Ways to search for upgrade space at booking?
 

Is there a way to check for guaranteed upgrade space for GPUs or RPUs? Basically, do those book into a specific fare class, kinda like "I" is theoretically business class upgrades, thus if you see space in I-class then you can buy an economy and upgrade? I'm happy using the United site or using ExpertFlyer, for the record.

I'm asking because I'm trying to buy a route that is showing 100% availability in the front cabin (2cabin flight, literally no seats are booked yet according to the United sites' seats-available-per-cabin info) but is also showing zero GPU and zero RPU guaranteed seats (it only shows "waitlist").

Caveat: I know there are a bunch of threads on upgrades, I know there are a bunch of threads about EF. I have searched both here in the forums and via Google and I can't find this exact question, so if you know where I can find the answer I'll happily accept a link directly to the answer!

You're looking for R, not I. An empty cabin does not mean United doesn't expect to sell most, if not all of the seats. UA doesn't put out a lot of upgrade seat availability out there - doesn't matter that the cabin is empty - that has nothing to do with it - what matters is how United thinks the cabin will fill as the flight date approaches. If you want guaranteed (at the time of booking), look for R on united.com. Expert Flyer is of no use in that respect. United puts seats out for upgrades if it expects not to sell all of them. The only upgrades that might be awarded could be as late as the departure date..

Fare classes:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1270547-decoding-alphabet-soup-new-fare-buckets-ua.html

What's your route? For RPUs? And for GPUs? We may be able to assist better with more information as well as dates/time frames. :)
Best advice: Be flexible on the dates and you'll find some.

Also, keep in mind that it’s common for upgrade space to be (even) more restricted on domestic feeder flights than on transoceanic flights. Expert Mode will show you the lowest number of seats applicable to all legs, so make sure you’re searching for flights one at a time when you’re looking for R space.

Sure. Here's the goal, but we're looking at flying in a few days early and there's flexibility to maybe stop over in LAX for a day or two on each end (which is a common stopover, so it doesn't seem to cost anything according to my search).

20170407 IAD->OGG
20170414 OGG->IAD

I've got both RPUs and GPUs. In this case I can use RPU but I was trying to ask the question for the future too - I've come across this because and want to learn how to be smarter about these upgrades that... kinda like lots of folks... I end up not using because I get waitlisted all the time (and never clear the waitlist).

^ this is the solid gold answer I was looking for!

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Why do you say that? I would normally go set an alert for R-class on EF and see if something shows up...

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Neat! I had a different chart saved (locally, not a FT link) that was missing some info. Thanks!

Because nothing will ever show up. EF doesn’t have access to UA’s R inventory, so the alert will never be sent. The best that you can do is to set an alert for I space, as I is generally >= R. But I is even more rare than R is.

That's a pretty darn good reason then. I had a similar experience trying to book J inventory a few years back - turns out EF doesn't understand J either but once I learned to look for I everything worked swimmingly (I set alerts and ended up using them exactly as intended - called UA and bought a Ycabin then used miles to upgrade instantly).

Thanks all!

I forget if you have to switch United.com to advanced mode anymore or not. That used to be required to see R. (Google search if so). From then all you have to do is look at your route on United.com (revenue ticket, not award) while you are logged in, then click the "details" dropdown and you'll see everything listed there. If R is 0 then there is no confirmed space, anything higher than 0, then you can book it then and there and confirm an upgrade as soon as you get a ticket number.

One point to note, if you're looking at an itinerary with multiple segments, then look at your longest segment first by itself. United.com will only show the lowest of all segments on the itinerary, so for example if you have DEN-LAX-OGG, if LAX-OGG has R open but DEN-LAX doesn't, then you'd still see R0 even though you'd clear instantly on LAX-OGG if you bought the ticket and went to the upgrade screen in your reservation.

This is what most of us do as it isn't the same, but it is close and gives a good indicator that it is time to start checking daily, or at least on Sundays that things may be changing for the better.

"most of us"? Not me. That's a recipe for needlessly missing upgrades.

Maybe Hipplewm meant setting an alert for P space? If you set an alert for I space, you wouldn’t need to start checking daily, since I being open almost always means that R is open. But a transition from P=0 to P>0 might be an indication that you should start looking for R on a regular basis.

How dumb do people think the airlines revenue management is?

"Golly, we haven't sold any business class seats 6 months in advance, may as well start giving out upgrades." No sense in looking at historical sales curves...

Maybe I need to expound....if I need to take a trip to Asia sometime in late April, I tag basically 30-40 possible flights that will get me there, or close with a small final flight at the end. ie - if going to HKG - flying business to TPE, then whatever to HKG isn't too bad.

I go to expert flyer and tag all those flights and look for I, X, and P (if not already available) and wait. If I get an email, generally it means they are opening seats - I start looking daily on those flights for R space using United.bomb
is it anal - yes, does it take a fair amount of time - yes, is it worth it to everyone - I dunno, can't answer that. Have i missed possible upgrades, maybe - I can't say as I have been upgraded on every flight so far. Same trick worked to get my whole family upgraded RT IAD-HNL-IAD this summer.
I have used 14 GPU so far, they all cleared. Maybe I just got hella lucky over and over, I dunno

I generally have a very flexible travel schedule though. If you have a much more rigid schedule, there is probably not much you can do.

I have written multiple times about GPUs and RPUs in this forum. First of all, United provides these instruments as a result of miles flown by elite members. They are not "free" with respect to United deciding to "give them away". We pay for these multiple times over with our paid tickets. Second, I have also been frustrated with a completely empty business class cabin and no confirmable upgrades months in advance for off-peak travel (London Heathrow from Chicago in February, mid-week). I do not agree that there should not be some confirmable space for upgrades on these flights months ahead. However, that said, I just booked a confirmed GPU on this route two days ago because I checked multiple times weekly about availability since June, 2017. Usually weekend days are the best chance to secure a confirmed upgrade, but I have also had lots of success in the past during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is how I was able to confirm the ORD-LHR GPUs.

Not exactly. I’m usually looking for R on specific dates. I check pretty much every day on UA.com anyway. But if I have seen no R or I for a long time, then get an EF alert on I, usually overnight, there is a good chance R was also opened overnight, telling me to log in and grab it first thing in the morning before it is gone. If they release only 2 or so, you may need to act fast.