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 6, 2019, 1:10 am
#121
Join Date: Jan 2018
Programs: UA LT GS | UA LT Club | Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 1,250
2. I'm loving your comment! Those 320 +P you're burning won't go to some soccer team in the form 16 RPUs.
I'm liking the feel of this new program. I predict many will exhaust their +P well before year-end, every year!
Last edited by spartacusmcfly; Dec 6, 2019 at 5:15 am
Dec 6, 2019, 5:23 am
#122
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,422
Look at all of the statements about people being unable to clear instruments, or having tons of points expiring. The idea that anyone's upgrades were being materially hurt by non-status passengers on RPUs is, and has always been, pure fantasy. Sure, that might have happened in some one-off case, and it might still happen for members who are generating $100K+ PQP on all-J purchases. But it never moved the needle, and it still won't.
Dec 6, 2019, 5:44 am
#123
Join Date: Jan 2018
Programs: UA LT GS | UA LT Club | Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 1,250
1. The absurd number of RPUs accumulated by GS/1Ks. These will be completely flushed from the system by Feb 1, 2020.
2. Low spend 1Ks sucking up demand for GPUs. These folks were recently handed their eviction notice and will be completely flushed from the 'upgrade eligible ranks' by Feb 1, 2021.
The days of folks handing out upgrades to friend/colleagues like breath mints are over. Most folks won't earn over 400 +P in a single year and they'll guard them closely!
God bless Kirby. Well executed plan to bring 'upgrade usability' back to the UA world!
Dec 6, 2019, 5:52 am
#124
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,422
People are not losing out on upgrade space because of GSes giving upgrades to softball teams. People are losing out on upgrades because UA is selling the seats. Thet changes that they've made are designed to get them to sell more seats, not less. Therefore, there will be less upgrade availability, overall, than there has been in the past.
If anyone at UA expected these changes to be revenue-negative, they'd never have seen the light of day.
Dec 6, 2019, 5:54 am
#125
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AVP & PEK
Programs: UA 1K 1.9MM
Posts: 6,362
Dec 6, 2019, 5:59 am
#126
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,422
The only way that I expect you'd see upgrade rates rise meaningfully is if UA found that they were hemorrhaging HVFs. Absolutely none of the available data suggests that: they wouldn't be moving to a spend-based system with 18K/24K thresholds if they losing a bunch of revenue from malcontent 1Ks.
Dec 6, 2019, 6:17 am
#127
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: DL Gold, UA nothing (ex-GS), Marriott lifetime Plat, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 920
99.999% sure, yes, starting with the fact that I haven't seen any reports of extremely steep numbers of points for open PZ space yet today.
This is the first report that I've seen. I can't verify it, though, since I haven't re-qualified for next year.
140 is about what than I expected (I figured 120 or 160). And seeing it with PN0 would dispel the notion that it's limited to access to PN inventory; to me, that suggests that ZN is likely the bucket of interest.
This is the first report that I've seen. I can't verify it, though, since I haven't re-qualified for next year.
140 is about what than I expected (I figured 120 or 160). And seeing it with PN0 would dispel the notion that it's limited to access to PN inventory; to me, that suggests that ZN is likely the bucket of interest.
Dec 6, 2019, 6:20 am
#128
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,422
Dec 6, 2019, 7:39 am
#129
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,425
But do you get banned by their DDOS screen every five searches too? 
Yeah, it prevents you from setting an EF alert for upgrade space or otherwise scraping the GDS for upgrade statistics.
Yeah, it prevents you from setting an EF alert for upgrade space or otherwise scraping the GDS for upgrade statistics.
Last edited by findark; Dec 6, 2019 at 8:03 am
Dec 6, 2019, 7:53 am
#130
Join Date: Feb 2015
Programs: united
Posts: 1,636
1. Kirby loving your comment! He gets $18-$24K from you in exchange for 2 Polaris seats to SIN. Your entire annual allocation of +P is consumed!
2. I'm loving your comment! Those 320 +P you're burning won't go to some soccer team in the form 16 RPUs.
I'm liking the feel of this new program. I predict many will exhaust their +P well before year-end, every year!
2. I'm loving your comment! Those 320 +P you're burning won't go to some soccer team in the form 16 RPUs.
I'm liking the feel of this new program. I predict many will exhaust their +P well before year-end, every year!
Dec 6, 2019, 8:25 am
#131
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Silicon wasteland
Programs: UA 1KMM
Posts: 1,381
It only reduces the amount of UG given *before* T-60. The same seats now filled with upgraders will still be empty, and then assigned at the gate to be cleared off the waitlist -- unless the suggestion is the waitlist *will not* be cleared.
Without processing UG prior to the gate, perhaps there will be lower business fare buckets open longer, barring that, how does United sell more seats vs. giving them away as the doors close? Is the theory that folks will splurge on HOD or the like?
Dec 6, 2019, 8:32 am
#132
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,484
That's not really a theory, it's a demonstrated (and by UA, desired) consequence of restricting advance upgrades. UA has increasingly been holding back advance CPUs in order incent sell buy-ups. The same pattern is increasingly seen on long-haul international as well.
Dec 6, 2019, 8:35 am
#133
Join Date: Feb 2015
Programs: united
Posts: 1,636
TOD upgrades are often a great bargain. If I had a bunch of PP's I would probably skip the waitlist occasionally when I absolutely couldn't risk being in Y and buy TOD's most of the time.
Dec 6, 2019, 9:28 am
#134
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: HNL
Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,447
TOD's are the best thing to ever happen on the HNL-SFO route. Instead of very rarely sitting up front on a CPU or very rarely clearing a RPU or GPU the buyup's to sit up front a lie flat generally run $310, which is modest in my opinion and cheaper than buying F outright. Instead of having my 6 GPU's and 2 RPU's expire since I can't ever get them to clear on the route I fly - I'll save them for my occasional HNL-EWR flights to skip the waitlist.
Just having an opportunity to use these points where they would otherwise expire is good, at least for me.