WineCountryUA

Normal RPUs are good from the date earned until Jan 31 of the 2nd year after earned. If earned in 2017, good until Jan 31, 2019. There can not normally be extended.

Are you thinking of GPUs? 2 GPUs expiring Jan 31, 2018 could have been extended to April 30, 2018 -- giving them a life of at least 16 months.

HerbGlobal

Interesting and I am not sure of the mechanics behind it but I definitely have an RPU that says it will expire on April 30th. I think it was already extended once by three months which is probably part of the reason United would not extebd again.

Herb

nomad420

I was lucky enough to use the two extended GPU's last week and a domestic flight. Yes, it is my understanding having done this now for the last three years that you can extend only TWO GPUs until 4/30. In my case it didn't matter RPU/GPU as I had several of both not used and due to expire so I only extended what I could. In my case I pretty much always use a GPU on domestic flights as I can never find R space on my TATL/TPAC runs. I just tried booking SFO-BOS and had some flexibility as to time and a little flexibility as to the day but looking over probably 50 scheduled runs there was ZERO R space found. It is what it is....

WineCountryUA

There have been a few rare reports of folks getting RPUs extended but those were very rare occurrences. You sort of got lucky, got the extension but still failed to be successful in using.

Phil Level

In late 2015, UA ran a promo where one could earn extra RPUs for flying PS flights in paid J, so I took LAX-EWR-LAX in December 2015 to earn 2 RPUs. Of course I didn't read the fine print carefully.

I had a Feb 2016 LAX-EWR-LAX trip, and the RPU hadn't posted to my account by early Feb, so I emailed and called to find out that it could take up to 8 weeks for the RPUs to post. I asked if they could manually post them so I could apply to the trip. The reply was "NO".

When they did post in late Feb, after my trip, I learned they were 6 month RPUs. IIRC correctly, I tried to use therm 3 or 4 times, but they never cleared. As the August expiry got close, I asked if they could extend the expiry in light of multiple failed attempts to use the RPUs. The reply was "NO".

The RPUs expired... along with my loyalty to UA. Last week I took AA LAX-JFK in F as the price was half of UA in J.

LIH

The only route that I get booked into coach for lately has been ORD <> SFO because the flights I tend to be on rarely have P/Z/A space available by the time I am booking them. I usually end up in M/U fares for those flights and I have not had a single regional upgrade clear this year (5 legs).

simonoaks

It totally sucks that you spend time, effort and money to stick with UA, when other carriers will often have way better schedule/ price options, then you go to actually use a perk like GPU and you can never : 1. easily search for an R space, 2. find anything for your schedule (even with a wide parameter)
For example, I am looking for a EWR to LHR any flight between June 16th and July 1st - pretty big spread right ? NOPE. NOTHING , NADA , ZERO , GO FREACK YA'SELF , ....... seriously , what is the point ?

Boraxo

Was excited to apply a GPU to an LH flight but never got off the waitlist. Wondering how difficult it is to clear C->F using GPU?

Aussienarelle

I have previously posted on the ability to use GPUs and I was able to use all my GPUs last year and this year, so far, for every flight I have applied for them I have received the UG BUT it is often a couple of days before the flight or at the gate. I put this down to UA trying to sell the seat (totally understandable as they are a business) and trying not to .......ize the Polaris product. If the UG happens at the gate then your cannot use the Polaris lounge. From my perspective it is the seat that is important and generally will use the Amex lounges or *A lounges so lounge access is not so important to me.

Most of my travel is to LHR, but I avoid EWR as I traveling from the west coast. Although, I do think as there are more flights to LHR from EWR there should be availability and every time myself or a family member has flown EWR-LHR we have got the UG (although a small sample population).

I have a LHR flight on May 16 (through DEN) and although no R space was available at time of booking I got the UG a couple of days later.

I do think GPUs can be used IME, but generally not at time of booking.

StuckinITH

It's my experience too that I don't find R space at time of booking of my international flights and booking can be 2-5-9 months before the flight. Then, the problem is the premium to be paid to get a W fare. If it's a few hundred $, I do book W and waitlist a GPU. If it's closer to $1,000 (and unfortunately I find too many of those), my only choice is to waitlist a miles and copay.

I do occasionally get upgraded, some times a month before the flight, some times a few days before, some times after I had boarded the flight. My dear wife is a Platinum and if she gets upgraded it's more like a last minute thing: just before the doors close.

I'm not complaining as I already used 4 of the GPUs I got. And for half of my trips, I manage to get good P fares and can book those. Actually, I would never get to 1K if it were not for those trips on P fare. Somehow, I can justify better a P fare than a W fare that is a $1,000 more than the cheaper fare.

nomad420

Been burned to many times up purchasing to W, apply the GPU MONTHS in advance, waitlisted until the gate, then eventually no upgrade on a long TPAC / TATL flight. Can't / won't due on work flights or even limited quick trips to Europe to visit friends and family. Recently tried to us an RPU on a SFO-BOS-SFO run that I actually did have some flexibility on an searched multiple days and times both outbound and return and ZERO R space.

Phil Level

Same for PS flights LAX-EWR-LAX. Back when PS flew into JFK, RPU upgrades on the LAX-JFK red-eyes were a slam-dunk, and sometimes it even went out with empty seats in C (maybe F also).
Now I hunt for P fares on United, and similar on the other airlines that compete on that route. Since RPUs became worthless (to me), there is little incentive to make plat or 1K (to me).

Kacee

Agree there's been a drastic reduction (and that it devalues 1K pretty substantially for many of us), but UA started killing upgrades (and saver awards) on ps before the switch from JFK to EWR.

PushingTin

I wish a GPU on a domestic flight for a 1K would trump a GS on a CPU. At least I could burn them then, I have my first GPU spoiling today.... not happy.

AugustusM

I thought that was the case. I burned a couple of RPUs yesterday to move from business to first on 1995 ORD-EWR for my wife and I. It certainly appeared, from watching the upgrade list, that we cleared ahead of the GS's clearing by CPU. There were about 12-14 on the flight and we got the 2nd and 3rd upgrades.