Jimbo

I flew MIA-DEN on UA 435 and MIA-LAX on UA 1223 yesterday and missed my upgrades on each flight. As a 1K I had only once failed to clear the DM list (about four years ago SFO to NRT). The equipment used was A319 and 737 respectively, each with eight seats in F. In MIA no passenger cleared the DM list and only one pax cleared the DM list in DEN. The gate agent indicated that the seat was given to a UGS pax.

I know that as a paid Economy passenger, I am not entitled to upgrades, but I would have to say that I take the likelyhood of upgrading into account when I travel on UA. Now that UA no longer has non-stops between LAX and MIA, what keeps me on UA from LAX to MIA is the ability to upgrade. It seems that UA's decision to downsize aircraft on certain routes is making it harder for pax (even 1k's) to get upgrades and may end up negatively impacting the carrier if elite pax decide they are not likely to get an upgrade and therefore utilize a carrier with direct service (e.g. AA) or a cheap carrier (e.g. Jet Blue) to go from point A to B.

Missing upgrades on back-to-back flights may have been an aberration but if I start noticing a pattern, I may have to re-evaluate my travel choices between LAX and MIA.

I remember when 1K meant something....nostalgic sniff...

SEA_Tigger

Well just remember unless you are an EXP on AA, you have just as likely a chance to sit in back (thanks to EXPs getting free upgrades so less available for PLTs and Golds, and even the EXPs are reporting lower upgrade percentages, now, since every EXP is on the upgrade list, unlike UA where some 1Ks and UGS might not be) and when you do, it's in ~31" pitch and not ~35"...

room service

I don't think I would complain if I only missed an upgrade once in four years.

Tiojelly

Being a 1p, that kind of record for upgrades is pretty amazing. I would guess that if upgrades are that frequent for you, that the cause might be the backlog from the mess in Denver this weekend (snow).

Keep flying, and filling up planes, and maybe we will get some direct flights back!

Good luck on the next leg.

sftrvlr

I only flew economy on one sector last year, and it was a short ORD-PIT flight. This year, I've already flown economy four times. It may have to do with the lower first class fares in many markets, so people are actually buying first. Which (hopefully) is a good thing for United.

danville 1K

I often fly AUS-DEN-OAK. On several occasions last year when I was on the waitlist for DEN-OAK I'd check to see how many seats were available for sale prior to departing for AUS. Often there'd be 7 seats available for sale as late as 4 p.m., yet when I'd get to DEN for the 7 p.m. flight I'd discover that F had checked in full.

Like many of us I figured something sinister was going on, but then it finally dawned on me.... at DEN Easy Check In was selling uprades and people were plunking down hard cash for the seats. In United's financial position it definitely makes sense to generate as much income as possible, so I can't really complain. It would however be nice if you had the option to pay for the upgrade upline at the station where you check in.

This year I'm batting .999 for upgrades, having only been denied once at SAT. There I was beaten out at the last minute by a UGS who had bumped a coach passenger off the flight then immediately rose to the top of the upgrade list. How do I know this? He was bragging about it very loudly while we were waiting to board. He was a bit full of himself and his status.

Danville 1k

SEA1K4EVR

I have only been denied once in the past 18 months and it was this last Monday LAX-SEA on a 737...but I had just been loaded onto that flight 1 day earlier and F was already full at that time.

I think that if it's a big concern then try to get different routing like MIA-IAD or MIA-ORD then on to the west coast. There's bound to be a 757 or better in there somewhere that would assure a 1K upgrade.

hermiehug

Get real, will you? (lighthearted, okay?)

I've been 1k for 2.5 years now, and I guess I'm batting around 0.900 when trying to upgrade using 500/CR1/SWU. (for the record, I think I've only had one (maybe two?) domestic op-ups on UA, and zero international)

So if you're averaging 0.999 ... dude, you don't have a problem!!

fly747first

With just 8 First Class seats, getting upgraded will be hard, no matter what the carrier is. On US Airways, Chairman's Preferred members miss their upgrades all the time when flying on a 757 that only has 8 seats in F. Delta's Platinum Medallion members have the same problem when upgrading on 737-200 aircraft. Lastly, CO's Plat members are complaining more than ever knowing that they are missing their upgrades most of the time when flying 737-500s now that CO only offers 6 F seats on that aircraft.

Next time, try to select a larger aircraft from DEN to LAX.

MrMillion

This, forgive me for it, is the albatross around UAs neck. Or, to paraphrase Dire Straits "upgrades for nothing and your chicks for free". UA has created unrealistic customer expectations in that they have created a... ...oh, the heck with it.

Jimbo

You're right. If upgrades are removed from the equation, then other factors like fares and convenience will rise as deciding factors.

wimpypipsqueak

Well my upgade SFO-IAD did't clear yesterday either (but did clear SYD-SFO which was the importnt part). But it was an A320 which was full of pax that had arrived from SYD. From what I heard, not even some paying C pax from SYD-SFO managed to get in FC.

I found my first transcon E+ to be surprisingly good. I slept a lot of the way. The pasta was good. I had a couple of drink chits. No complaints. Not sure why they insist of making the international extension flights use aricraft with small F cabins though.

JeffS

However less than the whale around those carriers who claim "unlimited" upgrades and certainly don't come close to always delivering.

As stated earlier, with E+ I sometimes don't care so much about upgrading. In fact, give me row 15 or 16 on a 757 with the middle seat empty and I've got far more room pitch-wise than in F on the same equipment.

SEA_Tigger

True. Even if you just let paid folks in, flying a plane with only 12 premium seats that is connecting from a plane with close to 100...

My IAD-SFO flight has bounced from an A319 to a 757 to a 767MZ to now an A320. And this is the 7:00AM flight, so while probably not a connection from something coming in from Europe, it would be the one most businessfolk would be on.

tods27

You're all spoiled! After 5 years as a 1K, I'm still batting .500 on upgrades (taking out my ~100 TED segments in the last year) based mainly on the number of segments that I fly and my refusal to use miles to upgrade. Anyone who flies ~100 segments/year simply can't upgrade every time.

(Of course, when I want to upgrade, I'm probably batting closer to .900, I don't keep track of this)