GoSh4rks

Thought that my experience on the Jan 2 UA 2006 EWR-SFO might be interesting to discuss, as I’m not really sure what happened here or if I shortcutted the system.

Background: Booked on one PNR with myself as 1k, and 4 no-status companions, Fare class is YN due to an X award that was forced onto UA metal after LH cancelled a segment. I SDC’ed the entire group onto this flight 24 hours before. 787-9

T-8h: J is booked around 20/48, with 12 blocked. About 10 people on the upgrade list
T-3ish: J is now 25 blocked. At this point I start wondering if op-ups could come into play for my group. Still showing seats available for purchase in y and J. May have been Y9/J9 and some lower fare classes as well. Also, around this time, I go look at my travel options in the app and see that they are offering to join the volunteer list. I select the max amount ($800) for all flight options (the next 3 hourly flights), for all passengers.
T-1.5 or so: flight goes to gate control and J now shows full and checked in full. Flight is “full” in both J and Y in flight status, but shows J3, PZ3, Y0.
T-1.25: I ask the gate agent if any volunteers are needed. He says he’s fine right now. I’m mainly asking to see if I can trigger an op-up.
T-1: I notice my formerly 1 pnr for 5 pax has been split into 2. I’m by myself, and everyone else is on the other one. Their boarding passes are updated to group 3. I then go into travel options out of curiosity and am immediately greeted with a confirmed VDB offer of $600 voucher or 30k miles to take either the 8pm, 9pm, or 10pm flights. Original flight leaves at 6pm. I immediately take the offer and get in an exit row window on the 8pm. No offer for the rest of the group.

Shortly after I take the offer, I notice a bunch of people get called up to the podium for new J boarding passes, mainly coming from the gs/1k preboarders. Can only assume that these are op-ups as I’m seeing the J cabin seat map slowly fill up.

Flight eventually goes out with the upgrade screen showing full, but I see 5 empties on the seat map in J and Y is full. It looks like the flight took standby pax.

So I’m now sitting at home wondering if I was in the process of getting an op-up but somehow jumped out of that and got a VDB instead that may or may not have been needed. Or if something else is at play here - where would a 1k in YN sit on the op-up list? Does award travel qualify?

Also, interesting that they split the PNR 4/1 without me doing anything.

Last interesting thing - I was hanging around the gate area through the conclusion of boarding and saw a family of 4 get offloaded as they were late to the gate, but showed up immediately after that and were actually put back onto the flight. (the gate agents were quite vocal in saying to offload them and then, put them back on). After they boarded, I heard the GA say that she did it because of the two little kids.

mduell

Isn't that just CPUs clearing at the gate?
No need for an op-up when you have elites entitled to space-available upgrades...

Sure, you volunteered for a VDB, and they needed to bump someone, so you were removed from CPU or op-up consideration at that point.

Award travel is CPU eligible (in theory) if you book with the right MP credit card(s).

AirbusFan2B

You mean instrument upgrades as route not CPU’able.

GoSh4rks

Yup, this was an instrument flight. The upgrade list only had about 10 people on it. Also, there was no mention of volunteers needed at the gate at all. I was there the entire time from flight opening to past departure. I wouldn’t have even known about it had I not checked the PNR in the app.

aacharya

This seems really odd, and indeed looks like the GA/computer was going to split you off for an op-up.

Often1

As it turned out, OP jumped too soon. But, he could not have known that. Could just as easily have been that he did not take the VDB offer, someone else did, and OP did not get the OpUp.

It is more than likely on that particular flight that there were plenty of people awaiting an instrument UG, so very little reason to OpUp someone when the Y seat can be created by UA getting a cert off its books.

Unless one has access to UA's proprietary data, there is no better or worse strategy and that is entirely purposeful on UA's part.

GoSh4rks

There were only 10 people or so on the upgrade list. The flight was showing 25 blocked.