uclacolumbiaunc

As a Medallion Gold, I have been upgraded every time I booked an economy fare with Delta. All of them are short one hour flights, so I can't speak for the chance of upgrade for longer transcontinental flights. But based on the fact that I have up graded every single time, I would guess that, other than the major routes like LAX-JFK/LAX-ATL, I would have pretty good chance for upgrade.

On the other hand, I am doing a status match challenge with United (Premier Gold), and I have flown a few LAX-SFO routes on United a few times, and I have yet to clear for Premier upgrade even once. (Though I did get upgraded once for a SNA-SFO flight). The only perk from United is the access to Economy Plus at booking, which Delta took away from Gold status earlier this year.

I am not sure if this is coincidence, but is it true that United generally has pretty low complimentary upgrade among the major airlines?

PsiFighter37

I think most frequent travelers would agree with your last question. That said, LAX-SFO (and vice versa) is such a heavily-trafficked route that I'm not surprised CPUs would rarely clear there. It's also a really short hop, skip, and jump...doesn't really matter that much to me.

hookthem

Your CPU % as a Gold is going to be extremely low, especially on SFO routes.

I don't have a great track record of CPU's as EXP on AA.

DesertRat

I used to have a pretty good upgrade rate on SFO-LAX as gold but now it's close to never thanks to the cheap upgrades and paid fares they have offered in recent years-- as with many routes. The good news is that your miles are worth something, unlike with Delta.

arctikjon

You are going to hear this many times... but your upgrades as a gold flying hub to hub are going to be in the low single digit percentages especially on cheap economy fares. For perspective as a 1K I usually have to burn an instrument if I want to secure an upgrade into SFO and even then I often dont get it. There are just that many high elites moving in and out of that airport, Most the time you can Global Services sitting in coach... Expect the upgrade list to be 50+ deep and most the plane to be in group 1/2. Really I wouldn't spend much time worrying about it, pick your E+ seat and that about all you can do, maybe you will win the lottery one day.

NJFlyer42

I am a 1k. Upgrades (for hub to hub) come on odd days (mid week) and the occasional expensive ticket. I try to avoid the latter.

Lot's of upgrades and UA elite do not go together. Enjoy E+, SDC, and short lines.

mduell

I think you're sorely mistaken there.

That sounds about right.

Probably, they're very aggressive about monetizing domestic first, whether it's 20 cpm P fares or TOD offers to non-elites.

Cargojon

My upgrade stats as a Platinum are in my signature. The CLE-EWR I missed last week had a list almost 50 people deep that didn't clear (granted on an Airbus with only 8 F seats.) Seems like a I usually clear on the outbound legs and miss on the returns. Just my isolated data points based on my travel patterns, and I fly on a lot of ERJ's as well with no F.

dank0014

OP good luck with that. UA would rather sell a TOD than given out a CPU. Take today as an example, flew ORD-SFO and booked a B fare and applied an RPU. 24 hours out, F=6 but by time for flight left, only one upgrade processed and I was 7th on the list. For the life of me, can't even use my RPUs. I try but always fail to SFO even on slower travel days. SFO is near impossible in my books.

zxsuxr

I'm on said route 3-4x a month. I have only cleared as Platinum on late evening Saturdays about 50%. My typical routine is Thursday-Sunday and that has yielded 0 out/in CPUs YTD

uclacolumbiaunc

where do you get the option to buy upgrade for "TOD"? I was never offered any "TOD" before.....

uclacolumbiaunc

As Premier Gold, it seems like I am usually #10 ~ #12 on the upgrade list (after those who were cleared on the LAX-SFO route)....

hookthem

TOD = Time of Departure = Upgrades offered during check-in at the airport? Could be wrong... I've always been assuming...

To make fun of this, people can also say TOD = Tens of Dollars (for non-elites)

uclacolumbiaunc

I see. So "Tens of Dollars" are just terms to mock the real term "Time of Departure"... I only saw "Tens of Dollars" when I searched "TOD" in FT forums.

Maybe I should watch for cheap TOD upgrade offer next time I check in for my United flights... I would assume that elite status does not get you priority for cheap offer.

garykung

Although the rate is route dependent, generally the answer is yes.