Well, that's what we have now, so I did it right. We are both checked in, and neither of us are showing on the CPU upgrade eligible list. I guess if I want to see if an upgrade is available, I just sit back and wait. Normally, I would think I would talk to the GA when we get there (I'm it won't hurt either way).

At the moment, while you still have some chance of clearing prior to the gate, at the gate you will be ineligible.

If you talk to the GA, all they could do is to split the PNR and then you risk separate upgrade chances.

The key point is the pre-gate and at gate upgrades are two separate lists and are handled differently.

I'm just confused how I could get an upgrade at this point. Neither of our names are showing up on the upgrade eligible list.

If you did not split the PNR, you will NOT be on the visible Gate list and will not be upgraded at the gate.

HOWEVER, you will remain on the pre-gate list and those upgrade can (but not likely unless F is very empty) can occur even after checkin and as late as a few hour before departure. If the PNR was not split, this will still be an all or none situation.

This two list process is confusing but that is the system.

Thank you very much. I'm glad you explained it. I for sure never would have guessed that. I won't ever split a pnr at this rate.

So ... I split DH off at check in. No upgrades on the outbound, but I got the CPU on the way back.

DH did a TOD upgrade for $89 while he was $700 up playing poker :(

By the time he boarded the plane, he was $200 down :mad:

UPDATE: So I ending up splitting the PNR as suggested above, worked out great! Got the 2 Business upgrades outbound (@ 48-hour mark), I sat in E+ and was able to move to the row directly behind them since the plane was so empty. :)

Coming home things were going equally great, got the 2 Business upgrades again @ the 48-hour mark and decided to upgrade the 3rd ticked via miles which was also approved. Unfortunately, as we sat ready to take off on the runway there was a maintenance issue which ended up being serious (failed hydraulic pump), got put up for another night by United and all upgrades were lost for the next days' flight which was booked solid. :(

My wife and two young kids (2 and 4) are flying in 3 days on a flight that has the following number of seats available:
J9 JN9 C8 D8 Z7 ZN7 P7 PN2 R2 RN2 IN1 I1 (economy: all 9)

The are booked on a single itinerary. I have applied 3 GPUs for their upgrades. Would it make sense to split the itinerary to grab the two available upgrades?

Totally would. Yourself and one child stay in Y for now and then UG the wife and the other child.

R3 might never occur.

What route is this?

Depends entirely on whether you have a strategy if the third upgrade never clears. If that's an okay scenario, then definitely split.

Thanks for the replies, this is really useful to know.
This is SYD-LAX and the 3 upgrades fortunately cleared overnight. A high R value often occurs on this route for empty planes in C. The flight tomorrow is J7 ... P7 R4 I4.

I'm not on the plane, so having a single young child in Y isn't an option and would probably results in voluntary downgrades.

A similar situation actually happened to us on Asiana recently. 2 adults booked in C and 2 young kids booked in Y. Long story short, they couldn't check us in, refused to swap seats and "solved the problem" by asking the head ticketing office to opened up C award seats for the kids. I'm very grateful to the 1K line agents who did a fabulous job re-issuing tickets :D^

My wife, myself, a 5 year old and a lap child are flying to HNL from ORD (return) in October on K fares. I am the only one with status (1K). We are currently all on the same PNR. I plan on applying RPUs in each direction. What is the best strategy in terms of splitting the PNR? Currently F is wide open but it being so far out that doesn't really mean much. We are fine with any combination of upgrades clearing, but would obviously like the best chance to get them all cleared. Thanks.

Plat with two silvers flying currently on single PNR. What's my play re splitting?

Outbound looks like no upgrades will happen anyway (showing 1 seat available - I know, that's not best metric). Return looks promising.

Do I split off myself (Plat)? Or do I split off my wife (silver) and keep daughter with me, hoping we can both get upgraded at T-72?

New user here. Can I please ask for advice? I'm not sure if posting here is appropriate or if I should have started a new thread.

My husband, 2 kids, and I have requested upgrades from E+ to Business for an international flight using miles and cash. One request was granted for the outbound flight but not the return flight (which is a little over a week away). There are about 10 seats still open in Business, but I know United is waiting to see if there are any paying passengers.

I don't want 4 single seats (the kids are too young to sit alone next to strangers for 14 hours). Instead, I'd rather stay with our E+ seats. At what point should I call United to tell them to cancel this upgrade request? If the request isn't honored within 24 hours? Wait until 4 hours before? As soon as I see that there are no longer at least 2 pairs of seats together (but what if some passenger(s) move up to First class?) Should I not check in on-line? It may be complicated by the fact that we'll be in a foreign country before the return flight.

Thanks for your help!

Welcome to FT!, smiles33

If you are on a single PNR, you will all clear or none. However, 4 passengers clearing off the waitlist at the same time is rare.

BTW, you may not be the only people on the waitlist and unless you have status, most of the others will be ahead of you.

At checking, you will be asked if you want to continue to waitlist -- if you do, then the PNR will be split and you may be upgraded separately (at the gate only single person PNRs can be upgraded). If you decline to continue to be waitlisted, you will not be split up.