Apr 25, 2021, 2:48 pm
Last edit by: Lux Flyer
Yes it's a limited time promo in many CPU markets to help people use PlusPoints before they expire at the end of July. For flights through July 31st it should be offering StW when requested at least 2 weeks in advance (as opposed to typical 30 days for international).
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...questions.html
Edit: here's the promo details they will email to you if you ask
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...questions.html
Edit: here's the promo details they will email to you if you ask
Skip Waitlist
From time to time, our 1K members are able to use additional PlusPoints to receive a confirmed upgrade when traveling on select international long-haul flights.
When Skip Waitlist is available, you’re able to either request an upgrade on our standard waitlist using fewer PlusPoints, or use additional PlusPoints to skip the waitlist and confirm your upgrade right then and there, even if upgrade inventory is closed.
Skip Waitlist availability on international long-haul flights will vary; to be eligible, you must be traveling on an eligible fare*, and request your upgrade at least 30 days from departure
*Eligible fare classes include O, A, and R (for United Premium Plus to United Polaris business); Fare classes Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W (for Economy to United Polaris business); Fare classes Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K, (for Economy to United Premium Plus).
From time to time, our 1K members are able to use additional PlusPoints to receive a confirmed upgrade when traveling on select international long-haul flights.
When Skip Waitlist is available, you’re able to either request an upgrade on our standard waitlist using fewer PlusPoints, or use additional PlusPoints to skip the waitlist and confirm your upgrade right then and there, even if upgrade inventory is closed.
Skip Waitlist availability on international long-haul flights will vary; to be eligible, you must be traveling on an eligible fare*, and request your upgrade at least 30 days from departure
*Eligible fare classes include O, A, and R (for United Premium Plus to United Polaris business); Fare classes Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W (for Economy to United Polaris business); Fare classes Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K, (for Economy to United Premium Plus).
- The earning Premier member may use PlusPoints for upgrade requests for themselves or to sponsor others with the exception of “Skip Waitlist” upgrade requests, for which the earning Premier member must be traveling. Although the earning Premier member may use PlusPoints to request upgrades for others, PlusPoints are not transferable to other members.
- PlusPoints used for Skip Waitlist upgrades are not refundable or transferable to other flights in the event of itinerary changes. A PlusPoints upgrade on a changed itinerary will require additional PlusPoints.
- Skip Waitlist upgrades won’t be available for corporate and agency account travelers who are using upgrades from a Corporate Upgrade Bank account.
When is STW available?
First UA needs to decide the route is eligible and then ZN seems to be the key inventory requirement.
PN or PZ is not required (if they were the regular amount would be sufficient)
Appears to be no special/separate GS STW inventory
STW has generally been limited to deep South America except for a short period in late summer 2021 when some TATL STW was offered, never to be seen again.
New Promo 20 June 2023 till 31 July 2023 (to use expiring PlusPoints?)
So thanks to this promo and playing around with various flights the past day. I think there's enough data for how StW works, with the major deciding factor if it's offered being if UA has "enabled" StW for the market in question.
For StW it needs these 6 things:
Inventory (ZN for business/first; /ON for PremEcon), advance purchase met (30 days international, 14 days CPU market [promo]), eligible fare (W+ to Polaris, non-BE for PP/first), eligible market, and redeeming account is 1k/GS, redeeming account travelling on the PNR.
The StW segment(s) will confirm into PZ/RN, if there are other non-StW eligible segments in the line-of-flight they are considered "paid for" by the StW pricing and will waitlist as part of the request/process as any other waitlisted upgrade.
To summarize the different scenarios:
To find StW
-Redeeming account must be GS/1K and must be travelling on the PNR
-PlusPoints being used to StW must not expire prior to the flight (oldest, eligible PlusPoints taken first)
-Cannot have pending upgrade WL request
To Polaris
-Voluntary: forfeits the upgrade and PlusPoints
-Involuntary: PlusPoints can be redeposited if not able to be accommodated in upgraded cabin
For StW it needs these 6 things:
Inventory (ZN for business/first; /ON for PremEcon), advance purchase met (30 days international, 14 days CPU market [promo]), eligible fare (W+ to Polaris, non-BE for PP/first), eligible market, and redeeming account is 1k/GS, redeeming account travelling on the PNR.
The StW segment(s) will confirm into PZ/RN, if there are other non-StW eligible segments in the line-of-flight they are considered "paid for" by the StW pricing and will waitlist as part of the request/process as any other waitlisted upgrade.
To summarize the different scenarios:
To find StW
-Redeeming account must be GS/1K and must be travelling on the PNR
-PlusPoints being used to StW must not expire prior to the flight (oldest, eligible PlusPoints taken first)
-Cannot have pending upgrade WL request
To Polaris
- ZN inventory
- 30+ days in advance
- Fare class: non-award, published W or higher
- Eligible market (only appears to be GRU, GIG, EZE, SCL, and LIM as of June 2023)
- Cost per person; 140 PlusPoints from economy/110 PlusPoints from premium economy
- Confirms into PZ
- ON inventory (yes, it appears when StW is offered to PremiumPlus, it is effectively allowing last seat inventory)
- 30+ days in advance
- Fare class: any non-BE published revenue fare
- Eligible market (only appears to be GRU, GIG, EZE, SCL, and LIM as of June 2023)
- Cost per person; 70 PlusPoints
- Confirms into RN
- ZN inventory
- 14+ days in advance/flight prior to or on July 31st (effectively July 17th is last day to book)
- Fare class: any non-BE published revenue fare
- Eligible market (basically CPU markets, see promo announcement)
- Cost per person; 70 PlusPoints
- Confirms into PZ
-Voluntary: forfeits the upgrade and PlusPoints
-Involuntary: PlusPoints can be redeposited if not able to be accommodated in upgraded cabin
Skip the waitlist (STW) questions. (New Promo thru 31 July 2023?)
Dec 4, 2019, 12:26 pm
#46
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Dec 4, 2019, 2:25 pm
#47
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Dec 4, 2019, 3:13 pm
#49
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Where is the source for this? GS agent?
Too bad - I was hoping to STW on upcoming travel to Aruba and NRT-EWR next March. I have 760 Plus Points that will expire end of January...
Dec 4, 2019, 4:11 pm
#50
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That makes sense. Starting SWL in Jan + requiring 30 days advance notice allows the absurd number of points sitting in GS accounts to harmlessly expire. Recall, RPUs earning was uncapped in 2018, so GS (and many 1Ks) have tons of RPUs with 1/31/20 expiration dates in their acxounts. Forcing these RPUs (now points) to expire, insures they won't be used to SWL and suck up all the 'upgrade oxygen' across the network in Jan.
Moving forward there will be very few folks across with more than 500 points of annual PlusPoints earnings. The capping of RPUs at 4/yr and making GPUs require $6K of incremental spend should significantly reduce point balances.
Moving forward there will be very few folks across with more than 500 points of annual PlusPoints earnings. The capping of RPUs at 4/yr and making GPUs require $6K of incremental spend should significantly reduce point balances.
Dec 4, 2019, 4:53 pm
#51
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First of all, United does not care about people being unable to use upgrade certificates. It's a feature, not a bug: they give them away as a reward for additional sales, and then they don't have to give the purchaser any additional benefit.
Second, if they did, it makes no sense at all to restrict StW to preserve additional upgrades for others. People will still waitlist their expiring points on every single reservation they have; "suck[ing] up the 'upgrade oxygen'". If they allowed StW, people's balances might decrease to the point where there actually were some upgrades available for other people with smaller balances.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Dec 4, 2019 at 5:10 pm Reason: Discuss the issue, not the poster(s)
Dec 4, 2019, 5:50 pm
#52
Join Date: Jan 2018
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Posts: 1,250
1. Cap RPU earnings at 4 vs the 30-50 for high earning GS/1K
2. Make earning incremental GPUs so costly at $6K
3. Create STW to increase upgrade certainty
4. Restrict GS ability to create J space to +1 vs +unlimited
5. Continue to offer a richer upgrade program than DL/AA
6. Eliminate Intl waiver, effectively stripping 1K status from housands, who flew UA six RTs/yr and used GPUs on four of those RTs, thereby sucking up tons of upgrade space.
UA is trying hard to make the upgrade experience better and I think they're going to succeed.
Dec 4, 2019, 6:47 pm
#53
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UA's ultimate goal here is to enhance UA profits, and these changes can only be properly understood if viewed through that lens. UA is doing what it can to create the illusion of value in the program while they rapidly devalue benefits, at the same time they are dramatically increasing qualification requirements. I certainly give them credit for skillful marketing.
I find it particularly interesting that we don't see skip the waitlist prices or availability at program inception. Those who are already booking 2020 travel on UA in the belief that this benefit will live up to the hype may be in for a rude awakening.
Dec 4, 2019, 7:26 pm
#54
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Dec 4, 2019, 7:46 pm
#55
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Dec 4, 2019, 7:54 pm
#56
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Dec 4, 2019, 8:03 pm
#57
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Nonetheless the lack of transparency is notable. The phrase "buying a pig in a poke" comes to mind.
Dec 4, 2019, 8:04 pm
#58
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I'm sure it was 100% on purpose to not allow soon to be expiring points skip the waitlist. I think they'd take a financial hit taking a large number of premium seats out of the revenue pool with a mad rush of soon to be expired points.
Dec 4, 2019, 9:33 pm
#59
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Texas
Posts: 640
StW as United has implemented -- with capacity controls and 30 day lead times -- doesn't sound like anything related to skipping a waitlist. I wouldn't even consider StW unless it allowed me to upgrade in a case where PZ=0 provided that the cabin wasn't already full. After all, that would be the trade off: spending 2x or more than the value of what used to be a GPU in order to confirm an upgrade.
What concerns me is that StW may only "appear" in cases where availability is slim but non-zero, e.g. PZ <= 2. So what used to cost a GPU to snag one of those last 1 or 2 upgrades could cost double or more in the future.
What concerns me is that StW may only "appear" in cases where availability is slim but non-zero, e.g. PZ <= 2. So what used to cost a GPU to snag one of those last 1 or 2 upgrades could cost double or more in the future.
Dec 4, 2019, 9:51 pm
#60
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The notion that upgrade space is actually plentiful but is being sucked up by other customers is flawed, pure and simple. It's doubly flawed to assume that those customers will then either (a) not travel or (b) fly Economy, and that they won't be replaced by somebody else who is willing to pay for Business. To the extent that UA has done anything, it's reduced the number of instruments that will expire worthless at the end of the year.
No, that isn't how it will work. If PZ > 0, there is no waitlist to skip. The only time you will see StW is when PZ=0. The other necessary conditions haven't been published (or reverse-engineered) yet.