the upgrade list but seats in the forward cabin keep disappearing. No one is being upgraded. What's going on?
There are two major sources of this. First, once your flight is within 24 hours of departure, it is eligible for SDC. Passengers with paid premium tickets can change to your flight and take seats. Many experienced flyers, especially FT members, underestimate the volatility of flight loads on the day of departure. Additionally, United usually makes a time-of-departure upsell offer available at check-in. Purchasers of this upgrade may often appear similar to last-minute revenue bookings.

I was waitlisted for I (or IN) class and did not clear. Am I now eligible for an upgrade?
"Upgrade" is the wrong terminology. You should be automatically placed on the standy list for business or first (whichever applies). Historically there have been problems with this occurring automatically, but that seems to have mostly been fixed. The exact priority compared to passengers who are waitlisted for an upgrade is unclear and a matter of some dispute. See discussion of GG ONESTANDBY lines 32-55.

Who are these people who are on standby lists for both Business and First?
These are non-revs (i.e., UA employees and family members) - either NRPS (non-rev positive space) or NRSA (non-rev standby). Non-revs can list for any cabin. NRPS are traveling on company business (e.g., deadheading pilots) and will clear into open space ahead of upgraders. NRSA travel standby and will be last in priority after all paid passengers. Why would someone be listed on both standby & upgrade list(s)?
Originally Posted by leftysauce
I want to note the distinction that this only applies to NRPS that book the specific cabin directly (eg. if NRPS are eligible for J, they will clear into J immediately if any J seat is available). Otherwise, if NRPS book a lower cabin, they will be waitlisted after all paid (cash+award) pax but before NRSA for upgrades to higher cabins.
Deadheading Pilots Will Have Upgrade Priority Over Elites
Can you have one companion on a different PNR?
Yes, but only at the airport/gate and some agents are not familiar with the process. They are at the bottom of your status group.

Related threads
Ever see (+X blocked) in booked column on upgrade list?
Consolidated "Waitlist for Award Seats Questions/Issues"
[Consolidated] Chance of upgrade clearing on my flight
Decoding the alphabet soup - fare buckets for UA

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Understanding the United Upgrade List Comprehensively

Old Feb 25, 2024, 9:49 am
  #646  
 
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Originally Posted by ChazzaBazza
I also recently had this where I was a single traveler on a reservation using GS pluspoints on a 737 from JAC-EWR that went out 11/12 full. I asked the gate agent before boarding if an upgrade would clear and she said they seem to be blocking one seat, Im not sure why, Id the pilot says its ok we will move you. Needless to say this didnt happen and when I looked forward it seemed the window in the bulkhead was what was left empty.
JAC-LAX yesterday they were blocking seats due to weight restrictions. Was coach full? Otherwise maybe the F seat was inoperative somehow..
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Old Mar 15, 2024, 9:02 am
  #647  
 
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Upgrade priority - gold on mileage, or silver on paid -thanks

Who has a higher upgrade priority? A gold member flying on a mileage ticket (with the united club card, so that gets upgrades), or a silver member on a paid ticket?
And for two members of the same status, one with a mileage (and club card) and the other with a paid ticket, does paid get higher priority?

Thank you
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Old Mar 15, 2024, 9:04 am
  #648  
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Originally Posted by ghurty
Who has a higher upgrade priority? A gold member flying on a mileage ticket (with the united club card, so that gets upgrades), or a silver member on a paid ticket?
And for two members of the same status, one with a mileage (and club card) and the other with a paid ticket, does paid get higher priority?

Thank you
I mean, neither a Gold nor a Silver is particularly likely to be upgraded on most routes, so you're really talking about who gets 'bragging rights' to be ahead of the other at #15 on the list.

That said -- and assuming this is a Complimentary Premier Upgrade route -- in the first scenario, the Gold member has priority. In the second scenario, the member on a paid fare has priority.
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Old Mar 15, 2024, 9:55 am
  #649  
 
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Originally Posted by ghurty
Who has a higher upgrade priority? A gold member flying on a mileage ticket (with the united club card, so that gets upgrades), or a silver member on a paid ticket?
And for two members of the same status, one with a mileage (and club card) and the other with a paid ticket, does paid get higher priority?

Thank you
The key is to lower your expectation. You will be nicely surprised if you get upgraded. For very short routes, you may get the upgrade. For longer routes with lots of premier members, the chance is slim.
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Old Mar 15, 2024, 10:37 am
  #650  
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Priority is status, then fare class. So Gold over Silver, and for two persons of equivalent status, paid over award.
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Old Mar 21, 2024, 8:30 am
  #651  
 
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I'm overthinking this (actually procrastinating on something I really should be but don't want to be doing )

Given the cross-referenced upgrade list below. what is the most likely reason for #8, #9, #15, and #16 on the Business list not appearing on the PP list -- Y bookings where they chose to apply PP/Miles for Business and went all-or-nothing, right? If they were already in Premium Plus they'd be ahead of all passengers waitlited for both or is there another scenario where this makes sense (FWIW #4 is a 1K, so guessing 5 and below are either 1K or lower or possibly GS in Y)

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Old Mar 21, 2024, 9:00 am
  #652  
 
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Not sure what the answer to this is, but my understanding is that normally GS in Y would be ahead of all 1K on the J list even those in PP.
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Old Mar 21, 2024, 9:04 am
  #653  
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Personally, I have never waitlisted for PE. I just don't think PE is worth the use of +P...assuming there are people with similar thinking process.

Good of you to put multiple lists on the same table. Definitely easier to visualize and rationalize.
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Old Mar 21, 2024, 9:25 am
  #654  
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Originally Posted by lincolnjkc
I'm overthinking this (actually procrastinating on something I really should be but don't want to be doing )

Given the cross-referenced upgrade list below. what is the most likely reason for #8, #9, #15, and #16 on the Business list not appearing on the PP list -- Y bookings where they chose to apply PP/Miles for Business and went all-or-nothing, right? If they were already in Premium Plus they'd be ahead of all passengers waitlited for both or is there another scenario where this makes sense (FWIW #4 is a 1K, so guessing 5 and below are either 1K or lower or possibly GS in Y)
If they applied Plus Points for both cabins and are confirmed in RN, it would look the same. Clearing an instrument upgrade to PE doesn't increase your position on the J waitlist. For example, they might have cleared to RN long ago at booking, and later on others applied points for both cabins. Or they could indeed be doing an all-or-nothing request for J only.

As mentioned, anyone with a GS instrument applied (whether or not themselves GS, and not including a GS with a non-GS instrument) would be ahead of all others on the J waitlist and would generally be higher than #4 because of this.
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Old Mar 23, 2024, 7:53 am
  #655  
 
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Help me understand upgrade priority please.

@WineCountryUA. Firstly thanks for YEARS of help here at FT. I have a new one for you and the community.

My work buddy and I are both new to 1k (after decades of GS). We are of course bitter about it. :-)

We are trying to make sense of the upgrade list and cannot figure it.

Earlier this week he was flying on a paid fare (I do not know which fare class). He is 1k and had +P applied. Another colleague on same flight is platinum and no plus points. The platinum guy was ahead of my 1k buddy on upgrade list.

Tomorrow my wife and I are flying on a V fare BNA-IAH. We are both 1k (mine is earned hers is million miler matched). We have applied plus points. We are 7 and 8 on the upgrade list. Really hard to imagine 6 GS on a Sunday morning BNA flight ??? Or maybe a tonne of UA employees on work travel ??

what can you tell me ? What are the upgrade priority rules that I do not understand??

Last edited by mc1263; Mar 23, 2024 at 8:08 am
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Old Mar 23, 2024, 8:30 am
  #656  
 
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You used to be ahead of the line, waitlisted for PN spaces. Now, you join the over-entitled 1K crowds (welcome to the PZ spaces line). Anyone with GSs PPs and 1Ks with higher fare classes (also requested PP upgrade) are ahead of you and your wife.

I cannot answer the other situation for your buddy. It looked unlikely the case if what you said were true.

Add: A good thread for 1Ks: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/2077327-way-dodo-1k-upgrades-pp-cpu.html

Last edited by Kmxu; Mar 23, 2024 at 8:49 am Reason: Add a link
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Old Mar 23, 2024, 9:13 am
  #657  
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Originally Posted by mc1263
Earlier this week he was flying on a paid fare (I do not know which fare class). He is 1k and had +P applied. Another colleague on same flight is platinum and no plus points. The platinum guy was ahead of my 1k buddy on upgrade list.
Thats not supposed to happen. Is the Platinum guy also an ex-GS? The only (correct) way for someone on a CPU to be ahead of anybody with an upgrade instrument applied is for the CPU passenger to be GS.

Originally Posted by mc1263
Tomorrow my wife and I are flying on a V fare BNA-IAH. We are both 1k (mine is earned hers is million miler matched). We have applied plus points. We are 7 and 8 on the upgrade list. Really hard to imagine 6 GS on a Sunday morning BNA flight ??? Or maybe a tonne of UA employees on work travel ??
Doesnt have to be 6 GSes just 6 passengers on GS instruments. You may have found a GS family returning from Spring Break or something.
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Old Mar 23, 2024, 10:20 am
  #658  
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Originally Posted by mc1263
.. We are trying to make sense of the upgrade list and cannot figure it.
...
What are the upgrade priority rules that I do not understand??
As ex-GS, anything GS prevails over all others. A GS, a GS PNR companion, GS PlusPoints / Miles gifted to another, ...

The basic (simplified ) rules are
Waitlist priority for all flights
  1. United Global Services requests
  2. PlusPoints upgrades and MileagePlus Upgrade Awards
  3. Premier status of the traveler*
  4. Fare class
  5. Chase United MileagePlus Club cardholders and Presidential Plus cardholders
  6. United Corporate Preferred participants
  7. United Chase Cardmembers with $25,000 in annual spending
  8. Date and time of request
Note GS at the top. This is managed by GS rated request being eligible for PN space and everyone else (except 1Ks wit YBM fare on CPU route) is PZ

Other have provide possible explanations, all involving GS related situations. Note Positive Space employees are not waitlisting and and Space Available employees will not be ahead of paying customers.

The Platinum case (being a plat myself in retirement) suggests there is more to the situation than presented. But likely a GS supported situation.
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Old Mar 23, 2024, 10:56 am
  #659  
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Originally Posted by jsloan
Doesnt have to be 6 GSes just 6 passengers on GS instruments. You may have found a GS family returning from Spring Break or something.
Or just 1Ks on higher fare classes with instruments. Or 1Ks on YBM fares with no instruments.
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