I'm still shocked that it's accepted by elites. I would much prefer the security of knowing that the upgrade is mine regardless of where I happen to be standing 30-45min before the flight departs.

The fact that you say they "do a good job" of doing this before boarding even starts is more concerning. The chances of not being there when your name is called are much higher.

Is it widely accepted then if you show up 15min before departure, having looked at your name on the mobile site and seen that you were upgraded, to be told "sorry, you weren't here so you lost it" and be sent off to your Y seat?

Do you prefer the PMCO process where the upgrade is yours regardless of when you show up at the gate, and the GA will hunt you down on board if you were next in line and a seat becomes available after you boarded?

I simply cannot see any reason to prefer the PMUA process here and frankly, find your acceptance of it a bit out of character

Oh, you mean the process that leads to all these posts saying "SMI/J cleared into 1A, yet that seat went out empty?!?!" No thanks.

I don't think it's a big deal to be at the boarding area 10 minutes before boarding. Allows you to (sometimes) actually pick your F seat if you see your name on the GDS under "cleared pax". I don't understand why PMCO will wait until 1/2 the plane has boarded to process final upgrades - just do it before boarding starts!

Misconnects are a different story, I had a UA GA come on board to move me up once (to PS C), that was nice

I'm fascinated by how you're determined to turn this into a rant against PMCO upgrades - it's nothing to do with that, and anomalies (which happen on UA too) certainly don't happen often enough to worry about.

Upgrades are processed on PMCO before boarding too - you just don't have to be there when it happens.

I guess we'll agree to disagree then - I don't mind empowering myself a bit to make sure I get the big seat.

Fair enough - and hopefully this ridiculous process of requiring people to be present to receive their upgrade dies quickly ^

I'm sure you'll be able to add it to the ever-increasing list of PMUA policies & procedures being "retired" in favor of PMCO ones

This is one where I simply don't see the love for the good old way of doing things! And your posts didn't help clarify it for me either - you dodged the real issue by throwing in FUD about things you don't like about the PMCO way of doing things instead of answering the real question - how is it better to have your upgrade taken away if you're not there the minute they call your name?

I would have thought everyone would be glad to see the end of that, but I guess not...

Nobody said you have to be present. I've had my BP printed and waiting many times. After all, that is what the "Cleared List" is for.

UA GAs prefer to talk to the person first (e.g., couples often decline upgrades, I've seen people decline upgrades if only bulkhead is available).

For all we know he paged up Mr. A, and when he didn't respond, looked at the record and saw he was a misconnect, and moved onto Mr. B. Or there was a misconnect in F, and Mr. A was saved a seat anyway.

But of course why bother gathering any sort of possibilities when you can just start yet another of your tiring rants against PMUA.

I think UA-NYC's point here is "every man for himself". Since UA-NYC waits at the gate, he reaps those rewards.

Not saying it's the right thing, but it works for him. One can't argue with that logic, if you know that is how pmUA operates.

Personally, I think it's horrid, but if that process is retained, I will simply hang around the gate earlier.

I'm actually surprised PMCO elites don't hang around the gate more, given all the shenanigans threads I've read...

Really? channa - this is nothing to do with a rant. See this selection of quotes from this thread:

Actually, it looks like pretty much everyone is saying that you usually have to be present.

Your logic is that this is a good thing because the next person on the list "might" want to decline the upgrade? I'm sure that happens occasionally on every airline - on PMCO the GA goes on board in the event that an exception like this happens and pulls the next person on the list up front if they're already on board, or pages them at the gate if they haven't boarded yet.

But it's an exception - most people take the upgrade. Why build a process that is perfect for the exception but horrendous for the norm?

It's bizarre that everyone is saying that the alternative is for the plane to go out with empty seats. The two simply aren't related IMO.

So there's no correlation between a system that often forces a GA to actually leave their station, get on the plane and walk into the Y section to manually pull pax up into F, with seats going out empty?

Not in the last decade of flying on CO in my experience. They just seem to do it. Maybe it's because CO gates are (were?) staffed with an extra GA?

Doesn't UA have to do this anyway in the event of misconnects?

No, that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying that the GA will skip over people but do so cautiously. Like in this case, if Mr. A is a misconnect, no reason to upgrade him, then offload him, then run the list again. Might as well just skip him.

Or if Mr. A is a potential misconnect, skip him, run all but 1 upgrade, wait til it gets a bit closer, and then decide what to do about him.

As for boarding last, UA GAs typically do not go on board to upgrade. The "battlefield" upgrade is mostly a CO thing. It may be because of the systems' lack of ability to use common sense in upgrading. If you have to upgrade misconnects, then yes, there will be errors made and more upgrades to give out later. From what it sounds like, CO's systems require that they upgrade in sequence, no exceptions. So a GA cannot use their judgment and pass over someone who is a guaranteed misconnect.

Regarding the GA who posted about skipping over, I'm assuming that means to handle couples, misconnects, etc. Say I'm #1 but my companion is #5, and I say I only want to upgrade if she gets upgraded too. The UA agent would skip over me, process #2 - #4, and then if it looks like there will be 2 more seats, he could process both of us.

With the CO system, they would have to run #1 - #3 in sequence, and then go back and block my old seat just in case, or worse, downgrade me, re-add me to the upgrade list, and hope we're still together on the list, then upgrade #4. It's a lot more work for this type of situation, which is not that uncommon.

FWIW, I've been upgraded many times at the gate and had my BP waiting for me with my name on the cleared list.

That's quite a different message from what was posted in the rest of this thread. The mechanics of skipping misconnects, etc. I completely agree with - the more efficient a system there the better. But the posters I quoted above seemed to be saying that PMUA has a "going, going, gone" approach for handing out an upgrade you have cleared - if you're not there to take the BP from their hand they rip it up, put you back in Y and move on to the next person.

I'm cautiously optimistic about what you say about having BPs waiting for you at the gate but the fact that this is not a process that's set in stone and seems to be left to the GA's judgement is concerning. All it takes is an impatient GA and you're skipped over because you didn't respond to their page.

That's the piece I am (consistently) saying that I hope is dropped, and moved to the more consistent PMCO process.