Upgrade problems -again
 

I called UAL last night for upgrades on the Friday IAD-SEA segment. The website showed me on the waitlist, and my bogus F class booking and saw plenty of empty seats.
The res. agent on the phone said that those were full fare first class seats.

So, now the flight shows F0, and couldn't do the upgrade.. What gives?

Looks like that flight UA 917 NOV14 IAD-SEA is all sold out of first class seats, hence F0/C0. Looks like people might have cleared the upgrade since both the all the 100/72/48 hr marks for domestic 500-mile upgrades has passed.

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[This message has been edited by UnitedSkies (edited Nov 13, 2003).]

Unitedskies,
that is the case now.. But when I was on the phone with the agent it was showing F5/C5...

Can you please explain what you mean by "my bogus F class booking"? Do you actually book a full F seat, which needs not be bought until the day of flight, and then cancel just before the upgrade window opens so when that seat is released, you get it as an upgrade? I certainly hope not. If so, then you have more problems with your upgrades than you think...

Friday flights SEA-IAD are normally fairly hard to upgrade on. My guess is that people with higher priority got the seats.

Seriously, are you actually booking dummy F class seats? If so that is absolutely out of control.

Is that still the case?

I know back in the early 1990's you could do this on Sabre, but so many people used it to "lock-out" an F seat months in advance until they could get a good Economy price and then use miles to upgrade that they required full payment for any reservation, regardless of class, within 24 hours around 1993 or so.

By bogus booking I mean going at the wesite and coming until seat selection to see the avialability on the F section. I would never do such a thing as buying a full F fare and returning it in the last minute.

Being 1P, I think that flight is full of 1Ks for me not being able to get the upgrade..

If it makes you feel any better Mrs IK and myself are flying SEA-IAD next week. We are both 1Ks on different PNRs, and have been on the upgrade list for 2 months using HK50s. My guess is that either of us have less than a 25% chance of clearing. That is what good seats in E+ are for.