FlyerBeek

The upgrade clearing without receiving a P alert not necessarily new (or a sign the system is being fixed). EF's alerts run in batches, so it's certainly possible that there was P/R inventory available without receiving the alert. It's also possible the upgrade was cleared into R (either manually or in a batch process) without R inventory being available for public viewing. I've seen both in the past.

What is encouraging, in my opinion, is that the RPU cleared with only F2 remaining approx. T-2 days prior. I've had many RPU waitlisted flights recently between F3-F1 where the remaining F seats go the lowball TODs instead of elites waitlisted with an instrument-supported upgrade. Who knows whether is was a one-off or represents an actual change.

YMMV.

-FlyerBeek

mahasamatman

Doubtful. It's more likely that the flight went to R1, then you immediately (before EF took a look) got the upgrade and it returned to R0. Unless you were random enough to look in that tin span of time, you would just never see the R1.

cfischer

all of this is possible. If they timely assign R to those waitlisted on instruments that works for me.

channa

Timely and consistently, and then they've fixed it.

But for all you know, it could have been out there for hours.

The only way we'll know it's fixed is if we stop finding anomalies where R>0 and the waitlist has people on it.

cfischer

I checked maybe 2 hours earlier and it was F2. At the 48 hr mark the RPU cleared.

RobOnLI

Just had a domestic RPU-applied upgrade clear overnight. Yesterday the flight went to F6...P5PN4 with R still zero. Overnight I cleared because I looked this morning and the flight was F5...P4PN3 with R=0. I checked my reservation just to see how things looked and low & behold I was the one upgraded who took that "F" seat. No email from United about the waitlist clearing.

-RM

cfischer

I didn't get an Email either. Maybe they are working on the system. Definitely looks like things are improving for the last 3 RPU/GPU supported segments.

docbert

Because the first guy on the lists ticket is out of sync. The system knows better than to screw with an out-of-sync ticket, so it basically puts the upgrade process on hold.

When the ticket is put back into sync (either by a batch process, or manually by an agent), the upgrade will be processed for that same person given they are still first on the list.

Of course, this presumes that nobody has jumped the queue and taken the upgrade in the interim...

Given that an upgrade will frequently put the ticket out of sync and require it to be re-issued, something like having 2 upgrade available in quick succession can easily trigger this problem.

I'm not sure why so many people have trouble understanding this part of the process. If your upgrade cleared into R, then R space opened up - it's as simple as that. Within a very short period (potentially seconds) of R becoming available, anyone waitlisted for R on that flight will claim it, and it'll be back to R0. Even if you sat there clicking "refresh" on the website every few seconds, odds are you would never have seen it change from R0 - but that doesn't mean that it didn't go from R0 -> R2 -> R1 (your upgrade cleared) -> R0 (someone elses upgrade cleared) in the interim.

There are certain routes where ever seeing R>0 is unusual (eg, the flights to SYD), but yet plenty of people get upgraded on those flights. And here's something a lot of people don't think about - NOT having R>0 has it's advantages. If R>0 too far in advance, then it allows people using miles/copay to get the upgrades. It upgrades are released closer to the day of flight, then higher status flyers have a better chance of getting the upgrades with GPU/RPU (or even CPUs) as they will be higher up the list based on status.

If you're a low status flyer that books months in advance, that's a bad thing. If you're a high-status flyer that books a week or two out, that's a good thing. My (waitlist-cleared) upgrades to SYD this week and back next week which were only booked a week or two ago attest to that!

WineCountryUA

I have read this since the early days of the merger and it makes sense but does anyone really have recent experiences supporting this? Such as getting their ticker re-sync'ed and then the upgrade clearing?? Or any agent denying queue skipping and re-sync'ing the other guy's ticket? or ????

channa

The ticket sync issue was an issue with CO and EUA (which is now UA and CPU). I don't believe it applies to waitlisted upgrades, as that's a different process.

In fact, a waitlist often puts a record out of sync after it clears. EUA has an auto-resync process.

docbert

Not all that recent, but that's what an agent described to me as occurring about 2 years ago.

I forget the exact details, but it was something like flying SFO-SYD-MEL. SFO-SYD cleared and the ticket was out of sync as a result (according to the website - the usual "please call reservations" message). SYD-MEL hadn't cleared, but was showing R>0.

By the time I hung up both legs were in R, and the ticket was in sync. I don't know/recall how much of that was done by the agent and how much happened automatically, but based on what I was told it would have all happened without manual intervention if left to it's own devices - but it might have taken a day or two.

nowinyow

You folks with UA have NO idea how good you have it when one's airline of choice has far, far worse IT capability than UA!

Gavin Peters

I currently have a reservation on Nov 6th, BOS-UA749-IAH-UA1249-SJC.

If you search, UA1249 has R=1. But full journey availability shows R=0. That's true even if you do a search for a new reservation from BOS-SJC, even using "mileageplus upgrade awards", it doesn't show UA1249 as upgradable.

I can't conceive of how this happens. Are upgrades processed per journey or per segment? I don't get it.

channa

per segment. IAH-SJC should clear immediately.

WineCountryUA

As channa mentions, upgrades are by segments, but the standard displayed itin fare availability is calculated based on the lowest availability and this is true for R also.

for more see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...st-flight.html
or
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...h-flights.html