high.and.above

Short version: three seats free and I was the first one on upgrade list, boarding starts and gate agent does not clear anybody and boards everybody then she clears the upgrades towards the end meaning that people just had to move thru the cabbin. IS that a new procedure or just the gate agent was in a mood?
This morning I was on flight UA2415 from EWR to Portland (OR) and there were three seats open in first, I was the first one on the list so I was not to worried about my upgrade clearing , but suddenly the gate agent start calling boarding and those three seats remain unocupied.I go to group number 1 to board and when I get to scan my boarding pass, I asked why is the upgrade not clearing.
The gate agent was rather annoyed and said to board on my Y boarding pass and she will clear upgrades at the end of boarding process. SInce I knew that my upgrade will clear , i picked a far back seat so i don t occupy unnecessarily a premium eco seat. SO i had to board with all my baggage then the gate agent came with the upgraded boarding pass while people wore still on the aisle.It was very uncomfortable since I had to take all of my belongings from the back of the airplane to the front while there were other people in the aisle. OF course when i managed to get to the front , there were no overhead space so I had to schlep my handluggage back in Economy.
IS first time, at least for me, when a gate agent clears on purpose an upgrade after boarding and I find it very annoying. IS this a new procedure or it was just the gate agent that couldn't be bother to clear the upgrades before boarding?

villox

Not a new procedure at all. Sometimes known as a "shoulder tap" upgrade. Sometimes agents will clear empty seats just prior to boarding but not always. But you should not have taken a seat way in the back - what if you didn't get the upgrade and were stuck in E-? It's never a sure thing until you're actually in the seat with a F boarding pass.

mbaldwin

It's not new. It's happened to me infrequently, but regularly. It is a pain.

Kacee

It's totally normally for the GA to wait until the flight has closed to process upgrades. That will generally be at the very end of the boarding process.

high.and.above

Well it doesn t make sense, she could have said that I should wait till she boards everybody, then to ask us on the upgrade list to board and like that it would have been far more pleasant. It was a very little load flight so is not like she was overwhelmed with work by any meaning

zrs70

We should be grateful for an upgrade. It is a reward, not a right.

uber1K_Flyer

Yes we should but this behavior is not only inappropriate but is not an excellent way to handle customers, let alone frequent fliers. If the first cabin is full and a seat becomes available because of a misconnect or other issue that prevents the person who was supposed to sit in the seat from taking the flight, this behavior is the only option and is how it should be handled. If there are 3 seats that aren't sold at the boarding time, the upgrades should clear or at least they should do something like will X, Y and Z see me at the podium and hold them prior to boarding. That's how its supposed to work and anything less is, in my mind, unacceptable and not customer focused.

DJ_Iceman

This is absolutely the way CO used to process late upgrades. The most frustrating part to me were the times I was #1 on the list but saw other people get moved up front. Since it's done in an opaque way, there's no way to know whether shenanigans are at play. It also can lead to the "no room for your carry-on" in F after making the reverse walk of shame up the aisle. But as zrs70 said, a free upgrade is still a nice thing to get!

drewguy

Agree - there's not much reason to handle it as described by OP unless there is a decent chance of elites or paid F with connections switching to the flight, with a desire to accommodate them. But if originating from an outstation or where this isn't likely to occur, there's no reason not to process right before boarding.

HoustonConsultant

In those situations where those upgrades do not clear, if those three passengers were asked to wait until everyone boards, we would be reading a FT entry of:
Moody gate agent that told me to wait to board because I might upgrade, but then the upgrade didn't clear, and all the overhead space in economy was taken, so I had to gate check my bag.

If you were super duper sure that your upgrade would clear, you could have just not boarded until the last group, and then you would not have to do the walking back and forth.

Ideally, the upgrades clear early, and you can grab the overhead in first, but I try really really hard not to complain about getting an upgrade.

jsloan

Note that many flights begin boarding before the checkin window closes. While it's not uncommon for gate agents to push through upgrades a little ahead of time, there's certainly no policy that they do so. UA is happy to continue allowing SDCs / selling TODs / etc. up until T-30 for most domestic flights.

Also, I have no idea why you'd ever go to a different seat than you were assigned just because you were expecting an upgrade. That's just going to cause confusion if that seat ends up occupied. And I'd never give up an E+ seat just because I'm #1 on the upgrade list. You never know what might happen. If UA doesn't want to process the upgrades early, and I do end up clearing, they can deal with putting someone into the E+ seat after they come on and upgrade me.

AugustusM

Not sure if this is what happened with you but while leaving CLE today there were seats open in First but the GA couldn't seem to process them and I overheard her say to her companion that she would sort it out after boarding.

Kacee

The part that doesn't make a whole lot of sense is telling OP to board. It's generally been my practice to hang out near the gate if I'm expecting an upgrade, and I'd think that's easier for the GA than walking the BP all the way to the back of the plane before closing the door.

DJ_Iceman

Now that you mention, I remember back in the CO days that we had a choice of waiting in the boarding area (if we felt lucky) or taking our assigned coach seat (if we thought the upgrade was unlikely, or wanted to ensure overhead bin space, or weren't confident the GA would take the time to do shoulder-tap upgrades on board). They would announce something like, "For those passengers awaiting an upgrade to first class, the first class cabin has checked in full," so we knew to just board in our original seat and know we'd be flying coach that day.

FlyfromDenver

I've never seen it happen in Denver. They do the upgrades right before boarding starts or at most leave one until later.