Miracles do happen !!!!
 

I finally received my first operational upgrade this week on my CDG-SFO flight (7/22). Flight was way oversold, as was the ORD flight leaving before us. Life is good lately at United for elite flyers !!!.

Congratulations on your Op Upgrade!
I love CDG for Op Upgrades... I have received Op Upgrades each time I have flown out of there ( as a 1P and 1K).

I got my first-ever op upgrade last week, and it wasn't even on UA. It was a Thai flight TPE-HKG. My UA status and my unrestricted Y ticket put me at the head of the list.

I may never get moved up on a UA flight because I'm always NC.

Congrats! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

They do seem to be packing them in the back of the plane these days. I'm noticing lots of full or oversold flights in Economy.

The next question is: Is it worth not upgrading on a flight and hoping that fare/status secures a op upgrade?

IMHO, upgrades on domestic flights less than 3 hours are really not worth upgrade. The meals served today are certainly not worth the upgrade. However, FLF (Full Load Fridays) are worth the upgrade using certs. I have no clue regarding international flights with exception of MEX, where I certainly would upgrade. MEX-ORD/SFO/LAX is basically a transcon anyway but I would still upgrade.

Did a lot of flying last week ; SFO-FRA-MUC-TLS on Lufthansa and CDG-SFO-ORD-OAK on United and all flights were full in Economy. It's summertime. By the way, I liked LH C class product better than UA, just my opinion.

I flew back LHR-SFO this morning and observed lots of operational upgrading--and, indeed, benefited from the highly unusual (for me) double upgrade from Y to F. I was on a B-fare Y-class ticket and it cleared the upgrade waitlist some time over the weekend. When I checked in, the agent said "you've been upgraded to First Class courtesy of United" -- and sure enough it was an F boarding pass showing my booking class as NC (my upgraded business class). Wow. Looking at the manifest in F I saw that an agent had marked six of us as "OPUG" and that at least a third of C was similarly marked -- coach must have been heavily booked with few revenue C or F seats.

It was a good flight, too... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif