jsloan

I mean, the lists mostly appear to be garbage.

That said, I can offer three hypotheses:

1 - It's a known issue that people who have paid for Premium Plus sometimes show up in the upgrade list for Premium Plus.
2 - It might not be the same person
3 - #1 and #2 on the PP list have higher priority than the person in question, but only waitlisted for P+.

WineCountryUA

Good chance the #1 and #2 on the PP list are paid PP fares (such as an O fare) and are not waitlisted for Polaris -- the PP list is messed up and inaccurate for many flights.

Kmxu

Sorry that I forgot to attach the lists yesterday.
#2 on Polaris standby list purchased R fare (I paid). Let us assume that #1 on Polaris list had Premium Plus upgrade cleared (appeared on both lists), it is not possible that he/she jumps ahead of #2 if the same person appears on both lists. It is likely that two different persons with the same last name and initial are involved because "Huang" is a very popular last name. I could ask for 1K agent next time.

JimInOhio

I think it’s been noted several times that some passengers who purchased a PP seat are erroneously showing up on the PP upgrade list.

Vangrovsky

how does one see the flight status and upgrade list for a flight that doesn't depart for another 2 weeks?

Thanks!

WineCountryUA

Change the date of the device you are using to view the upgrade standby list to a day before the flight. Discussion of this technique in recent posts of New Future Flight Status Tool (presently non-operative)
and Upgrade list showing before T-24? -- new display?? buggy??

Vangrovsky

Thanks!

tdlim

Trying to book a flight and seems like Premium Plus is available for upgrade, but PZ is not available. The UA website says during flight search that Polaris can be waitlisted upgrade. Is there any way to confirm and continue to waitlist the J upgrade - do I need to call in or something?


Also wondering if the skip waitlist option is available yet.

WineCountryUA

Yes, you can and can be done online
See the thread's wiki for more.


Starting 1 Feb 2020 to a few deep South American routes
Skip the waitlist (STW) questions

zoechow

Hi. I'm a bit of a newbie to this, and only just tried the UA M+ tool that lets you price economy tickets while also showing availability and cost of an upgrade to premium eco, or to business. But is there a way to pay more in $ for premium economy, and use few miles and fees to upgrade to business?

(The idea is that work pays for up to premium economy, and I'd use personal miles to bump up.)

Thanks in advance!

TommyC80

Yes but its not always a great value

booking R to Europe and waitlisting for Polaris on a recently flight required 20k points + $450. Not a great value. Same number of points as a cheapo fare but a slightly lower copay.

booking R from EWR-LAX and waitlisting for biz was 15k points with no copay. A much better value IMO than 20k and $250 copay from most economy fares. (It’s also a nice sweet spot for plus points...only requiring 10 points).

zoechow

Ok, I finally found how to find this option, and the sweet spot is what I want. I have read UA's explanation of waitlist (https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...s/upgrade.html) but I am left with questions:

1. Is there any sense of *when* a mileage plus waitlist upgrade might get upgraded? Is it *only* at like t-24? Or might it clear days, weeks, or months in advance? [I am shopping for December, far out]
2. Am I charged the upgrade miles now, when I buy the ticket, and then later refunded if the upgrade doesn't clear?

thanks in advance

jsloan

It can clear at any time, including after you've already boarded.

Yes.

zoechow

Thanks. And, my apologies if this is too much a newbie question, is there any way to guess the odds of actually upgrading, say if I buy and waitlist right now for a LAX <-> EWR flight in mid December on a 78J? (I have no status except having one of the UA credit cards.) Again, I apologize if this is too green a question for this more advanced forum; I'm also happy to take basic reading referrals, although I feel like I've read what I can find here and elsewhere.

jsloan

There’s no need to apologize. There’s an Upgrade Chances thread for this kind of question, but the simple answer is:

1 - time and day of week are critical for estimating upgrade chances. Midweek is much easier than the weekends, or common business travel times (e.g., first or last flights Monday, Thursday, or Friday)
2 - the transcontinental routes are extremely difficult to clear in general
3 - there’s little / no reason to shop now for December, particularly if you’re hoping to upgrade. UA generally won’t offer its best price up front; and, by waiting, you can monitor to see what flight inventory does. Activate Expert Mode in your United.com profile (even if you don’t feel like an expert yet — this is how you’ll get there ). Upgrades clear into PZ space, so if you see a flight with PZ on it, you can upgrade into it immediately. If not, you want the numbers to “approach” PZ as much as possible. J9 JN9 C0 — that’s bad; UA thinks they can sell really expensive tickets. J9 JN9 C9 D9 Z9 ZN9 P9 PN3 PZ0 — that’s good; UA is already willing to offer some upgrades (PN is upgrade space for Global Services members), so maybe they’ll open PZ space next.

Hope this helps.