PHL-ORD Cleared at T-96

This bottom of the barrel 1K has been living the GS life the last six months with my name almost invariably at the top of any upgrade list (and getting the seat) :) Too bad it won't last....

Keep spending and flying UA and it will continue for the foreseeable future...

David

Yeah, I'm kinda surprised my experience hasn't diminished in last six weeks with summer's end. Corporate travel doesn't seem to even show hints of re-booting this fall.

IMHO it seems that most corporate travel today is by the 'hands on' type.

Yeah - I did notice a couple of guys with hardhats in hand yesterday boarding my flight IND-ORD. I'm sure oil field op types are still traveling. White collar - not so much.

I don't even attempt / waste instrument upgrades anymore.
I see some business mostly medical related on flights but apart from that mostly people flying that have to fly for family/personal reasons.

ORD-CVG cleared at T-88. Flights are starting to fill but judging by what seats are filling it’s all one offs. There are a lot of E+ seats open.

Happy: got my first 4 day advanced CPU in months on United. Cabin was booked 11/20 and two people got upgraded. Thanks, United. I've been on flights booked 2/20 and still CPU never ran until T-24h.

Annoyed: got a T-24h CPU for my flight tomrw and I was #2 on the list. Five people got upgraded. Of course four get put into window seats and I get the aisle seat because the CPU system fills all seats front to back it seems. So #1 got 1A and as #2 I got 1B. Now I'm stuck in an aisle and I hate the aisle seat. Meanwhile I guarantee at least 1 or 2 of the 4 who were upgraded to window seats don't want them. So hopefully they check-in and move themselves to one of the three remaining aisle seats so I can then move.

United, why the heck can't you retain seat preference on CPU? If a person is already in an aisle or window seat in the back then when the CPU system runs it should find the next available aisle or window based on preference or existing seating. Only if that seat type isn't available should it then be 'best available'.

-RM

I've been getting 1A a lot in last couple of months and would have gladly swapped with you for 1B and the might fine extra 3 or 4 inches of foot room the cut out provides there on a lot of the 737s. I've usually been able to select a better seat, but now the planes are getting fuller. My mid-November out and return flights from Maui are almost fully booked. I guess that's good for UA but the very easy upgrades are on their way out unless UA increases capacity. This summer, all on the list (including NRSAs) were frequently getting upgrades. Two and 3 weeks out from now, there's only one available seat showing outbound and 2 inbound, respectively.

T-24h CPU sweep in waves?
 

I noticed it seems like some flights run the T-24h CPU sweep in waves now, something like
T-24h: upgrade 1.-3.
T-23.6h: upgrade 4.-5.
T-23.4h: upgrade 6.-8. (now down to J2)

I haven't caught a flight where it was happening and I could obsessively watch to see exactly what happens, but the above is approximately what I noticed. It isn't really regular, i.e. the time between mini-sweeps isn't the same, and it also doesn't happen on every flight (some seem to go J2 all at once, soon after T-24h).

Has anyone else seen similar? I posted a little while ago that I wish they'd do something like this, so I'm wondering if they have. Or perhaps it is just some other thing going on (out of sync something or other, etc.).

i noticed the practice of squeezing the toothpaste for IAD-LAX afternoon flight, starting from T-3 hrs. That is, the CPU was cleared slowly.

Nice turn of phrase. I have seen that too on some flights, but I can't figure out why they do it. :o

The Gate agent at LAS yesterday announced that the upgrade list would be processed automatically by the computer 30 mins before flight departure time.
There was 2 seats available in F.
9 on waitlist

Perhaps some queues are processed by computer and some are cleared manually?