mfirst

zombie - then you must love some of the intra-Europe Y seats.....

but, I do tend to agree with you - I have passed on some F upgrades on narrow-bodies if I could get a window with either an empty middle or entire row to myself. More room does not always mean more comfortable.... and I am even passing more and more on the free food and drink, especially like my last F flight in which getting the meal you want is getting harder and harder.... and snack boxes are getting icky'er

Polytonic

I don't mind the seat so much as the tray table. It's a pain to get out, a pain to put away, and it's always tilted forward. The F seat on the retrofitted A320s are also hard as a rock (I think same as the DL product?)

I'm surprised I haven't run into you considering I'm flying this route every 7-10 days. I'm definitely encountering some of the same flight attendants at this point, though I imagine not frequently enough for them to remember me.

Repooc17

Slimline Y as well. 752 used to be my favorite aircraft, especially the generous legroom at (second) exit row seatings. Now I try to avoid 752 whenever possible.

zombietooth

I made Plat on DL last year without even trying because I always book the cheapest routing with the shortest total transit time and that puts me on many different carriers. DL had a lot of good deals/routings for me last year and I even almost got to Diamond. Well, I was looking at my account the other day and noticed that I could select 4 RUCs (Regional Upgrade Certificates) as my "Choice Benefit". Knowing nothing about them, I assumed that they'd be just as tough to use as PPs but I was very wrong. I was able to successfully book flights to a major ski resort airport in the West and get instantly upgraded for a Christmas trip (18 DEC-29 DEC) for 2 pax. UA's coach fares were hundreds more than DL's and, of course, your PPs will never clear.

as219

Wow haven’t seen this in a while:

Last EWR-SAN flight of the night. 12/16 F taken…with the entire waitlist cleared.

nomad420

Will miracles never cease! FINALLY cleared a PP upgrade on of all things tomorrows SFO-KOA AM flight. Cleared at about T36 as well not at the gate per usual. Somewhat surprised but F for whatever reason WAS wide open up until a few days ago. They started selling upgrades at $399 but since I had my usual "hobo first" seat I didn't bite and I am traveling alone. This was the first time they have cleared all year and I have thrown them at every flight I have flown (approx. 12 so far on UA).

slappychasez

Interesting that everyone is finding upgrades difficult. I am batting at 18/40 on upgrades YTD, so a 45% upgrade rate. Only one of those segments I used PP on, so mostly CPU. All of these are domestic segments.

Polytonic

I imagine it varies widely based on travel patterns. According to my boarding pass history, I've ended up with 5Y, 9F, 2J, so that's 9 / 14 (64%) improving to 9 / 12 (75%) if we discount the two flights in January I flew as a Platinum (so up to 75%)

I cleared EWR-ATH and ATH-EWR (though the latter I did have to buy up to PY to move up the waitlist to J), so in all, I am 11 / 16 (68%) across CPUs + PPs which to me seems quite good. I figure my stats will get worse over the summer, and possibly begin to improve again from September onwards.

goodeats21

I've been doing pretty well with CPU, but has mostly been all short hops on E175s. I have some longer trips coming up and thrown PPs on all of them. Will see what clears...I don't have high hopes.

Longboater

Just got upgraded on IAD-SRQ 5/18 forty minutes before boarding as a lowly UA Gold and it’s on an A320! And it’s not like it was on a high fare either, an L fare or the plane being empty as there about two dozen empty seats. I was second on the list of eleven with three seats open, with two upgrades clearing yesterday, most likely both 1Ks. So a rare flight where almost half flying upfront were upgraded via CPU or PP.

exerda

I find leisure-heavy routes are often the easiest to upgrade, but there's always the gamble that UA is offering cheap enough buy-ups to general pax that they can be a challenge. I've had that happen on IAD-MCO and v-v on occasion.

Meanwhile, I have short-haul RJ flights where F was priced competitively (like $100 more than Y), and decided to throw points at the flight just to use a few more rather than see them go to waste... and they never clear. Again, probably because offers are cheap and people take them.

I just want to have a shot at upgrading transcons (rare for me these days, regardless of the flight selected or how far out I book it) and international (usually clears, though gone are the days of seeing routings with confirmable space at booking a few months out).

zombietooth

I just flew MCO-IAD on an B-fare (R-fare international) and with applied PPs. I was 21st on the UG list. UG price was $139- with one seat left, so I took it. The pre-boarding line was huge for GS/1Ks.

Kmxu

Because you lowered your upgrade priority by applying PPs to instant upgrade eligible fare. Without PPs request, you waitlisted for PN space.

zombietooth

I had to remove the PPs to get the buy up offer, and I only moved up six spots to 15 on the UG list. There were a lot of heavy hitters on the list in front of me.
I had automatic alerts set to tell me when PN opened, and it never did across 60 days.

cesco.g

How did you set alerts for PN? (AFAIK it is not a UA.com feature)