I like this approach. If seating conditions and loads permit, I'll try this on my Maui return first week of September (followed by the 14 quarantine on arrival.....unless something can be developed with the new saliva test on arrival).

The sweep down to J2 occurred at T-24 h exactly for my flight. I used a friend’s PlusPoints for this upgrade. So, it is not CPU.

Agree, if I didn't get the upgrade at T24 check-in then it was generally not until T1hr but not always. Last several upgrades have been all over the place within T24. .

Happy to see both Thursday and both Friday flights clear today.

CPUs are the only thing keeping me away from 100% WN this year (and schedule).

Booked a connecting flight yesterday, less than 48 hours before departure. First outbound leg is J8PZ0 so didn't expect the upgrade. Second leg is J5...IN4 and the upgrade processed overnight. So UA still seems to no longer be waiting for the 24/48/72/96 hour marks to run the CPU system. It appears to be running several times a day.

Return flights are actually the same inventory (J8PZ0 and J5IN4) so I expect one of those legs to clear at the 96 hour mark which will hit later today.

-RM

I just noticed a flight on Sunday go down to J2 exactly at 72 hours. I know there’s reports of 24 hours but I just saw it go from J3 to J2 at 72 hours..

Is there anywhere to see the upgrade list any longer in advance? I’m so rusty with this stuff these days since not flying regularly

Changed your phone clock
 

Change your phone date to your travel date and then check your flight status,

Oh yeah, I forgot that. See it’s been such a long time :-) thanks for the tip

My recent “return to flying” CPU experiences:

5/5, all clearing at 24 hours out as Platinum.

8/8 ORD-LAX
8/10 LAX-ORD
8/19 ORD-EWR
8/24 EWR-ORD
8/29 ORD-ABQ

Also paid $699 at check in to upgrade from Premium Plus to Polaris EWR-MUN on 8/19. 12 passengers in Polaris.

Blocked Seats for Sale
 

I just boarded a flight, was number 1 on the upgrade list, showing 10/12 on the app. Gate agent said that seats were blocked, but the app still offered a $149 fee upgrade, and going through the booking process still showed seats for sale (P2 PZ2).

Is it standard now to block seats for CPUs while keeping them unblocked for paid upgrades/bookings?

As a platinum with my +1:

DTW-ORD cleared shortly after t-72
ORD-DCA - did not clear (although there is only 6 seats on the E170).
IAD-EWR on a 320, cleared at T-72. This was a bit interesting, about 8 names showed up on the ug list as upgraded but we went out with only 7/12 seats - 2 of the upgrades were UA crew
EWR-DTW - cleared shortly after T-72.

All my flights have been really empty so it wouldn’t have mattered to us that much.

Finally got back onto a UA flight about 2 weeks ago. I was supposed to fly 1 way EWR-MCO and drive back a car. The original outbound cleared as soon as it was supposed to. Ended up buying a return as the car was not ready on the lie flat 757 to EWR and cleared 1 minute after purchase. Went down again last week and picked the 757 flights again. I bought a RT for $98 hoping not to need the return because the car would be ready. Cleared on the way down and on the unused return. $98 for a RT EWR-MCO in lie flat Polaris seats is something that I can get used to! When I called up to tell them to put the return to EWR on ice, I told them to hold the UG for my next trip to HK. We both laughed.

What aircraft was assigned? Some do have two blocked seats in F, but some do not.

If the app said 10/12 rather than Full/12, I would guess the agent made a mistake. When seats are actually blocked, the app says something like 9(+2 blocked)/12 or Full/12 (because 10+2=12=Full). However, I can't really blame the agent for being confused, since there isn't a very clear logic that I can see.

It was an A319. I have a feeling this is just an IT issue, it just seemed strange seeing upgrades and F fares for sale after being told that the remaining seats were blocked. I imagine that I would have been in a “blocked” seat had I paid up.

Actually had this happen for the first time on a flight last week. Booked BWI-IAH-xxx. BWI-IAH was operated with an A320 and FC never showed two seats blocked in inventory. They were going to sell the flight full. The same exact thing was happening on the same approx. time departure to DEN that day. On the train to BWI I notice the IAH flight is departing on time but arriving one hour late making my connection 18 minutes. (The flight had to go around Hurricane Laura at the time). So at the check-in desk I asked about moving to the DEN flight while keeping my upgrade. The agent typed a few keys and viola I had an FC ticket but no seat assignment. He originally told me it would be assigned at the gate but then he spoke to the lead agent and got a seat unblocked for me. But it was not easy and I'm pretty sure they talked about downgrading me several times. I heard the agent helping me tell the guy, "Yes, he's Premier positive space." I'm not honestly sure why he considered me positive space since I was booked in "S" class originally and got CPU'd to PZ. I was assigned 1E which is a blocked seat on the Airbii planes. The person sitting next to me was clearly not pleased but the FA couldn't care less. Maybe positive space in this case meant I was on a revenue ticket and not an award.

I believe I read it's an F.A. call on whether 1B/1E get assigned. The FA wasn't even on the ground yet so the lead check-in agent made the call to unblock the seat. I'll also note 1B was never unblocked and the flight went out 11/11 with a list about 8 deep.

So, bottom line, BWI flights are the only ones I have seen to date that do not have the automatic blocking of seats in FC. And I don't have a large enough data sample to say whether it's all flights or limited to specific flights or days of the week. My next flights coming up already show the appropriate blocked seats (1 for E175 and 2 for mainline jets).

-RM