Comp Upgrade Process Query
 

Question for you UA experts...

I'm not as familiar with UA's elite complimentary upgrade process as I mostly fly CO. I switched some flights around because of the impending blizzard at DEN, so I'm probably going to miss out on some upgrades that were already confirmed on my original flights. I'm flying YYC-SFO tomorrow on UAEx and there are three of us on the upgrade list so far. Earlier today there were 4 open seats in F and now there is only 1 open but the upgrade list is still the same. Is it plausible that three people checked-in and cleared automatically, three people bought up (seems unlikely for the price they want) or do they reserve/block seats for upgrades before you actually see it?

Just curious; thanks.

If you changed before being at the airport, make sure it shows Upgrade: Waitlisted for each one of your flights that are eligible for upgrade.

Like CO's system, there are two (2) upgrade systems at play -- advance, and airport. The difference with UA, though, is that you can see if you're on the advance upgrade waitlist with the Upgrade: Waitlisted notation in your record (you'll see each flight twice -- once confirmed in Economy, another waitlisted for First).

As for your question about checking in, UA doesn't clear at checkin. It clears immediately when space is opened up to the next person on the waitlist.

Thanks Channa. My upgrades clear on CO +90% of the time but I find UA to be a crapshoot. I guess UA metal flights have way more elites than CO.

That's funny. I find the opposite - always clear on UA and CO is where I don't get upgrades. I guess routes are the telling factor.

Got my next mixed ITN at the end of February. I hope it goes well.

Although there is a caveat to this. Your reservation online can show upgrade: pending and even the note below says something like "blah blah blah 1K upgrades at 100 hours" but the UA system could have you listed as a different priority in my case as PremEx. I knew this would happen and kept calling and telling them to purge the record and at least three agents were like no the reservation says 1K. Well guess what 100 hours and no change to upgrade: waitlisted or confirmed. Called again and the agents said oh it will happen late in the day. Hung up called again finally got an agent to purge record then upgrade status changed. So basically lost out when the 1K window was open because system saw me as PremEx even agent said i would have cleared before others on lower fares So stuck in Y thanks to agents blowing me off.