StuckinITH

Don't worry for United. I'm sure they are trying to sell those seats......but to someone else. And, from my experience, flights to Asia always get full on week-ends. Passengers to those destinations tend not to choose their seats until check-in. Economy is nearly fully booked (2 seats left) which means that passengers that did not choose their seats will end up in Economy +.

In the one minute I was writing this, one Economy seat got chosen, so only one left

daisyatl

The flight now shows P8 and PN3. What does that mean? Is R the only thing that means that upgrade space is available?

And I have no idea how everyone's quotes got in this post! Ha.

Thank you!

Kacee

Your upgrade would clear into R.

But PN3 is a good sign, it means (at least in theory) that there are no waitlisted GS.

Booked 50/60. Your odds are looking up.

fumje

PN3 means (supposedly) that all GS instrument supported upgrades have cleared. The 'supposedly' caveat is that sometimes the system gets out of sync with itself, so it may have opened inventory without clearing upgrades.

But it is a good sign for your chances. R or RN (effectively the same, I think?) is the bucket you will clear into, and it tends to be opened a little while after PN.

(The quotes all showed up because of the 'multi-quote' button being selected.)

Kacee

R.

I would say that PN going >0 is an indicator R may open. "tends" is a bit strong . . . plenty of flights go PN9 but stay R0.

fumje

Actually I haven't seen PN0 to PN>0 occur without R0 to R>0 occurring soon after unless PN>0 goes back to PN0. But of course, 'tends' might suggest a stronger likelihood that PN stays >0 than I intended.

Also I don't see much PN9 R0 except on flights more than a month out. Just my observations, though.

Anyway, for the flight in question, I agree decent odds.

daisyatl

I got upgraded! Very happy. Thank you all for the advice. It is only my second or third time paying for an upgrade and it seemed like an indulgence but seemed worth it. The flight is quite full. Also, I used a voucher I had for the actual ticket (that I got from VDB) so all in al I was out of pocket less than the normal flight cost. Plus I have over 500K award miles so using those is not such a big deal.

DCA writer

Update on my DCA-PVG situation: Right before check-in time for my original DCA-SFO flight, I checked the statuses for my original SFO-PVG flight as well as EWR-PVG, ORD-PVG, and LAX-PVG. Only ORD and LAX showed more than two seats open in J... while United's site showed R4 for ORD-PVG and R1 for EWR-PVG, nothing yet on the others. Got on the 1K line and, after some back-and-forth involving the agent putting me on hold to call the rate desk, I'm now confirmed up front for the EWR flight.

I was willing to go with the ORD flight, but that's an sUA 777 and they only had seats in the center quad open. The one downside is that I'll have to wake up two hours earlier than originally planned tomorrow morning, but I'm pretty sure that a shower and a nap in the EWR Polaris Lounge will take the sting out of that.

Thanks for teaching me how to do this, FlyerTalk!

Aussienarelle

Congratulations DCAwriter. I think you may be able to make up some of the sleep from that early morning wake-up call with the flat seat. :-D (Based on my recent experience in the SFO Polaris lounge do not count on sleeping on the couch in the Quiet Suites in the EWR Polaris lounge unless you place the blanket on the floor.)

So agree with you about FT. I love how the community shares insights, tips and strategies. Recently I called in, for the first time, when R space opened up on an upcoming flight. Normally I wait for the UG to process but on the SFO-HKG leg that was too much of a gamble.
Also, learned through experience, and then FT confirmed (as did the 1K agent who had to fix my error), that SDC is best done over the phone.

Enjoy Polaris Business for that long flight!

Kacee

SDC into open R is possibly the coolest of all FT tricks.

SFOrunner

For me it has to be SDC into PN when flying on a YBM fare...Probably the closest I'll get to feeling like a GS

SFOrunner

The lady and I are flying SFO-IAH-MSY on Tuesday, July 3rd; 19 days away

UA540, SFO-IAH, departing at 7:34 AM: .....ZN8, P7, PN7, R4, RN4, IN3, I3
Flight Status shows 5 of 16 booked

UA1131, IAH-MSY, departing at 3:20 PM: ....ZN9, P9, PN8, R6, RN6, IN4, I4
Flight Status shows 8 of 20 booked

Inventory has been looking better and better as we get closer to departure...but will it hold long enough for the CPU?

Alternatively, I have one RPU available (four GPU's are tied up on an SFO-EWR waitlist) that could be applied to her itinerary, and I could roll the dice. Or, I could pull one of my GPU's back and apply it to the SFO-IAH-MSY trip, along with the RPU I have. I'll cross the 75K PQM threshold before my SFO-EWR trip, so in theory I could apply one of those RPU's to that trip, I'd just drop to the back of the waitlist bus.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Day before 4th and upgrade/award inventories show low business travel day (not many people are going to stuffing a travel trip into a work week with a mid-week holiday. I'd be optimistically hoping for a CPU instead of using certs.

I inventory will decrease before R - I'd just keep and eye on 'em.

physioprof

Any thoughts on GS GPU applied to non-GS W fare on UA927 on Saturday, June 30?

StuckinITH

Does not look too good as we cannot know if there are already GS waitlisted. Saturdays are not good days for upgrading.......And with Polaris Business sold 42/48 there's a possibility that some people may still purchase a ticket and the added danger that some passengers would take a TOD if offered. It's a long flight.