Upgraded EWR-PBI on 11/23 at T+4. Upgraded PBI-EWR on 11/27 at the gate.
It has been many years since I was upgraded in or out of PBI during a cool month.

CPU on Award ticket at Check-in x 2
(I’m 1K; companion on same itinerary has no status)
LAX-CUN
11/26/20

I just cannot figure this system out and it's frustrating. I'm #1 of 2 for CPU on a flight booked to 1 of 12! No CPUs given at all. Flight is now less than 48 hours out so I'll be waiting for the 24 hour sweep. Sure, I'm going to get it. Why the heck is United withholding advanced CPU when the cabin is booked like this? Note: economy showing less than 30% occupied. I've been booked on this flight long before the 96 hour CPU window.

-RM

Man, I am seeing a lot of this. My last flight from LAX-EWR had 6 empty at boarding and only 1 was UG'd off the list. I know the FAs on this route pretty well and they told me that there were 3 last-minute purchases, and they boarded very late (15 minutes prior to door close). The P-fare on this flight has been really cheap lately, and you can almost always find lots of last-minute availability.

My question to you is why you are stressed by the possibility of getting a warm sandwich in First Class vs. a lie-flat economy experience with an empty stomach.
Seriously, I did get upgrades at 1K windows a few times (for EWR-ORF). When economy cabin is oversold, the CPU just won’t run.
Good luck.

12/1 OGG-SFO redeye. Polarized 772 swapped to 773. 23 upgrades to lie-flats at ~T-24, of which at least 17 were CPUs. I was #6 on list and got CPU, but don't know if others ahead were GSs and higher 1Ks getting CPUs or some were using points/miles. One seat left and only 2 rev passengers still on waitlist. I'm pretty sure someone will buy up to the last seat.

It's a regional jet - no lie flat in economy on this one :) Like I mentioned, coach is 30% full (roughly). I know United withholds CPU in oversells but not when the whole plane is barely booked.

-RM

I thought they've been intermittently holding back on RJ upgrades for over a year. Still not sure why, though. It almost seems that, if the flight is very empty, they are more likely to hold CPU.

24 seats were available in F SFO-OGG and they didn't release any until T-24. UA's definitely not running sweeps early, regardless of plane type.

The new pandemic standard is to hold all CPU until T-24h. But what I meant by 'holding back on RJ upgrades', was that they are not running any upgrades until something like T-3h at the earliest for RJ flights.

Broadly speaking, the CPU taxonomy I have observed is

• Push CPU at T-120h, 96h, etc. (very rare since COVID, sometimes still happens with open PN/PZ)
• Push a bunch of CPU at about T-24h (most common since COVID)
• Hold all CPU to gate or just before (RJ only, occasional, ongoing for over a year)

SFO-ORD 781 cleared T23
ORD-DFW 319 cleared T22

DFW-IAH 175 cleared T96
IAH-SFO 739 cleared T96

With 81 flights this year I’m 73 for 75 on CPUs, 3 single cabin ACs, 1 purchased F, and 2 last minute flights with F already full. I have seen UGs as soon as +96 to as late as when scanning on to the plane. I’m flying transcons, regionals, and even a couple of international legs and the only pattern I’ve seen is none. I’m not complaining I’m just scratching my head. My last two flights (EWR-LAS) and return. F was less than 50 % sold at T96 and at 70% at T12 one I was UGed at purchase the next it was at T1 go figure.

That's what I'm seeing. No CPU until T-24.

I'm only flying UA on E75s where I can get a single in F. So I'm either confirming the upgrade in advance with PP (if there's PZ) or buying P fares (which are considerably cheaper, even a day or two prior to departure, than the 7 day economy fares I was buying last year).

Got my first in a while:

11/27
ORD-PSP
EMB-175
Premier Gold on a T Fare

Cleared about 21 hours out with email. They ended up clearing most of the list and we left 12/12. Amusingly RDU-ORD on a 739 wasn't going to clear so I paid $99 for that one.

Ric-iad-mbj-iad-ric
 

Got upgrades for all four (RIC-IAD-MBJ-IAD-RIC) segments at T-96-h window as 1K except for the first segment (at T-88 h). MBJ-IAD has a total of less than 20 passengers, with 8-11 Pax in business cabin.