st530

Mods please move if already a 2024 thread but a search didn’t show one.

Had my first ever PP failure today on UA 879 LHR-IAH. Friend died at #1 on the UG list as Polaris went out booked 49/50 (app didn’t show a seat blocked but am I right that 1 seat is blocked on long-haul 772 for crew rest even though there are bunks?). Ironic as loads were wide open all week except today (I guess Friday biz travelers returning).

The funny thing is my friend was #8 on the Premium Plus UG list (booked 22/24 all week) yet somehow got a Premium Plus upgrade on the day of travel. Also the Polaris list had the usual last-minute name that appears for the first time as an UG (displacing my friend) despite not being on the list all week.

greenpau

You've never had a GS sponsored PP upgrade fail ever? That's amazing odds. Last Summer was brutal, even for GS. 6 segments I had people die on the list.

st530

I know! A remarkable run that I'm sad to see end.

VRFast

Have been checking IAH-LHR lately and we were on it back in Sep 2022, and from what I've been seeing it always goes out 49/50 with all seats shown selected. So I think they always keep one blocked without it being spelled out (is 1A selectable closer to flight?). On our flight a pilot was in 11D in front of us during parts of the flight. We got the last 2 seats, 12DG.

WineCountryUA

January is the worst month for upgrades -- overlap of of exiting qualifiers and new qualifiers plus the dumping of expiring PlusPoints

cesco.g

Indeed, especially the second half of the month.

UALPilotDC

yes the pilots get a Polaris seat (sometimes two if double augmented) as the “bunks” in the 777 are exactly that, bunk beds purely for sleep without the ability to even sit up in. Hard to eat a meal in bed in the dark.

cesco.g

Indeed. Typically seat 1A is blocked on a flight operated with 3 pilots.

st530

Second-ever fail and on the same ticket. Friend died at #2 on IAH-LHR 880 today. Premium Plus did clear, but frankly, hobo business class probably would have been a better choice given 11 rows of empty 4-seat middle sections in the Y cabin.

limey1K

I "bought" two XN tickets DEN-LHR during the sale (month or so ago?) and applied PP. Cabin was wide open at time of booking, maybe12 seats taken, T-48 and Polaris is 47/48 so I cancelled the tickets and took the PP back to try again another day.

RobOnLI

Cut off your nose to spite your face? Guess it depends on why you bought those tickets in the first place. If it was to get to LHR then you are almost def not going to see those XN sale fares again. If it was to burn PPs then you made the right move by cancelling them. Award tickets are nowhere but a one-way "up" item right now. The sale fare was nice but next year's sale is probably last year's low price.

-RM

limey1K

It was a spur of the moment purchase and I had always planned on cancelling if they didn't clear but I was pretty confident they would. I'm in the UK 3-4 times a year and this was an extra trip but not worth going in 31 A and B

rwm818

Hope can get some help here...I'm trying to apply for PP upg for UA 804 (HND-IAD) on 3/28 I go to my reservation -select Upgrade Cabin. It gives me the option for Polaris for 40 pp (will be waitlisted of course) - and select and apply and I keep getting "payment failure"? Does this mean the upgrade option not really available? Or already too many people waitlisted?
I've seen the same message both on mobile app & desktop. I even adjusted to select the option for 20 pp for PremEcon & 40 pp for Polaris (even though i really wouldn't want to use 20 for PEcon) - same Payment failure message.

I will add - if I select "Money" option it doesn't even list a $ amount to upgrade to Polaris - so I'm thinking this means its already overbooked? Maybe that's the reason. But why wouldn't the message be something like "unable to apply PlusPoints upgrade for the flight" - instead of Payment failure?

I search for other threads with key word payment failure - didn't see any. Just wondering what is going wrong?
Thanks

WineCountryUA

How was the ticket purchased?

rwm818

Yes, good question. Definitely wonder because these are US Gov travel tickets. But I used PP to upgrade a similar ticket last year IAD-GVA. And others in the past...

But I know the gov tix do come in 2 different fare classes...perhaps this ticket is in the lower fare bucket. But in that case i would expect to see a message like "unable to upgrade this fare class"? But perhaps the system not that sophisticated, so it just gives "payment failure" message.