CIT85

RPU for IAD-LAX and SNA-EWR for my daughter (1K) did not clear last week and this week. My SNA-ORD is already sold out in F, so my RPU will be returned Friday.

So far this year I have not cleared any RPU.

LIH

My most common non-NYC routes are ORD <> LAX and ORD <> SFO. I am almost always in P/A/Z class these days and it seems many others are too as my last ~12 legs have seen 3 or fewer upgrades in total on the 737s/757s. 4-5 years ago those flights would have seen 7-10 successful CPUs. I do think the point made up-thread about a stronger economy and more aggressive discounting of first are the key issues for RPU clearance. Anecdotally, on my flight to LAX on Sunday evening the FA was doing meal orders pre-departure in status order (a rarity) and she came back to me in row 6 as the second person as a lowly 1K. Lots of paid F from non-elites and/or lower-level elites it seemed like on that flight. I do know that LAX is somewhat of a weird market in that regard, but I still found that surprising.

LC757

I managed to clear two RPUs for PS. One was SFO-EWR 6 AM on a Sunday. Another is EWR-SFO the day before Memorial Day. Basically the two most off peak times you could possibly get.

nomad420

Off topic, but I was told that a paid F non-elite is consider lower in the meal pecking order than a elite on a instrument fwiw.

fumje

UA doesn't sub-prioritize by fare class within a cabin, so yes, GS/1K in F by instrument-supported upgrade (or CPU) get priority. (Silver/Gold/Platinum doesn't.)

LIH

Yeah, my surprise was more that coming back to me as the second person to take an order from, in row 6, when the first person she spoke with was in row 2 would imply that there weren't any other 1Ks in that cabin (though admittedly, that is a lot of extrapolation).

UALfromMSN

I had two GPUs clear at booking yesterday, LAX-SYD and back. Tears of joy for 15 hours of comfort. First in a long time.

Air Houston

Cleared two GPUs this week.

IAH-FRA on Sunday cleared after boarding (and after a lengthy weather delay)
FRA-SFO on Friday (on LH) cleared before my arrival at FRA, but I'm not sure when since I wasn't checking the LH record while in DE.
Both on U fares, applied about two weeks prior to the first flight.

At the time of booking there was no available R space on any reasonable flight to Europe on Sunday or any reasonable flight back to the U.S. on Friday. (checked multiple airports on both ends and lots of combinations)

SFOrunner

Maybe not entirely UA specific, but as it relates to the use of GPU's...how many of the people on FT are flying mostly for business? And to that end, I'm curious what kinds of travel policies your companies have in place. LAX-SYD seems like it would qualify for business class in most corporations. Same goes for routes like SFO-HKG?

Or do most people use their GPU's for personal travel?

tstauck

Regarding corporate travel policy, our company is in 19 countries, so there's a lot of flying around. That said, you have to fly at 4 flights per year before you can qualify to fly in Business class. So fairly strict at our company.

My brother works for a company that allows you to book into business for any domestic coast to coast flight, so much more lenient.

SFOrunner

Interesting.

At the last company I worked for, it was a combination of job rank and travel duration. For the lowest levels of employees, total travel had to be over 13 hours in order to be eligible for business class. The most senior employees had to be traveling for more than four hours to qualify for int'l business or domestic first.

At my current employer, I get $0.70 per round trip mile towards the purchase of business class tickets...which almost really does make GPU's useless.

jfk747

With that travel policy why would you fly on united? The product,people and service are horrible.

StuckinITH

I only travel for work. According to the written rules, it's only supposed to be in Economy except for very specific cases (a 16 hours flight is not a specific case). Sometimes, I can request to travel in Business (I do the request if I find a very reasonable P fare) but they might reject it or even ignore my request (which in the end is the same). Sometimes, I purchase the P fare anyways and only get reimbursed for the Economy fare (I print the itinerary for Economy). With no P fares available, I do use GPUs or upgrade with miles and copay or purchase a TOD at check-in.

My wife only travels for vacation which means she travels with me on all my international long hauls. She purchases the same class of ticket I do and if I did not purchase outright a J ticket (P fare) she does not purchase a J ticket and uses the same methods to upgrade. She gets to Platinum with her travel.

I have used 5 of my 6 GPUs (some I gave to my wife) and 3 of my 4 RPUs. My wife has not used her 2 RPUs and most probably will not use them.

rbAA

And they cleared right away, though the return initially said waitlist, but within minutes it cleared also. One RPU left to use, though I doubt I will find any use for it.

cfischer

yeah, LH clears almost all the time. Much better use of GPUs than playing a game w/ UA.