oskidunker

We have seat assignments. When might they start offering business to people to free up space?

jsloan

At the gate, after (a) selling as many upgrades as possible from P+ to J and (b) processing the upgrade list from P+ to J.

threecap

Usually that means there are seats available in first that will get filled by pluspoint/mileage upgraders, and/or "blocked" seats in first on the upgrade list to account for the overage. If your flight is within 48 hours you can check that. You can also check the app/website for buy-up offers.

lincolnjkc

How have you come to this determination and how far in advance is your flight?

Unless it's significantly over or departure is imminent the chances of the problem fixing itself (either through the PP process or just general no-shows/cancellations, etc.) is pretty high. I can't remember the last time I had an oversell actually be an oversell at departure.

jsloan

Oversale in Premium Plus is actually pretty common; When J is wide open, UA will sell extra P+ seats knowing that they'll end up seating them in J.

ani90

The good thing is that you have seat assignment. If you don't then other possibility is you can end up downgraded to E if they end up with the J cabin filled for whatever reason (cash upgrades from E, accommodating displaced passengers from other flights, last minute booking etc).

mahasamatman

Having a seat assignment does not protect you from these events. If you're lower on the status/fare list and they need the space, you will be bumped whether you have a seat assignment or not.

jsloan

None of the things you've listed would be concerns.

When PE is oversold, UA automatically blocks that number of seats from J (i.e, if they're oversold by 6, they block 6 J seats). They can't be used for cash upgrades, displaced passengers from other flights, or last minute bookings.

It's not something to stress over.

WineCountryUA

For free, as in op-up, very unlikely -- as mentioned UA will try to induce people to purchase upgrades and everyone on the upgrade waitlist will be cleared before op-ups occur. UA overbooks with those factors in mind. Usually those two approach will handle the overbooked.

UA policy is if you have a seat assignment you will have priority over those without a seat assignment. So while it could happen it is less likely to happen to those with seat assignments.

ani90

I am not sure this is entirely correct. I have experienced such a downgrade as I am sure many others have.
If you have a seat assignment you are relatively protected. Unlikely they will downgrade someone with a seat assignment to accommodate a person without one. Also not necessarily by fare class - when happened to me we were party of two on paid PE and there were cleared upgrades from Y to PE.

jsloan

It is correct. That's not to say that downgrades never occur, but they don't occur for the reasons that you've stated.

It is trivially easy to see -- look for a flight where PE is oversold and you'll see the number of blocked J seats.

The primary way that this would happen is if there were an equipment swap to something with less capacity.

Upgrading Y->PE and buying PE; either way you're in PE.

Kacee

Exactly. This is not an unplanned equipment swap, resulting in unanticipated displacement of premium cabin pax; this is a deliberate oversell, which UA makes specific provision for by blocking J seats.

creaturecomforts

I am a million miler and I have rarely seen Op Reason Upgrades - UA clears waitlists first into premium cabins and if overbooked, they will re-accommodate with compensation, is what I believe they will do most times. Also, clearing waitlists into Biz are done by status, booking code, etc. priority and Coach pax with higher status will trump P+ Pax in a higher fare seat.

jsloan

You are mistaken. Op-ups from P+ to J are common. Why would they give someone money to take another flight when they could put them into J instead? It makes no sense.

You're conflating several things.

First of all, coach passengers with higher status will not trump P+ passengers who are upgrading, except that coach passengers waitlisted with instruments from a Global Services account will be ahead of P+ passengers with instruments from any other account.

Second, they will absolutely clear an op-up from an oversold cabin before upgrading someone from coach into that seat. You're suggesting that they would upgrade somebody from Y to J and then downgrade somebody from P+ to Y. That's not consistent with policy. Again, UA has to hand out money if they downgrade someone. Therefore, they try to avoid doing it.

Do not confuse the regular upgrade list with the procedures to clear an oversale. They're different.

WineCountryUA

Common???
Between clearing the upgrade list and cash upgrades, there have only occasionally FT reports of op-ups, common?
I define common as more likely to happen than not.