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Is there a tricky to finding availability more easily than searching for a route on United's site, and then clicking "Details" for every result hoping to see something other than "R0" ?
I have 12 GPUs in my account, and haven't been able to use any for almost a year now since i started accruing them.
Mostly I'm flying from DUB, sometimes via LHR, to hubs in the US (SFO, ORD, EWR...).
Sometimes it feels almost pointless to have GPUs and i'm wondering if I'm doing it wrong :-(

elCheapoDeluxe

GPU Availability = √-1

Totally imaginary.

laxmillenial

They are not imaginary. There are threads like "RPUs and GPUs are totally useless" as well as threads such as "RPU success" or "GPU success" for the year. Your mileage may vary. Many of us are happy (myself) with them. Many of us are horribly upset (nomad420 and yourself).

It comes down to: flexibility. Are you booking on business heavy days where the plane is 100% sold out? Are you booking last minute? I've been upgraded to LHR both ways from LAX/SFO, so it does exist. It's not "imaginary"

A better way to search would be going to "Advanced" and then selecting "GPU" as an Upgrade. It will then give you green/yellow icons to indicate available GPU space or waitlisted GPU space respectively. Might be a bit faster than scrolling through each flight looking for R space.

aacharya

A few thoughts, noting this is already in the GPU availablity thread.

1. Look by segment, and not by route.
2. You will rarely find R on popular routes.
3. A pseudo-proxy for R is IN. If the seat's available in Saver Business, it's most likely in R. Then you can search via award calendars.
3. If you have 12 GPUs this year, you're above 150K and clearly a 1K.
4. But if you are that high and a GS, a totally different set of circumstances exist.

jsloan

The only trick is to be flexible -- dates, locations, and connections, whenever possible -- and search between gateway cities. If you can't find anything on DUB-EWR or LHR-EWR, try BRU-EWR or AMS-EWR or LHR-IAD or.. etc.

Note that you can also use your GPUs on Lufthansa.

UA must have some complex seats, then, since all of the GPUs I've used this year have cleared at booking.

Kacee

Yes, expert mode is really the only good way to search for R. TATL to the west coast can be a challenge, but it does exist. Seen it recently on SFO-LHR, FRA, and ZRH.

I wouldn't recommend that. Just based on what I've seen, I'd guess that IN availability is something like 1/10 R availability. In other words, you'll miss something like 9/10 upgrades if you base the search on award availability.

Dublin_rfk

Welcome to FT and to my pain.
Call me cheep but the difference between a GPU up gradable flight and a business ticket hasn't been great enough for me to bite. I have found them great for domestic UG's and 'gifting' friends who are not permitted to but business/first.

Air Houston

mr8

The LHR flights to/from DEN usually have R>1. No Polaris lounge though.

Just did a quick search for a couple of days out and seeing R>1 confirmable on LHR to DEN, EWR, IAD, IAD, IAH, LAX, and ORD.

Edit: found SFO with R9 about a week out:

Also seeing DUB-EWR with R7:

aacharya

these both prove my IN theory correct

Kacee

It shows that if there's IN/I, there will be R. But that's a given. If that's not true, it's an inventory error.

There will be many, many times, however, when flights are R>0 and IN0, I0. Using your theory, you'll miss a very high percentage of upgradeable flights.

Example:

laxmillenial

It's not always correct though.

I booked LAX-MEL-LAX and LAX-SIN-LAX. GPUs on both directions (separate trips). IN was 0 for all segments. R was 9, 1, 3, 1 respectively. Your theory is decent, but you risk cutting yourself off of flights that might have space, mainly the R=1-4.

FlyerTalker70

Absolutely not pointless, GPUs and to a lesser extent RPUs are making me seriously reconsider my re-qualification strategy for UA (i.e. why not fly the extra 50K miles to get 6 global upgrades every year, it'll more than pay for the capital outspend you have). If you don't believe me, I'd encourage you to look at the spreadsheet I put together tracking the GPU successes on FT this year (click GPU Offers tab) - you'll see there were over 275 legs that were upgraded this year thanks to GPUs. In creating the spreadsheet I found there were three general strategies used to secure those GPUs:

• Booking far enough in advance (i.e. months) to cherry pick the dates/routings that have R space available so that the upgrade can be confirmed at booking
• Change or better yet (free) SDC to another flight/routing once R availability pops up after they've booked
• Hang on for the (waitlist) ride and hope the upgrade clears by the time you get to the gate

GPUs aren't for the faint of heart. If you want an easy upgrade system go with BA cash+points Avios upgrade or AC's eUpgrade system but don't come back complaining when you find the options to upgrade are limited and require you to jump through many hoops.

Safe Travels,

James

aacharya

Yep, I get that it will miss something. But the OP (and many others) don't wish to look day by day as you and others might. It's a helpful tool for a quick search as long as one understands the limitations.

ryman554

Yup.

I never watch waitlisted flights when P=0. When PN > 0, I start to get interested. If PN=9, an UG is almost a certainty.

P opens before PN which opens before R which opens well before I(N).

So, it is absolutely true that the existence of I space in predictive of R, but the converse is not true. Consider IN a "square" and R a "rectangle". If you're only searching for squares, you're gonna miss a lot of rectangles. Focus on the parallelograms (PN) instead (which you can't search for, I don't think) for better indicators.