RobOnLI

Except paper GPUs were tied to date/specific flight. If you got offlined to LH on BOS-FRA you still can't technically use a paper GPU because it was coded for a totally different flight (e.g. JNB-FRA) that didn't clear. Based on all the threads I read only a few LH agents will actually not care what data is printed on the GPU and will allow you to use it on any flight. But most of them are sticklers for the flight details printed on the GPU.

Thanks, OP, for posting this topic.

-RM

mahasamatman

I believe that was a relatively recent development. They used to be generic.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Pessimist. I view it as 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

Maybe we'll get a "Friday Announcement" from UA Insider.

schley

wonder if there is any complication for sponsoring others. Is there any other restrictions or special terms for sponsoring others?

Lack

Ask and they'll fedex the certs to you, cutting the lead time to less then a week even.

It does not.

Boghopper

just another in the conga line of "changes we'll like". I suspect those who didn't like the current system will soon be in the "be careful what you wish for" camp as we discover that nobody can find any upgrade space and lots of us waste our time repeatedly clicking to see if an upgrade is available. Any hope that seatexpert can alert us? I don't know if there's a fare bucket that corresponds to the upgrade availability.

The fact that they are removing the ability to waitlist is a sure sign that they are looking to restrict availability IMO. Most of the time when I have cleared it has been at the gate, and I'm pretty sure it was a matter of somebody not showing for the flight. That same flight probably looked full ten hours before, so there's no way an upgrade would clear and no way for it to clear once the ten hour mark passes. So I have no shot at getting a no show seat. As has been said elsewhere, we will be at the mercy of revenue management and will get an upgrade only if they think they won't sell the seat. Like with UA (except that with UA we can waitlist), but I have the impression LH sells more of their seats typically so it will be even harder.

I've been back and forth over switching to AA starting next year and was just this evening lamenting the pathetic international award availability on AA and their co conspirators (makes UA MP look like a smorgasbord) and how I like being able to use my GPUs on LH, even if I have to wait to clear at gate. It's worked pretty well, actually. Now I'm getting pushed back over the fence again. Nice one, Smeagol. What to do, what to do . . .

entropy

Given the relative inflexibility of using GPU on LH at the moment (paper certs tied to the exact flight and people)... this seems at first glance as a good thing.

it should at least give people the ability to hunt for upgradable inventory when they book tickets.

raehl311

Maybe United will reconsider when they figure out how much they are spending in credit card authorization fees when people run through the book, check for GPU success, 24-hour-cancel routine a few times per itinerary trying to get the GPUs to work.

mh3265a

I think this is a net benefit. I never fully understood why the GPU process was manual when flying LH - it NEVER made sense. Stinks that you'll get a 10 hour cutoff because I've seen LH inventory open up several hours before the flight.

Hopefully it'll allow use of one GPU if you have two segments say one on UA and one on LH but we'll see.

I too had thought LH award inventory mapped to LH upgrade inventory. What class does LH upgrades book into then?

PV_Premier

Yep yep. This change actually dissuades me from booking LH for an upcoming trip. I don't trust them enough to offer seats this far in advance.

Wickersley

Understood.

However, in my case, I'm unable to book flights > 21 days out, hence why I see this as an improvement.

sammybk

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I see one big downside to this. LH F award space will likely be gone for good now. Any F award space will now be snapped up by GPU

blug

This is a definitely an improvement from 1940 technology to 1970 technology. ^

mre5765

With Shares, one can't wait list a GPU applied after T-24h. Though the wait list does work if applied at T+24h. So in some sense better than UA, and in some sense worse.

It's been this way for a couple years, but there have been reports that in the event of irrops, LH would honor the paper GPU on alternate flights.

With this new system, there is no lee way at all.

However, if one sticks to all LH metal, irrops are less of a risk. I've had maybe two irrops in 100s of thousands of miles flying LH.

Overall this is better because when was loyal to M+, I liked to use GPUs to upgrade LH J to F. Being able to upgrade to F ten hours in advance would be a pretty sure thing on LH, and it let me have connections under 4 hours in FRA.

But alas, that ship has sailed for me, and I've moved on to AA/BA/CX.

Maybe. With the introduction of P fares, D fares on LH are prohibitive. I hope you are wrong for the next three weeks, as I want to rebook my an F award bookings (from old chart) from DEN/YYZ/MUC to DEN/XXX/FRA

mecabq

If true, this is a huge improvement in my opinion. The upsides vastly outweigh the downsides -- assuming, of course, that LH makes seats available, and that there is a way to know in advance if the inventory is there. I agree with Boghopper's points on the skeptical side.

For me, there's little downside, since I have given up playing the lottery on any flight where I really value the upgrade (i.e., anything longer than DOH-DXB/FRA-MUC). It pretty much doubles the pool of potentially upgradeable-at-booking trans-Atlantic seats.