jfdnyc1981

How are people doing with JFK-LAX and vv with e-500s?

flyerbjorn

This is fabulous. I'm seeing numbers I've never seen before: XF8, XC9 on SYD-LAX/SFO and loads of NF and NC.

This prompted me to book a R/T in W today, paying twice the price of the cheapest economy ticket. UA, if you give me my upgrades, I'll provide the cash you need

^^^

i'mlovin'it

Had 4 SWUs clear on a flight to CDG when I booked and 4 SWUs for the return cleared a week later. Trip is still a few months off.

chchkiwi

Just today I booked SYD-LAX Apr 8th, returning Apr 15th. Upgrades cleared immediately (using SWUs) and can't say I remember that happening in the 40 or so times I've taken this trip. Last I checked, there was still plenty of NC availability.

iwillflytheworld

It seems United zeroed out all the OZ XC/NC inventory that it opened yesterday. I wonder if this was a mistake or a trial balloon .

As others said, such widespread availability, with XC>NC in most cases, was unprecedented.

Unfortunately I put an itin on hold yesterday feeling safe because it was NC7 or something like that (as well as all alternative flights - all had NC availability). Today that flight and all other flights around those dates are NC0 .

SAT Lawyer

I'm seeing the same thing; all the plentiful XC and NC inventory that was there yesterday appears to be gone today. As the expression goes, you snooze, you lose.

gfowler-ord-1k

It was a good ride while it lasted. I wish someone on the inside would leak the story on what happened. I was thinking all along that it was too good to be true.

iwillflytheworld

Not only that, even the few flights that had NC availability two days ago (before XC/NC became wide open) are now zeroed-out.

I've learned the lesson the hard way

Lurker

I agree US-Australia NC opened up last night. All my UGs cleared and for some odd reason easy update actually worked and notified me so I could get seats!

Lurker

zuccaro

Happens all the time, fatwallet and slickdeals post a too-good-to-be-true deal, like a 1TB hard drive for $9.99 (when retailer meant for it to be $99.99) and before they have a chance to fix the price mistake, thousands have been purchased. I wish I had booked the award travel (IAD-SYD, XF), I knew it was too good to be true!

Tulane41

Had the same happen to me. I had two tickets booked for December, one for my wife on an award ticket, waitlisted for XC SFO-SYD and SYD-LAX, and a W fare for me which cleared into NC with an SWU at booking for SYD-LAX, and waitlisted for NC SFO-SYD.

Yesterday both legs of the award ticket cleared into XC, and my SFO-SYD leg cleared into NC with an EasyUpdate. Interestingly, I also got an EasyUpdate the same morning for some e500s clearing for a trip this weekend, probably the first EasyUpdates I can remember getting in the last 6 months, despite a number of upgrades clearing in that time.

emanon256

I have not experienced this. I have been wait listed with a CR1 on a PS flight in May since November. Seat map shows nothing in C, but its still NC0.

I also got an upgrade confirmed txt message last week on LGA-DEN (After I did OLCI) when I went to the agent, they said it must have been an error, there are no available seats in F, they refunded my e500s.

Same thing happened in an ORD-LGA, I was on a B fare and inquired about the free upgrade, RCC agent said I cleared, but that I could only get a seat at the gate. Went to the gate, they said there were no seats in F.

My %age hasn't changed much since last year, so maybe its not harder, but its been more complicated, and there have been many more false positives making it more frustrating.

So FWIW, its not harder, or easier as far as %age clearing, but they UG notices have been later, and there are more system errors making it confusing.

snic

Hmm. I wonder. I thought maybe UA had a momentary cash flow problem and wanted to spur a lot of TPAC fare purchases, a lot of which might end up in H or higher fare classes. But that doesn't explain the increased award seat availability. Maybe, for accounting reasons, they wanted to reduce the number of miles on the books? One way to do that would be to make it very convenient to book award tickets, and then slam the door shut as soon as the target number of miles has been redeemed.

Who knows.

gfowler-ord-1k

I had a SFO-ORD that did not clear. It looks like most of the increased inventory was on international segments. IMO it was a mistake. There were XF9 NF9 XY9 NY9 XC9 NC9s on some prime international routes.

kb1992

About 36-48 hours ago, there were a lot of XF XC seats on almost every TPAC route.

Apparently, this was a computer error.

But I did grab several XF seats last night.

This morning, all of the XF inventory returns to zero.

So UA corrected this error today.