ozflier

Thank you for all these thoughts

I am travelling SYD-SFO on the 5 january with 3 family members all except one on W fares - all using SWUs. I am 1K the remainder general members.

The flight looks grim for upgrades in any case.

We need all the help we can get .

I will try and do an OLCI for all of us at the 24 hour mark and hope it might be a deal breaker in a tight situation.

As we have to physically checkin in SYD, I can't see any downside to doing this.

Madisonman39

I was in exactly that situation flying from BKK to NRT to ORD. I checked in within five minutes of the 24 hours.

Here's the bad news and good news. The bad news is that I had not printed out the boarding pass. When I went back, I got an error message and I could not go back in to select a seat and print a boarding pass. I got stuck for hours outside of security in BKK because there was no United agent on duty. Could not access the RCC lounge either.

Here's the good news. The error message meant I had been upgraded, but I had to check in with an agent at the airport. The person sitting next to me was also a 1k, got upgraded on the BKK to NRT leg, but not on the NRT to ORD one.

I have no scientific proof, but I believe checking in that early helped me to get upgraded. Getting blocked out of the system after that was a pain, though.

Next time--I will check in early again and print the boarding pass out, even if it is just to a PDF file on my computer.

boulderbob

I have a flight on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. and am waitlisted for a UDU to F/C. Status is Premier Exec 1MM. Would there be any advantage to using on-line check-in on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. (24 hours prior to departure) rather than using the check-in kiosk at the airport when I arrive on Sunday? Thanks.

WineCountryUA

For Gate upgrades on UA, it is Status, FareClass and then checkin time -- so there is a potential (small) advantage of checking in as early as possible.
There is also a potential disadvantage, once checked in, if you clear based on UDU, it may not be reflected on the airport. So if you get an e-mail about upgrading after checkin, you may need to ask agent to un-checkin you and then re-checkin.
With most upgrades in the last 24 hours being Gate upgrades this is less of an issue than it has been.

Phil Level

This happened to me Thursday night SFO-LAX. I had used online checkin earlier that morning from my hotel room, but without a printer, I only sent the BP to my phone. Upon arrival at SFO, I tried to use Mr. Chicken to print the luggage tag to check a bag, but it gave me some message about being "Unable to check in. See a service rep" (or something other than "Good news, your UG cleared")

The first guy behind the counter gives me a blank stare and says he can't help me b/c he doesn't have access to the computer.

Then I had to wait for another agent. Since I had not received an EasyUpdate for Seat Upgrade, I wasn't sure the reason Mr. Chicken gave me a difficult time , but fortunately I had extra time to make my flight. This slowed me down by 10 minutes or so.

Not sure if I hadn't checked in ahead of time if things would have gone more smoothly at airport, or if my UG wouldn't have cleared.

DC-USCP-UAPE

Waitlisted for a systemwide. This advice was from 2009 (this thread) - is it still true that I should wait until the 4 hour mark to do online check-in, or do it ASAP to get the tie breaker on the upgrade?

The problem is a only a couple of seats left - all middle seats, mostly middle a couple of aisle - really trying to avoid the middle seat...

Thanks.

SilasTalbot

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to add that with the new MP2012 E+ is assigned at CI for Silver status. It is still at booking for higher levels. So it makes sense to be as early as possible on OLCI as a silver, you're in direct competition with the others out there for whatever E+ is remaining.

dgoedken

ALWAYS always always OLCI. Especially when you're "at the window" when I was sometimes getting and sometimes not getting UDUs on the same flight...it has meant I jumped in front of co-workers with same status, fare code, et al

orknot2be

If one is doing a same day "turn", how is the return flight affected where UDUs are concerned, since often if you do OLCI at the "window" for the departing flight, it won't yet process the return flight and then if you try to get into the system 24 hr before the return flight, you get an error message. Does that mean you're likely to miss chances at UDU on that return?

And if you wait to do OLCI till the 24 hour window of the return flight, then it sounds like you might be missing the chance at an UDU for the departing flight?

So what are the best choices, especially if you might not have a chance to print out new BP's (if you've done OLCI at the earliest opportunity) and your airport connections are tight, meaning you don't have time to wait at a ticket desk for a new BP?

USFdonWill

I did a few same day turns this month and was worried about OLCI for the return affecting the outbound. To my surprise, it actually did not affect the DM time for the outbound. I printed both BPs and the DM times were consistent with 24 hours before each segment.

Flying Machine

Im a little confused, when did you do the OLCI (at the 24 hour mark of the first flight?) or did you do it at the 24 hour mark for the return. Thanks and Safe Travels

Firewind

One more reason to always always always book two one-ways. @:-)

AZjohns

Just another data point on this issue.

Nov 26 IAD-ZRH waitlisted for 7 months using a SWU on W fare (YtoC).
At 24 hour mark still waitlisted but did NOT do OLCI.
At T-12 hours changed from waitlisted to confirmed UG
After selecting seat waited until getting to airport to check in.

Not sure if this conforms or conflicts to any golden rule???
John

USFdonWill

Actually I did OLCI at the 24 hour mark for each flight, respectively. In the past, this would reset the DM time for the first flight to the check-in time of the second flight, but it did not on the same day turns I did this month. YMMV