Hi everyone,

Being a bit new to this, I got a sponsored SWU on LHR-ORD 959 on April 3rd.
On my itineraries it currently shows Flight: Waitlisted, Upgrade: Waitlisted.

I've got a confirmed E+ seat, but does anyone know what my chances are of getting into C on this flight or what I can do to get it confirmed?

Many thanks

Welcome.

No, nobody knows (short answer).

Do a search (upper right) for "will my upgrade clear?" and find lots of theories but little actual insight, other than it depends on loads and such.

With Premier status it might be tough. I wouldn't count on it at all, but think of it as a nice bonus if you get it (and otherwise your sponsor will get his SWU back and you can ask him for it again some other time )

You should attempt to find out if you are on the PA or PB waitlist. If on the PA waitlist then this will clear first on, first off without regard to status or fare paid. (The PB waitlist would clear similarly after the PA waitlist has been fully cleared.) If you are still waitlisted on the day of departure then your name will roll over to the Departure Management lit, which is cleared by status, fare bucket and time added to the DM (usually the time you check in.)

Short of purchasing a business class ticket there may not be much for you to do except wait. In these cases your chances are 50/50, that is your upgrade will clear, or it will not.


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=350081

But why should it put me onto a waitlist if there are 13 seats still available in C when I checked on united.com.
Also, it may be pure coincidence, but as soon as the upgrade was put on, one of the seats was blocked out in C. Was that mine perhaps? Has anyone else noticed this?

Long, long story. Seats available, yes, but maybe unassigned, and UA is still hoping to sell seats before granting upgrades. A seat being assigned may or may not be related to your upgrade. Has your upgrade cleared? If so, they usually automatically assign the most forward, open lower-deck seat, in my limited experience. Just call UA and ask.

There are two possibilities but they are not (almost certainly) equally likely. For 2Ps on most LHR flights, I'd guess the odds are less than 50% unless it can be confirmed at time of booking. A number of my 1P colleagues regularly fail to clear these and it's often down to 1Ks and some 1Ps at the gate.

Some flights are easier to clear, especially a particular less popular flight from hubs where 2 or 3 flights operate daily.

I was recently waitlisted on a domestic 777 segment that was showing C 50% open on the seat map up until several days before. All of those seats got assigned and my upgrade finally cleared about 24 hours prior to departure. C went out completely full and they didn't clear any gate upgrades. So it goes to show that UA is selling C seats. Good for them.

Charles

Understood, if you can make a more accurate prediction, based on what little information was provided, I think the the OP would welcome your input.