channa

Yes and no. Some of us have lives, jobs, other commitments, etc. We can't be watching our ressies like a hawk all of the time. At a minimum, we all need to sleep.

And even if we spot it, sometime we're not in a position to do anything about it (e.g., in a meeting, at an event, etc.), and can't reasonably make a phone call.

Sure, it's a good thing when you can make it work. But when you don't have the time to babysit, you can lose out.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I'm pretty sure R availability doesn't necessarily equate to CPU availability.

PV_Premier

Agents are not supposed to clear CPUs into open R space. CPUs do automatically clear into R, but the availability of R does not necessarily mean that CPU is running abnormally (at least that is what we believe at this point given the available information). However, waitlisted instruments should automatically clear when R>0. That is what this thread is about.


Most of us, I'm sure you included, would rather have a system that can be trusted to work correctly than a system that allows rampant queue-jumping by those who happen to find R open and have the ability to act immediately on it, regardless of the population size who knows about and/or is able to act on the current loophole.

This is why I like the AS system. The visibility is there for the upgrade bucket like on UA, but the system works as advertised. I never worry about whether or not my upgrade will process correctly, because I don't have any evidence that I or anyone else I know have been screwed in the past. Right now UA is saying that waitlisted upgrades clear into open R automatically, but the abundance of evidence suggests this is patently false. I'd be 110% supportive of UA continuing to show R, but making their system work as advertised, even if my GPU/RPU clearance rate goes down by not being able to force waitlisted upgrades into open R space.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I agree, but knowing about the system flaw and how to (depending on your viewpoint) play or compensate for it is better than not knowing about it. Those at a disadvantage are those who don't know about it. Fixing the system will probably result in fewer upgrades for those who play/compensate for it. Those people would probably not want the flaw to be fixed if they knew they were receiving more upgrades than they should.

Plenty of posts in this forum of people happy they called in when they saw R available and got agent to clear them into it. Those same people might be have sat in coach had the system flaw not existed. I wonder how many of those would (honestly) admit that they'd have rather sat in coach and let the people they bypassed sit in front.

The best/fairest answer is fix the system and let the chips fall as they should.

eyuro

I bought a one way ticket JFK-HKG via SFO around Sep 12th for travel this Monday in W class. I placed myself on the wait list at time of purchase. At that time the seat map had only about 15 of 52 seats occupied.
As time went by, seats filled up as one would expect. About 2 weeks ago there were still 19 seats showing as empty and the bucket was still showing J9 Z9 and P5. I was still hopeful! Last week, over a weekend, both flights sold out in J. As a precaution i booked a reward seat on the CX non-stop from ORD as that was the only reward seat I could find.
Yesterday I called a UA agent to ask what they thought my chances were. I asked if he thought it would help if I switched to the non-stop, paying the change fee, as that one was still showing J9. He was very helpful even going as far as checking the wait list totals. (Is that even possible?) He said that there were more people, 1K's, on the list than available seats. I told him thank you and hung up.
Today in the morning I check again and there is RN1! I call up the agent and pay the fee and upgrade. I even then cancelled my reward return ticket, turning it into a round trip and cleared into R using miles and a co-pay.
What happened to the large wait list???

Kacee

You jumped it.

Upgrade Still Waitlisted Even Though R Class Available

eyuro

I understand jumping when I was wait listed for the flight I jumped. I also am aware that within 24 hours of flight time there appears an R1 in the bucket, and I've grabbed that before. Here we are +5 days out, and by the UA phone agents own admission there have to be countless people including 1K's on the list, why offer R seats? Why wouldn't they clear the first guy on the list? Am I supposed to feel bad doing this?

Starman

Because they don't have the IT ability to do this automatically when R space opens, but instead must wait for some mysterious, 20th century process to run its course in due time.

Kacee

Why do you think the answer is any different at T-5 days vs. T-24 hours?

PV_Premier

Used this to my coworkers advantage this morning. He was confirmed in BF in advance but due to a visa issue had to change and rebook his flight. Lost the upgrade. This morning on his reissued ticket R1 with at least 5 revenue pax on the list. I notified him of the R1, and he called in and got the seat (no status, miles and $$ upgrade).

1k650

It is amazing that UA is still persisting with this broken system so long after the merger. I must say I have benefited from it too but do not know how many time I have lost. I would much rather have a fair system.

Starman

Others can (and undoubtedly will!) correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was a conscious, affirmative decision on CO's part to stick with CO software systems when they took over UA. So it's not an issue of "integrating things after the merger" -- this is the way CO decided that the new airline was going to be.

channa

Yes, and these bugs have plagued CO for well over a decade, and CO never did anything about them. I don't know why people think that something that's been going on with CO since the 1990's is going to all of a sudden be fixed because the name changed to "United."

Kacee

Well they have "fixed" some stuff, like queue jumping on ps. Of course the solution was just to just stop opening R . . . .

cfischer

My flight Sunday morning cleared this a.m. without R ever opening up. It had 2 F seats and I had an EF alert for P which never notified ... when I checked the reservation I saw the RPU cleared and I was in F with F down to 1 ... only one listed on the UG list .
Hope this is yet another sign they are fixing the broken system.