Yes, just as you would be today. (The benefit of getting a 'free upgrade' only applies if you have a Polaris-marketed flight on your itinerary).

Unless you have a seemingly endless supply of points, I suspect you won't use them on SAN-LAX; it appears that the interface will let you select which segments you want to waitlist.

Yes, this is undeniably a downgrade from being able to waitlist a longer segment and then add the shorter one(s) only if the longer one opened, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. The common canard, that RPUs were only useful on flights where a CPU would have worked anyway, wasn't far from the truth.

Well I for one am glad UA decided on December 4 as the switch date as I will requalify for 1K on December 5 (2019) for 2020!

On another note I have one remaining GPU out of the nine I had for 2019 and am hoping it gets used in November - fingers crossed. I am not feeling confident that the expiry date of January 31, 2020 will be extended. I may be wrong but I am guessing UA wants to try and stick with the January 31 deadline and this is why they are starting on December 4 and not February 1....

I still like the change as my flights for next year are booked in PP (Premium Plus for clarity on the PP acronym).

And 1ks get at least 8x the number Plus Points as Plats

Nothing more than they already get, which is quite a bit
Neither RPUs or GPUs work today for those airlines.

Today you would lose the RPU or GPU completely in the same circumstances

Agree.

Also, UA could have maintained the status quo and allowed only 1Ks to use upgrades for long haul international travel, but UA intentionally didn’t do that. UA wants to make upgrades harder to get so that their frequent flyers purchase more premium tickets rather than relying on upgrades. It’s why UA is now allowing Plats to upgrade internationally. It’s also why they’re now going to allow 1Ks to confirm (ie, “skip waitlist) into what is likely the current GS UPG inventory (PN if I recall).

I once applied GPU to a friend's reservation from HKG to SFO. She ended up being 20+ on the waitlist. No amount of pluspoints would have changed that.

the skip the waitlist extra points option might have!

Me too. What I read is this seems great news for platinums not so for 1K. There will be more upgrade competition, people waitlisting more than they can clear, and now we will have to pay for the domestic upgrade if the intl leg does not clear. I do short hops to get to a hub so the domestic leg is just not worth it. Though I assume you will be able to request an upgrade just on the intl leg of an itinerary??

Sorry if I missed this but I didn't see it expressly addressed in Wiki nor did a search of the thread turn up a response - can GS use PlusPoints to upgrade award reservations?

It wouldn't have - skip waitlist can only be used if you're on the itinerary with them. They said they were applying a GPU to a friend's reservation.

Yes, confirmed to be the same equivalent points as before (20 for domestic, 40 for Polaris)

December 4, 2019 - January 31, 2020;
period of a feeding frenzy for upgrades with way too many PlusPoints than upgradable seats. Unless UA has increased upgrade inventory for this specific period, there will be MANY who will draw the (not necessarily correct) conclusion that this new upgrade system is a lot worse than the one it replaced.
The true comparison can only really take place in the 2020 program year.

I think this would be covered by the part where they say all the other inventory/rules still apply.

My biggest GS concern is just the amount of upgrade bidding that is now going to occur far out on flights. The ability to force a GS supported upgrade at T-72 with J2 is the second best part of being GS for me (irrops handling being the clear first). I know GS doesn't have many "published" benefits but I think UA could have done a better job of communicating how any of this benefits us. Think of the Premier Plat that basically uses all of their "points" to skip the WL on their one TPAC or TATL flight a year. Historically, we would be basically guaranteed to clear before them but now not so much.

The way I understand it, Plats won’t have enough points to StW.

There seems to be a lot of panic about Plats taking our UGs. But they always got 2 RPUs, so now they are getting those transferred to points. What would you have UA do? Take it all away from them?

Fair point.
I think we should have been more specific with commenting on Plats "taking our UGs"; it's for flights that can be upgraded with a GPU (40 points). Those flight will definitely be affected by this change.


I received an email from united yesterday detailing the changes, and it appears to have been written for 1Ks (so tailored to my status):

"We've heard from Premier® 1K® members like you that you're interested in an upgrade program that's more customizable..."

You did NOT receive an email from UA with details for GS then?

It appears UA sent communication about PP to all members.