DetroitFlyer

I welcome the change because I never could understand why I would show as "upgraded" on the standby list if I cleared my upgrades days or weeks ago.
Isn't the point of the upgrade list to show who is waiting for an upgrade and who has gotten cleared from the standby list?

jsloan

What difference does it make how you cleared? More information is better. I'm never going to welcome a change that results in less information being made available.

As I wrote in my message to United, this was useful information for multiple reasons: 1 - it helped me gauge the chances of my upgrade clearing, especially on an SDC. The larger the ratio of checkmarks to names remaining on the list, the better I liked my chances. 2 - it offers a marketing advantage to them, as they try to convince people to advance in their MileagePlus status. Why become a 1K if nobody ever (seems to) clear(s) an upgrade? 3 - I could watch the flight status, rather than my reservation, to see if I'd been upgraded in advance, and to go in and secure the seat I'd prefer (non-bulkhead, non-last-row window for me, personally).

(I did not point out the disadvantage of transparency from UA's perspective -- people may be less inclined to take TODs if it seems more likely they'll clear based on the checkmark / waitlist ratio. )

LAXOGG

jsloan, agree with your post. I think your observation of why UA may be doing this is spot on, but doesn't excuse how they flipped us off once again.

fumje

jsloan, I also fully agree. There is an additional benefit to publishing the checkmarks, which is that it gives me confidence that the upgrade system works as it should (well, 99% of the time).

DetroitFlyer

I don't think this is even close to an accurate measure of your chances. How does the fact that showing 10 people cleared out of 20 seats (at say 18 hours before departure) give you any indication that you're likely to clear?
You don't have any info of the statuses and fare classes of those who did clear. Nor when those people cleared. Half of those 10 could have cleared at booking with a GPU.

Again, no information is ever provided to you to give you a sense that 1Ks clear more than a Platinum. Using an upgrade list to guess is a fool's errand.
I don't think there's any marketing value that is based in fact.

Sure, but wouldn't you want United to do a better job of emailing or texting you with upgrade confirmation instead? I don't know how much time you spend looking at flight status....

bocastephen

Looks like another deliberate middle finger from Kirby without any possible rhyme or reason or benefit to United. Delta still has a fully functional and transparent upgrade list on their app and gate screens, and I believe AA does as well, and AS the last time I checked. This is just another "let's screw the customer for fun" change, and frankly, I'm growing tired of these. Unfortunately I don't think we have a functioning UAInsider team anymore to discuss this with, so the result is a canned response from 1KVoice with a "sorry we disappointed you, we'll try harder, here is $50, now go away".

StuckinITH

Maybe this is totally unrelated to this thread, but on my flight ORD-MUC in May, they were not showing on those gate monitors the waitlisted passengers nor the seat map.

WineCountryUA

While this may be a deliberate change to decrease the visibility of cleared upgrades, it could also be the "unintended consequence" of some change to unified some system software. It has always been odd the difference in the displayed information between CPU eligible and non-CPU eligible flights and a single approach / code flow, from UA's perspective, makes more sense.

Occam's razor

DetroitFlyer

I flew AA ORD-NRT this year and cleared using a systemwide several weeks before departure. On the day of departure, the upgrade list didn't show me as cleared.
Also, AA doesn't show upgrade lists until 4 hours before departure, so I'm not sure where you're getting "AA shows a fully functional upgrade list."

jsloan

Au contraire; while it's true that people could have applied instruments, that there's always the possibility of extra GSes on a flight, etc., it's a pretty good heuristic, especially approaching T-1, when many at-airport SDC decisions might be made. If 10 upgrades have cleared, and only 8 people remain on the list, with 4 open seats, I feel very good about my chances as 1K, and I probably would feel good as a Platinum also.

On top of that, on the (increasingly rare) cases where UA processes upgrades at T-96, T-72, etc., you can get a proxy for how many people are clearing at each status level.

Besides, if the problem is "you don't know how they cleared," my answer is more information, not less -- put status, instrument, and fare codes on the list. Not only can I then target SDC very effectively, but that adds to the "trust, but verify" nature of the upgrade list in the first place.

Showing 10 cleared upgrades and 20 on the standby list has got to be better than showing 0 cleared upgrades and 20 on the standby list.

False dichotomy. I'd prefer both. Like many people on this board, I check the flight status quite a bit as my flight approaches.

StuckinITH

If you flew UA ORD-NRT and cleared before check-in also you would not appear on the upgrade list as the upgrade list before check-in is only supposed to show for CPU eligible flights.

findark

I tend to agree with this. Unfortunately, it also means it would be cost-prohibitive to fix, even if they cared enough to want to.

drewguy

While I agree with information, from a practical standpoint the information isn't relevant. If your upgrade cleared before T-24 for whatever reason, when you check in you'll have your upgraded seat. If you haven't been upgraded yet, then you'll show on a list as awaiting an upgrade or upgraded. Only those pax really have a *need* to consult the list. For everyone else it's just curiousity.

joe_miami

The "possible" "benefit to United" is obvious: United assuredly doesn't want people playing SDC games for purposes of scoring upgrades, and United is likely to sell more upgrades at or before check-in if people believe their upgrade odds are lower.

DetroitFlyer

OK fine. So let's take a look at AA's ORD-LAX today.
No one shows cleared. Either every single person is paid F, or AA also shows only those cleared after checking in.

So do you still think AA's upgrade list is better? It doesn't even show remaining seats...