zeus2120

Does anyone have experience with a situation where Premium Plus is oversold with a wide open J cabin? Flying to LHR in the next couple of days and PP is available for an upgrade even though it's booked full. There are 17 Polaris seats open which has me wondering -- how does UA choose which overbooked PP passengers get upgraded to an open J seat? Highest Fare? Highest status? I'm considering a gamble to purchase into the oversold PP cabin to have a shot in the dark at a "free" J upgrade. Unlikely, I know. But there's currently 0 passengers on either upgrade lists besides NRSA travelers so perhaps I'd have a chance?

WineCountryUA

First, all the PremPlus customers on the upgrade waitlist will be upgrade. Zero upgraders would be highly unusual. As for op-ups, if still needed, UA generally uses status.
It is common for paying customers to be on both Polaris and PremPlus lists.

How are you determining Polaris is wide open? What is the J sale inventory number?
Seatmaps can be a very unreliable measure of true open seats.

How are you determining PremPlus is oversold?

Is this BOS-LHR?

VRFast

If it's BOS-LHR the upgrade lists are pretty slim and seats are plentiful, at least from now until Sunday's flight. PP is available too. Monday's flight is even better
Source: flight status in the UA app.

zeus2120

UA 934 on 10/21. Zero upgrades for PP and zero upgrades for J. (Just standbys). App shows PP "Full" and J booked 29/46.

Kmxu

I would purchase a W class ticket and use 40 PPs to upgrade to Polaris instantly. You will give UA far less money (compared to Premium+) and guarantee a Polaris seat.

findark

PE only over by 1 right now.

If they do need to op-up (after running all supported upgrades), it is generally same order as it would be for a CPU: status and fare class. However, there's a little bit of randomness since it is a semi-manual process.

WineCountryUA

Wow -- as the OP reports a very empty flight, PZ9

At least one customer recently upgraded, FOX, T. and just 1, GRA, J., on the waitlist presently -- even with PZ9
PremPlus oversell is minimal but with 1K status a chance of an op-up

UA14 the evening flight is J4, which is more normal

jsloan

With just one seat oversold, all it would take is one no-show, or one passenger seated in PE to take a buy-up, to even up the numbers are remove the need for an op-up.

I agree with Kmxu -- apply PlusPoints and be done with it.

zeus2120

My premium plus DOD upgrade is only $180 -- and on any other plane I'd take that. But on the high j 67, PP only offers a seat that is 0.2 inches wider than an E+ seat which doesn't make it worth it for me. Kinda interested though for the chance of an oversell. I can't apply plus points as my fare is below W. Polaris DOD upgrade is $599.

Lux Flyer

Can do the PP upgrade for $180 to put you in O/A/R (likely R at that price) and then apply the PlusPoints, which since you're now a revenue ticket in premium plus only requires 30 plus points to go to J.

zeus2120

I did not even think of that!!! Thank you -- great idea!

WineCountryUA

Actually, you can, but for sub-W fares it is 2x PlusPoints, 80.

zeus2120

Learning today! I don't have 160 PlusPoints (two of us) but I do have 60. Question is -- is +$180 & 30 PlusPoints per person a better value than a direct Polaris upgrade of $599? Seems "cheap" for TATL. But daytime flight I guess makes it worth a little less.

Lux Flyer

Depends how flexible your travel is to allow you to find space you can use them on. It's no secret if you read these forums that many people have a hard time applying them to the specific routes/times they want. It's also no secret that if you're flexible it's possible to find flights to use them on, I just did a casual search earlier today on 2 routes (TATL and TPAC) in the next 2 weeks and found plenty of seats that would confirm immediately, but maybe the routes they're making easily available on aren't the ones you want to fly. Regardless, the general trend is UA releases PZ space on flights they can't even sell the discounted fares on. By the time you're getting it in advance, it isn't going to be as much value compared to the buyup offer (because that buy up is going to be competitive to try to get people to upgrade). Sure, there may be rare occasions where someone snags a couple thousand dollar worth of redemption value on them if UA happens to not sell 1 or 2 J seats, but those are likely going to be gate clearances. The better "redemption" value you get for them correlates directly with how hard they are to use for that flight. UA is charging a higher fare, because people are willing to pay it, which in turn means less seats that are open for upgrades.

The last thing is, some value is better than no value., I would confirm what you can unless you're sure you will be able to use them on a flight in the future for better "redemption value" before they expire.

Hipplewm

Here is my flight to EWR from Londo in a few days - they oversell the back a TON.....