Not sure the best time to check-in, but you can try during OLCI, try again at a check-in counter, and then again at a gate if you'd like.

i happened to ask at an RCC after being told no at checkin and no by the phone agent. the RCC folks had plenty of seats for sale so i snagged one

Beau was this at a domestic RCC or international RCC?

OLCI offered LAX-SYD C->F for $700 Dec.26

Bump - has anyone been able to secure an int'l upgrade via OLCI more than 24 hours prior to the transpac leg of an itinerary?

Also, is the inventory for paid upgrades drawn strictly from the "I" bucket? Seatcounter was showing I9 until today. Now it's zeroed out for a departure 48 hours from now despite nearly 40 unassigned C seats.

I can't answer your question, because when I got offered for y-c upgrade ($615, lax-fra, s fare, $410 rt all in) on olci it was within the 24 hrs intl window.

However I want you to know E+ in 747 was really not that bad. I haven't had that good of a sleep on ua (and I fly mostly transpac e+) for many years.

On 777 I always sit at E+ first row, the best E+ seat on 777 with almost infinite legroom. However, my 747 39J (starboard window) although had far less legroom, had an empty middle seat, so I was actually able to enjoy a great amount of available space, leaning on the seat back next to me, or put my legs up to the middle seat as the armrest was movable. I had 6-7 hrs of sleep! All in all, give 747 e+ a try, my empty middle seat was the only two empty middle seats in the whole e+ section on 747, most likely due to 1P.

OT: Funny thing was when I woke up I heard Dynasty 01 on channel 9, and thought to myself, "how is this possible? CI doesn't fly any transatlantic flight! It barely has any east coast or european presence!" Then I realized it was already over canada and it was probably tpe-anchorage-jfk flight.

this was in FRA at the RCC^

2-10-08 Y to C LAX to DFW $200

not bad but not worth a snack box

Tomorrow's UA 858 from PVG-SFO is showing all 9s for all classes on Seatcounter. Is this a likely candidate for buyups to NC to be offered (ie, easy extra revenue for UA)?

I would upgrade using miles but I'm in a lower fare bucket, and it'd probably cost more to upfare.

How do buy-ups work? In mid january I was on a FRA-IAD flight, that was extremely empty. At check-in, I asked if there were any buy-ups, and she said there werent. I was on an S fare.

So is there some protocol for letting people buy up? Or do they just do this when they want.

I think they just don't offer it on every flight because if they did then they risk people only buying Y tickets and counting on a cheap upgrade upon check-in.

IME, it's been totally random as far as buy-ups go. I recently was on a FRA-SFO flight and C looked empty up to a day before the trip. I called and asked about buy-ups, got a no from the telephone people. I asked at the RCC in SFO, got a no. Only on the day of the flight when I asked at the FRA RCC, the agents said yes. the flight went out that day with maybe 4-5 C seats empty too.

$600 is hardly cheap. Cheaper than a normal C/D/Z ticket sure, but that's still out of the price range for a lot of folks.

I think they're offered under one of the 2 circumstances:

The flight is empty enough that the added revenue can shift the flight into the black (or at least lessen the "redness") or the flilght is oversold and they'd rather try to get people to buy up rather than give op ups.

The FRA - IAD flight I was on had < 90 people in january. I was on an S fare that cost me $300 rt all-in. So i'm pretty sure with the load and the fares that people were able to get around this time, this flight was definitely in the red.

And no buy up was offered!

Exactly. Also, there are heavy incentives in place that direct people to buy the C fare; which carry, obviously, very high profit margins. Main example of this is upgrade inventory being released slowly until very near departure day. Corporate travel that allows C purchases would revert to only allowing buy-up purchases, etc, if buy-ups were to be counted on.

Could you imagine how many folks would be swarming/lurking right in front of the gate agents for the buy up announcement. It would make the international gate areas even more chaotic that's for sure.

There is also the dynamic to consider that it may cheapen the upgrade experience and value of high level of status. As you can see from this board, many pax will pay lots of money over the course of a year to maintain high levels of elite status and a bank load of miles to use for free travel and free upgrades. I think most pax depend on their status mainly for the purposes of upgrading and the hope of slightly preferred treatment, especially during irregular ops.

It is a tradeoff for United though. Incremental revenue is incremental revenue and the company needs all the money it can get. I think they weigh this "positive value" against the "negative value" created from the possible effect of having slightly disgruntled high elite pax; basically 2p, 1K and above. I have been on both sides of this, moving from 1p to 2p then now 1K for a few years running. I would have jumped at buy-ups in my early 1P years, but rarely saw them offered. Only time I saw offered was a IAD-SFO-SYD flight; and then only at SFO for the last leg. I was too late getting in line due to the hoard of people swarming the desk. Price was $550 in 2005. About 40 bucks an hour.