sfo789

Some on this thread think that is an accurate placing (i.e. likely below all miles/instrument-waitlisted pax). Others think you should be above those people, since you are a "displaced business-class-paying passenger". You can certainly ask an agent to check your waitlist status, but given FT has such little consensus on what a correct placement would be, I wouldn't be surprised if you were told no.

findark

Is the segment CPU eligible?

weezl

if you can get a UC agent that would be ideal. If you are PR-1 status, unless official policy has changed since the Plan B thread started, you belong at the top of the list. Somewhere (far) above is a quote from the UA policy itself that the agent should be pointed to for verifying your ask.

Kacee

I do not believe that to be true.

This "displaced business class passenger" myth needs to end.

findark

Just to reiterate from the wiki, the relevant actual policy is shown here, which only lists an SSR code for being added to waitlist, which is notably not PR-1 (and is lower than PR-1).

It's my inference that W*I will place you behind any supported upgrades (W*R) and GS and eligible 1K PN waitlists on CPU flights (W*P) but ahead of CPUs. However, for everyone added to the standby list automatically, it would be awesome to collect enough data to confirm this.

The only successful reports that I can remember of getting PR-1 are from pax who successfully bullied a series of 3+ agents, specifically asking for it, until it was given.

tolem

Is there anything someone without silver or above status with United can do to get moved up on the award waitlist?

Situation: Booked honeymoon LAX -> SYD, thought wouldn't it be nice to fly first class once in our lives? Yikes, $5000-10k per person, not gonna happen. Oh wait it says you can upgrade with points. Talked to a united rep and they said we would be on a waitlist, but the earlier we booked the better off we would be. Transferred 60k points to united and paid the several hundred dollars fee to request both of us.

3 weeks out from our trip we were upgraded! It worked! Ecstatic. Unfortunately tragedy struck and we had to postpone our trip.

A year later were ready to go. We rebook an identical itinerary. Figured we had a good chance again booking so many months in advance. Now its 1 week out and we have no signs of an upgrade, so we called to see if there was anything an agent could tell us. "Sorry we cant let you know until 24 hours before the flight". Yikes. Why did they tell us 3 weeks out last time? I guess we shouldn't have planned all those activities upon landing, counting on sleeping on that nice flat bed!

We fly united several times a year but are always just short of making silver. It seems for the average Joe who just travels for a few family vacations or visits a year, you really have to go out of your way to get even silver status. Yes I am now thinking about flying across the country and back for no reason other than just to earn it, and maybe try to see what polaris is all about on a family vacation next year. I guess I've fallen into their trap.

I tried to get more information out of them, like what is our position on the waitlist but they wouldn't tell me. I dont understand why they let you upgrade and spend all this money (unfortunately for us, locking our points into United after a large transfer) without being transparent about exactly what your odds are of getting the upgrade? The website could show you how many people are trying to get the upgrade and what your position would be (or is) on the list when you book, then continually updating until the flight.

Finally they said that the seats we see in the seat map arn't even whats available, it could be someone that hasnt picked their seat yet but already is ticketed. Well then how about a number showing the seats that are still available for upgrade?

The reason this information is so valuable to me is because if it starts to go south and your odds of getting the upgrade are nil, why not change the flight to another day with way better odds? Why not go to another city with way better odds and then take a puddle jumper to your final destination?

Sorry I know this comes off as more of a rant, just trying to understand if we were on a fools errand trying to get a business / polaris upgrade with only 'member' status and maybe just all the stars aligned for us on the first try last year. Or did we just get super unlucky this time?

jsloan

Welcome to FT!

Short answer -- not really, and having status with United won't necessarily help that much either.

Agents sometimes tend to make things up when they don't have a better answer. There's no rule about when the upgrade can clear; it can be anytime from the day you make the request until the time of departure.

I've been Silver, Gold, Platinum, and 1K. I would absolutely not do a "mileage run" (what you're describing) in order to attain Silver, especially if your goal is to get upgraded. It's simply not likely to help.

They could, but they choose not to do this. There are quite a few reasons for this, but the best is that it would set people up for disappointment. Because the list is ordered based on status, at any moment you could drop down the waitlist when a new ticket is booked.

You can use the Future Flight Status tool at http://cablepick.net/united in order to look up the status page for your flight. (It may take a few tries; be patient). If you click on the "United Polaris business Upgrade Standby List," you'll see the total number of available seats and the number that have already been assigned.

The change fees on international itineraries ex-USA tend to start at $300, unless you purchased an extremely expensive fare in the first place. Then, you have to figure in any fare difference, which could be extremely expensive, especially if you're changing destinations. I wouldn't pay a change fee in order to get onto a flight unless I knew it currently had upgrade space available. If you activate Expert Mode -- there's a thread about it on the board -- and look for R class, you can find if there are any flights currently available for upgrade. If you see a flight with R2 (or more), your upgrade would clear immediately.

It's closer to the former. Waitlisting upgrades is always hit-or-miss, even with status. UA will try hard to sell every seat up front before upgrading anyone.

hughw

Yes....basically PR-1 minus, but presumably ahead of PR-2. But help me on this regarding jargon "any supported upgrades (W*R) and GS and eligible 1K PN waitlists on CPU flights (W*P)." Could you translate that into English?...I've been flying a lot less since the merger and have lost some of my expertise. Obviously, I know what 1K and GS mean...but I'm curious how this applies to international TRANSPAC and TATL flights. Who would have real PR-1 status on those flights?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Upgrade requests off a waitlist can be cleared anywhere from one minute after booking until you've actually taken your coach seat on the flight. There is no schedule. Three weeks is not a magic number of any kind. You were very lucky the first time.

United will, in general, give upgrades to those who UA thinks are currently the more valuable customers first. People who have spent the money and accumulated the miles on UA to gain status are going to have priority over someone with no meaningful (to United, that means $) history with UA.

Silver status actually does not pull you up any upgrade ladder to any significant extent. Most of the other benefits can be attained by having the Chase MileagePlus card.

findark

So, the following is speculation based primarily on the similarity in experience of automated email templates, position on various waitlists, and fragments of conversations with UA employees.

Prior to the gate, any PNR can have a waitlisted segment. This is effectively just an extra sector on the PNR with a flag set for the waitlist. When added to the upgrade standby list, waitlisted segments get an "SSR code" and you get that email about "we couldn't confirm your upgrade request". As noted by GG ONESTANDBY, the code includes the requested fare class, in addition to your status. It would therefore make sense that an unconfirmed I class waitlist (WAI to WDI depending on status) would rank lower than an unconfirmed R class waitlist (WAR to WDR).

CPUs are different and a lower priority. PR-1 would be for e.g. a paid F passenger on IRROPS who was rebooked when there was no available space in the cabin (F0).

jasmians

Before I call United and spend hours, question...
I have economy on qantas from dfw to syd already and want to try this United biz wait list. But if I don’t get wait list clear from IAH-SYD, then I do not want this route. To redeposit miles, it will cost $125×3. Should I try this? To try this, I should just put all 3 people on separate itinerary? Have to do this before 11/1 to save 10k miles /pp

hughw

Understand all that except the ranking of I class vs. R class waitlist. I can't find any ranking chart (other than R precedes I in expert mode listing). Is that how you can state that I ranks lower then R? or is it because the underlying fare class for an award (X), is lower than the underlying paid fare class for an R waitlist?

As sort of an expert in the old days regarding PMCO Plan B (and quoted in this thread's Wiki), I'm feeling a little ignorant here.

findark

On the basis of R preceding both IN and I when listed in Expert Mode, yes. Seems consistent with the idea that anything SSRed from a PN waitlist is going to be higher than an R waitlist.

Kacee

And the fact that UA opens R prior to I. R9 I0 is quite common. (Or I should say, common in those circumstances where R>0.)

jsloan

Note that there needs to be Saver award availability on IAH-SYD already, on some date. You can't simply waitlist for business class without holding a confirmed reservation.

To answer the question about whether you should book one PNR (itinerary) or three -- if any of you have elite status, you should book as a single PNR originally and then ask to be split. That gives you the best chance to keep the extra priority for having status while still making sure you'll be able to clear if individual seats become available. If none of you have status, and none of you are children, you can go ahead and create three itineraries to start with; if there is a child, you'll want to bundle the child's itinerary with the parent's and split after booking in order to avoid any unaccompanied minor issues.

Assuming no status, the cancellation fee is $75 per ticket if you do it 61+ days before your flight and $125 otherwise.

Whether or not it's worth it depends upon how much you value $375. I don't know of any surefire way to tell in advance how likely you are to clear the waitlist; as you can see on this thread, plenty of people don't clear until the airport. Since your backup is Qantas, not UA Economy, I'm guessing that you'd need an answer earlier than that.

I'd only do this if I had plenty of UA miles (not Chase UR points or any other transferrable currency) and felt like gambling. If I were transferring from another program, I wouldn't even think about it, as if the waitlist fails, you can't go back -- you'd be stuck with UA miles.