mvogel

Hi - My partner and I are both 1ks flying on Sunday from HNL to LHR via SFO. Our SFO/LHR PlusPoints upgrade cleared when we booked, but now we're sitting at T-69 and our HNL/SFO upgrade has not cleared. We are booked in B class on that route so we're entitled to an "instant" upgrade provided PN class is available. We're also entitled to a PlusPoints upgrade provided PZ is available. Further I thought CPUs for 1ks clear at 96 hours.

The flight shows 13 available seats in First Class and only 14 people on the standby list. My partner and I are numbers 1 and 2.

Given it's less than 96 hours and there are so many open seats, why hasn't the upgrade cleared given there are three routes to the upgrade (instant upgrade, PP upgrade, CPU upgrade).

Anyone have any idea?

PS - I took off the PP upgrade on the segment because I was told the B class instant upgrade was higher priority than a PP upgrade.

emcampbe

don’t know about PN vs. PZ, etc., but most reports for CPU on flights to/from HI in the last year or so are almost all clearing at T-24. Basically, closing upgrade inventory until that time in order to try and sell them. I’m guessing that’s what will happen.

upgrade windows are ‘as early as’, not ‘will clear at’, and also does not open based on last seat availability. You’ll clear in priority sequence when the relevant upgrade bucket opens and they do a sweep (which are also not ‘push’ anymore like pre-merger UA, but are cleared when a sweep is done, generally at the upgrade windows). I’d guess you’ll clear at ~T-24.

kevflyer

While B fare is an 'instant upgrade' which depends on PN availability, upgrading is a manual process, which requires you to constantly monitor for PN availability and then process the upgrade yourself on the website once space opens up.

Although PPs clear automatically, you are correct that B class with instant upgrade has higher priority over PP. Yes you are entitled to both methods but you can't do both at the same time. So while you had PP applied, you also disabled your ability to upgrade via the 'instant' method.

You've done the right thing in removing the PPs. All you need to do now is monitor PN availability, and as soon as space opens up, you can go to reservation on united.com and self-upgrade. And if it does not, you position on the upgrade list will still be higher than everyone who has PP (and CPU) applied.

HNLbasedFlyer

They won't clear the HNL-SFO until T-24, then they will do a massive sweep leaving 2 seats available.

dkc192

In which case it is probably better to be #1 and #2 on the waitlist with PPs, because they will never publish PN for the OP to manually clear their instant upgrades before running the massive sweep at or just inside T-24.

cfischer

doesn't sound like the OP monitored for available PN and UA doesn't make it very obvious either than one needs to do that. Best is to set an alert for 'P' and then check if PN is also available.
I'll obviously clear

Starbase 1K

Oh you’ll get a shot at an upgrade…when UA decides to open up inventory to process that. In the meantime, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait while UA tries to capitalize on FCM.

Unfortunately for you, UA has many times made FC relatively cheap this year and a no brainer for others to “upgrade” for a small fee.

Hipplewm

I have had bad luck with putting PP on a Y/B/M so I always leave them off. For 1K it is even more important because PZ will never be > PN (I guess it could happen - but we all know it won’t.

My data is from when PP first came out, not very recent so they may have the computer glitch worked out when PP would negate your Y/B/M instant upgrade.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

All upgrades on today’s HNL-SFO cleared less than 24 hours before flight time, including this 1K. I’m guessing you’re new to UA Premier status if you think upgrades clear at the windows. They normally do not. For a 1K, UA clearly states upgrades may be processed AS EARLY as 96 hours prior to flight (you can see this on the benefits page yourself). “As early” means exactly that - it can be later. As a 1K who flies out of Honolulu or Maui on UA once a month, I might have cleared at the window once in last 18 months. I’ve been watching the flights - the new normal is about 24-48 hours for 1Ks. Just take a deep breath and relax - it’ll be fine - you’re 1 and 2 on the list.

As a previous poster mentioned, your name doesn’t linger on 3 upgrade lists or something like that waiting for whatever one clears first.

sexykitten7

IIRC the B-UP cannot be processed within 5 days of departure. I think that's to prevent IRROPs pax from getting free first, as I once did

dkc192

To stress to the OP: where you currently are, you have a high chance of not getting the upgrade *if* they run a large upgrade sweep at T-24 down to J2 and do not open PN before they run the sweep. My experience on several Hawaii flights matches that of HNLbasedFlyer: they do run one large sweep down to J2, after which PN might never open.

Your B fare does not put you on a waitlist that will clear as part of that large sweep. As others have posted, you need to manually monitor for open PN and clear yourself into it, and PN might never open up before the sweep as I said above.

Unfortunately, getting back on the waitlist will cost you an additional 20 Plus Points per passenger. If the upgrade mattered to you, and if you have the Plus Points to spare, I'd recommend re-waitlisting yourself and considering this a (somewhat costly) learning experience. It's an awkward situation to be in, partly due to the way that UA has historically run upgrades on Hawaii flights. (Other flights might have upgrades run in a slightly different way, such that there is a window where open PN is published if there are sufficient seats.)

econ

Agree that >90% of the time it seems that they will wait until around T-24 hr to clear upgrades down to the last 2 seats, but I've been on a couple flights earlier this year where they waited closer to departure, including once on this same route last month where they didn't process upgrades until around T-1 hr even though there were around 20 seats still available at the time.

mvogel

Went to check the flight and 2PN seats opened up. When I went into the first record there was a link to an instant upgrade which I confirmed. When I then went into the other record that reservation had been automatically upgraded.