Rosehill28

StuckinITH

My wife and I were on DCA ORD at 11:53 last Sunday, on a 737-700 and we did not clear (separate reservations). On a U fare. Although, at boarding, they asked me to wait but then the Gate Agent realized that somebody had changed to our flight so that person got the upgrade. I had noticed a name appearing ahead of me on the list 5 minutes before boarding. But it was not bad as we were sitting in 21C and 21D and like that I could share the contents of my free Tapas box with my wife.

TWA Guy

Small world! My son and I were almost in 22 C and D but hopped on the 1043 departure :-)

polarbears

I got upgraded at the gate YUL-SFO on Air Canada (!) last month (posting here because the only airline status I have is with United, so as far as I'm concerned it was a CPU :-) ).

Other than the outbound trip a few days before I hadn't flown with AC for years. The ticket was bought a couple weeks before. The flight was sold out so I'm sure there were plenty other *G folks onboard.

RobOnLI

That's an OpUp, not a CPU. This technically belongs in the AC forum under whatever thread they have going for OpUps. But congrats on the upgrade.

-RM

zombietooth

EWR-SNA, last week:
Had 2 no-shows at the gate and got the CPU.

JMBResona

8/25 UA727 SFO-IAD: had given up hope, RPU didn't clear for 3 months, but snagged a seat up front.

Unclear if it's a CPU or an RPU though. Platinum on a Y-fare.

Kmxu

IAD-IAH and IAH-SLC have been cleared at 1K window (T-96 h) for me. Those flights are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, though. IAD-IAH is on lie-flat bed (B767 2-class Polarisd or non-polarised birds). Shorter segment CPUs for SFO-SLC and SLC-LAX were also cleared for me, even after SDC.

StuckinITH

If you waitlisted a RPU, it's an RPU unless that RPU got back into your account. Any way that you can count the RPUs that you still have in your account and know if you ever waitlisted one for this flight? Or maybe you never waitlisted an RPU and then it's a CPU but, then, only you and UA know.

adams828

8/28 IAD-YYZ, Gold on S-fare. Cleared T-48

salisboss

I am a Silver and have the following flights coming up and looking at CPU chance (I actually got one from earlier this year from EWR-TPA so it can happen haha):
10/23 - UA2098 LGA-IAH 11/12 free
10/23 - UA782 IAH-EWR 13/16 free
10/23 - UA1071 EWR-BQN 20/20 free
10/24 - UA1162 BQN-EWR 20/20 free
10/24 - UA508 EWR-IAH 19/20 free
10/24 - UA1254 IAH-LGA 4/8 free

jsloan

It's way too soon to tell. (Are you really flying LGA-IAH-EWR-BQN?) Your chances on EWR-BQN and BQN-EWR are the best of any of them. There's essentially no chance on the New York / Newark to Houston (and back) flights.

salisboss

It's a mileage run. I needed 8000 PQMs for gold this year and it is one the cheapest routes ($350) for that many miles.

tstauck

Nice - enjoy the MR! I did a few this year to hit my 1MM back in June, worth every bit of it

FlyerTalker70

As others have mentioned, it's hard to predict this far out (you'll get a better sense about 48 hours prior to departure). That being said, I thought I'd give you a rough sense of the likelihood given my past experiences on these:

• IAH <-> EWR is highly unlikely since those are flights between 2 UA hubs meaning it'll be loaded with elites who are much higher up on the pecking order than you
• IAH <-> LGA also unlikely since you're going from UA hub to major US city (NYC). I'd put the odds at slightly higher than IAH <-> EWR but don't expect to have much of a chance here
• EWR <-> BQN you have a good chance of those upgrades clearing. As a UA Gold I received notification within 48 hours of departure of my CPU clearing there (BQN -> EWR). In general flights to PR have good odds of getting upgrades clear since PR is a tourist destination (i.e. not many elites travel there regularly) and one which isn't on the list of many leisure travellers (i.e. many travellers I know prefer to go to HNL if stateside or Punta Cana or Havana or something like that).

Generally speaking your best odds for getting a CPU upgrade would be taking an undesirable flight (i.e. red eye) or to a tourist destination (i.e. MCO or SJU) or both (in the case of BQN -> EWR where the flight takes off at 1:45 AM!). In case your wondering, UA's upgrade system works by considering the status of the flyer (i.e. Global Services then 1K then Platinum.., Gold.., Silver, etc.), the fare purchased (i.e. a Y fare is more likely to clear than a G fare), when you purchased the ticket (earlier the better) and when you checked in (earlier the better as well). Some other weird things will happen as well. For instance, suppose the UA you're on is sold out in economy and they need to push some Y passengers into F to free up space, what UA will do is first clear out the GS, 1K, Platinum and Gold customers. Then if there are any *A Gold customers on the flight (i.e. AC SE100K) they'll clear them then they'll get to clearing you. You might think that's unfair, but believe me when you hit Gold it's a nice feature to have ( I've been pushed into J on AC due to this *A wide policy in spite of me being a *A Gold).

Another option to consider is looking at the buy-ups available to you. You can see these offers by going into the Manage Reservations area of your itinerary and clicking upgrade flight. These offers fluctuate from time to time and sometimes can become especially lucrative (i.e. $900 USD upgrade from EWR to NRT anyone?). There have also been reports that these paid upgrades will earn additional PQM which will get you closer to qualifying for the desired UA status. Another option is to use award miles to "buy" the upgrade. However, I wouldn't recommend it for most of those flights since it's hard to justify the miles spent (i.e. 20K) for such a short flight, especially when you consider 30K miles will let you upgrade pretty much any flight on UA.

Hope that provides some insight.

Safe Travels,

James