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[Consolidated] Chance of upgrade clearing on my flight {Archive}

Old Feb 9, 2019, 8:39 pm
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[Consolidated] Chance of upgrade clearing on my flight {Archive}

Old Jul 2, 2019, 10:07 am
  #4216  
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Join Date: Oct 2001
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Posts: 21,186
Originally Posted by hudsonlaluna
The customer service agent said it was odd that with a PZ seat opening up that my upgrade didn't clear automatically. Is that correct? I thought I read on FT forums that you have to manually call in for the upgrade and it doesn't happen automatically.
It's supposed to clear automatically. Sometimes it doesn't.

By calling and getting it pushed through, you may have jumped ahead of someone else on the list. However, because PZ was open, anybody could have applied a GPU (or even a miles + copay) upgrade, and jumped ahed of you, so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Enjoy your trip!
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Old Jul 2, 2019, 10:20 am
  #4217  
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Gold
Posts: 19
Originally Posted by Kacee
Are you waitlisted? Very good odds of PZ opening booked 4/50 six weeks out.
I haven't waitlisted yet since I'm currently on an economy award. Trying to be flexible before I buy the fare, but also thinking I should buy the W fare @ $630 and waitlist since the flight is 6 weeks out, the price will probably go up?
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Old Jul 2, 2019, 6:13 pm
  #4218  
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Originally Posted by jsloan
https://cablepick.net/united allows you to get the UA flight status page for any future flight.
Is this operated by someone here? Great site. Clear, simple, and to the point.
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Old Jul 2, 2019, 6:56 pm
  #4219  
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Originally Posted by VegasGambler
Is this operated by someone here? Great site. Clear, simple, and to the point.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...atus-tool.html
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Old Jul 2, 2019, 6:57 pm
  #4220  
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Originally Posted by VegasGambler
Is this operated by someone here? Great site. Clear, simple, and to the point.
It is, although the particular poster's handle escapes me.

It relies on UA's site allowing the flight parameters to be passed in the URL, so it's possible to make the links yourself, but I agree the site is nice convenience.

edit: beat to the punch! Thanks to WineCountryUA for the link.
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Old Jul 2, 2019, 9:42 pm
  #4221  
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Join Date: Apr 2013
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Originally Posted by brodayo
I haven't waitlisted yet since I'm currently on an economy award. Trying to be flexible before I buy the fare, but also thinking I should buy the W fare @ $630 and waitlist since the flight is 6 weeks out, the price will probably go up?
If you have a specific flight in mind and want to upgrade, the better strategy these days is to buy and waitlist. UA has been clearing waitlists lately without opening PZ (or at least not for any longer than it takes to clear pax off the waitlist).
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Old Jul 3, 2019, 3:37 pm
  #4222  
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: SBA
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, Marriott Gold, IHG Plat, Hertz PC
Posts: 939
Originally Posted by ContinentalSilver11
My flight is now on week away, from EWR to LAS on 7/9/19 on UA 1794. (We both have separate reservations booked in economy (T).)

Can anyone advise on if you believe mileage upgrade seats from economy to first will open in the next few days for this flight? Currently, for mileage plus copay it is waitlist only.

Thanks for the help.
Using https://www.cablepick.net/united, it currently shows 10 of 12 booked already (small plane A320, doesn't help with only 12 seats). As posted above, buy-up if you definitely want those last two seats. I'd say chances of it clearing using miles are about zero unfortunately.

Last edited by tstauck; Jul 3, 2019 at 3:43 pm Reason: typo
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Old Jul 4, 2019, 5:32 am
  #4223  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Houston, Tx
Programs: UA Plat
Posts: 96
Originally Posted by jsloan
99.9%. The only way you don't clear is if there are major IRROPS on Wednesday, canceling a bunch of flights to DC.
All three of us cleared at 1Hr mark before flight.
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Old Jul 4, 2019, 2:46 pm
  #4224  
 
Join Date: May 2017
Programs: United currently plat
Posts: 203
Originally Posted by evol
Aloha, I requested a Mileage Upgrade Award for the following:

7/4 UA 1575 HNL-SFO 11:07 pm

7/5 UA 295 SFO-EWR 8:15 am

both are waitlisted, i am a *S...

Ive had the recent luck of getting a complimentary upgrade on my last two LAX-HNL, incredibly surprising and completely unrelated to this question.

Id be really bummed if my upgrade into SFO cleared, wasting my miles on a red eye on a 739..
Just for follow up, HNL-SFO leg cleared awhile back and SFO-EWR Polaris leg cleared just after checking in.

Im feeling blessed..
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Old Jul 7, 2019, 1:50 pm
  #4225  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 22
Just curious, what incentive do airlines have to give away any free business/first class upgrades at all as opposed to just ratcheting down the cost until every seat is purchased?
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Old Jul 8, 2019, 6:33 am
  #4226  
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Originally Posted by danthflyer
Just curious, what incentive do airlines have to give away any free business/first class upgrades at all as opposed to just ratcheting down the cost until every seat is purchased?
One option: possibly get people to bump their spending up to $15k PQD from something appreciably less than that.
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Old Jul 8, 2019, 6:52 am
  #4227  
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Originally Posted by danthflyer
Just curious, what incentive do airlines have to give away any free business/first class upgrades at all as opposed to just ratcheting down the cost until every seat is purchased?
There are several reasons; the main one, though, is fare discipline. If passengers learned that airlines would always lower the price until the seats were sold, theyd be much less likely to buy higher fares; theyd just wait. This would be disastrous for the airlines, because a huge part of their price discrimination strategy is using advance purchase rules to get business travelers to pay more than leisure travelers.

A second reason to provide upgrades to frequent travelers is to try to provide an additional incentive to book UA even when all else is equal or even when UA is at a disadvantage in terms of convenience, fare, or whatnot.
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Old Jul 8, 2019, 8:29 am
  #4228  
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Originally Posted by jsloan
A second reason to provide upgrades to frequent travelers is to try to provide an additional incentive to book UA even when all else is equal or even when UA is at a disadvantage in terms of convenience, fare, or whatnot.
And the golden goose here is to cultivate customers who don't even bother to check competing prices when they book. This is admittedly harder now that you can just load up your favorite search engine to see side-by-side.
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Old Jul 8, 2019, 11:38 am
  #4229  
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: YVR
Programs: Aeroplan 50K
Posts: 23
how often to check for PZ space?

Originally Posted by Kacee
1. The odds of clearing SFO-FRA in September are not great, but not hopeless. 1K on an R at least has some chance.
Thanks to Kacee, jsloan, and fumje for helpful answers.
Recall the context: My wife and I will be doing YVR-SFO-FRA-TXL 23 Sept with SFO-FRA in R (Prem Econ) and I've applied GPUs to our tickets. How proactive should I be about looking for PZ space on the SFO-FRA leg to be released between now and 23 Sept? I.e., can I rely on United's sweeps to automatically upgrade us if PZ is released, or should I manually monitor it from time to time? If the answer is "monitor", then when should I start, and how often should I monitor it?
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Old Jul 8, 2019, 12:42 pm
  #4230  
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Originally Posted by stmvanc
Thanks to Kacee, jsloan, and fumje for helpful answers.
Recall the context: My wife and I will be doing YVR-SFO-FRA-TXL 23 Sept with SFO-FRA in R (Prem Econ) and I've applied GPUs to our tickets. How proactive should I be about looking for PZ space on the SFO-FRA leg to be released between now and 23 Sept? I.e., can I rely on United's sweeps to automatically upgrade us if PZ is released, or should I manually monitor it from time to time? If the answer is "monitor", then when should I start, and how often should I monitor it?
The sweeps usually work; if I were you I would check the flight at least once a week just in case, and more frequently if it smells like PZ space is coming (PN9), but on a September FRA flight I wouldn't hold my breath. Me, I check all my future flights daily, even if I don't have an upgrade request, but that's just habit (and it helps you learn the route)
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