fumje

In the interest of exhaustin, did you not appear on the UG standby list and do you know that there weren't 8 GS on higher fares than you were?

SFOdelayed

amtrakusa

how do you know that GS manager info is accurate? maybe that is how he personally thinks it could work (for the lack of better intelligence or whatever), but that is not necessarily how UA thinks it should work.

So if a janitor at UA tells you blah blah blah, you gonna spew it out here verbatim?

iluv2fly

Seriously? Unbelievable.

Maybe because that's what they have been doing.

I won't bother to relay any information here any longer if my sources are going to be questioned like that.

narvik

The post to which I replied "United + Common Sense ≠ Reality" stated that someone willing to pay for First Class is unable to, and my quote: "United + Common Sense ≠ Reality" is also based on my own experience.

staren937

DWFI

If F is so important to you that you'd cancel your UA ticket and take a cab from T1 to T5, buy a walkup F fare ticket at the counter (a solid 15 minutes standing there for sure), and have to clear security again, I seriously question why you are even talking to UA.

Just buy the BA ticket.

wxguy

I also know iluv2fly's source. He is very credible and knowledgeable.

Often1

I suppose that if UA does a freebie for OP, other GS who learn of it will make the same demand and those who have paid F bookings now will cancel, rebook into C and then demand their freebie as well. While I realize that UA is simply running out the thread on F, cannibalizing any revenue is just a dumb thing to do.

It's possible that the local GS guy has the ability to somehow create an OPUP for OP, but that is short-sighted thinking.

There is a reason that non-US carriers don't generally dole out freebies at all and that the US carriers don't do so on international services.

SFOdelayed

FYI they are clearing upgrades ahead of the gate. I just received notification that my upgrade from biz to first for SFO-CDG on a three cabin PMUA 777-200 just cleared. Ticket was booked last week and travel is for end of May; I applied a GPU so it wasn’t a free op-up.

tuolumne

The only thing you managed to likely do is get this employee a slap on the wrist over being so candid with a customer who then came to a web forum to spill what they told!

I don’t think UAL is going to start doling our freebies either and i wouldn’t hold your breath.

porciuscato

Of course having a parade of employees and their "buddies" waltz into First Class seats that paying GS customers can't even buy is so much smarter. Makes all those GS folks feel so valued while they sit there in their crappy 8-across seats that were advertised as "Polaris."

amtrakusa

that doesn't even make any sense. once first is eliminated, there will be 48 J seats, all upgrades will be accommodated in J before nonrev comes in (who sits in the big seats upfront might be a matter of algorthim, but it has nothing to do with nonrev)

you are seeing nonrev clearing into F is because on 777 they are still selling F until June 20th.

again not accurate. if GS is J, they can upgrade using a number of instruments or miles or money. that is how it currently works since F is still a separate cabin in 777 until at least 6/20.

for nonrev to sit in F, there is also a cost (either instrument or cash), compared to economy which is largely free. If GS is waitlisted for the upgrade, and nonrev is waitlisted for first, GS and other rev passengers will always get it first. I don't see anything wrong in this approach.

If GS is sitting in economy, why should UA upgrade GS into first simply because there is space? I think people understand this expectation is not realistic.

again after 6/20 the whole discussion will be mute, since everything is J, and considering large number of people on upgrade list using instruments on every flight, a lot less nonrev will clear into premium cabin going forward.

the problem is how do you even what the employee is saying is even sensible or even remotely accurate? i see a lot of baseless rumor in this forum that way. Again UA has almost 100,000 employees, with a spread of intelligence and know how and info. Im sure some of them will be more than happy to tell you everything they know about United or they think they know. Unfortunately, in corporate world, a lot of functions are very specific. You really have to doubt the information if it is not truly insider news.

aCavalierInCoach

See SFOdelayed's response which mirrored my experience. No F for sale, but I called in ahead of time to try to apply an RPU and they said it was not possible, but I should talk to the folks at EWR. On arrival, they informed me I could not be added to the upgrade list or purchase an upgrade as they were allocated "by management". And no I did not appear on the upgrade list.

Edit: I also went back and checked my email on this. I remember being particularly frustrated because I was booked on a full, absurdly high J fare, so I don't think I was "outspent". Noticed because usually we are PP and book into C ewr/sfo vv but our account was dry or something. The only people who did appear on the upgrade list were, I believe, employees (as they appeared on all 3 of the waitlists), though none cleared all the way into F IIRC, and that wasn't really my complaint.

PTahCha

Looks like a case of they are doing things by the book, but it doesn't make it right. The exact scenario did take place on my flight referenced in my signature: Original flight was sCO 757 from CDG - EWR, which went MX on Christmas eve. They finally brought a rescue plane 2 days later, which was a sUA 767 with 3 cabins. Since the sCO crew could not work on the 767, and there was no one booked in F on the 757, the entire first class cabin was filled with the deadheading crew, leaving business class passengers, which included at least 3 1Ks, in business.