higgies

I'm traveling on Monday evening, and I looked at my reservation and saw no upgrade yet, but the email system is usually pretty reliable and I never even got my upgrade status email.

Anyone else seeing this problem?

geo1005

Big previous thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...-email-us.html

higgies

Yeah, I've seen that thread before. I've always reliably received my emails on the exact day it is supposed to arrive, even after the switch to their new system. So I didn't really think it was related. Odd...

GreenMeters

They may be having system issues. I'm flying out this Sunday, returning Thursday. I got the "no upgrades available" email last Sunday. Since then, however, by checking the website I found out that 2/2 of the Sunday flights were upgraded on Wednesday, and that 1/2 of the Thursday flights were upgraded yesterday. No email on either day.

hginPHL

I haven't received any of the normal emails this week either. I went in and checked my flights and have been upgraded as normal. There must be some sort of system glitch. I've never had any of the other email problems people have reported in the past.

Tadich

It's been several years since I've received an upgrade email. I get all of the promotional stuff and gate change announcements, but no upgrade email. I still get my upgrades, usually at the plat window, but I have to log into my account to check. At the end of the day, as long as I'm up front, the email doesn't really matter.

PaceLaw2012

I have found that since the new program year, my upgrade emails have been a day late (although logging in has shown the upgrades processed on time) and they've always ended up in the spam folder in my gmail account. Probably has something to do w/ the US spam "scare" in the past few months combined with the usual fabulous US IT quality.

etsmyers

Ironically, I have always gotten my emails 7 days out. More recently, I got no upgrade at 7, then got the upgrade at 4. I have a flight on Monday, return wednesday, no upgrade emails on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, based on this thread, I checked this am and my upgrades were there, still no email though

jordieboy

Had one trip recently where I did not receive emails.

The flight was booked by a corporate agent, but I phoned US to be sure that my US number was associated. The itinerary showed up in my profile thereafter.

Prior to 7 days, 8 seats in F.
At 7 days no email - F showed 5 open seats
Called to be sure that my number was associated, was assured that everything was in order.
At 5 days no email - 5 open seats
At 3 days no email - 3 open seats
At 2 days no email - 2 open seats
At just prior to 24hrs no email 2 open seats - called to check that I was still under consideration and told not to worry that "they had not opened up yet".

After 24hr checked in on line and there were no seats available.

This had not happened to me before, but it strikes me that the lack of emails represented some flaw...
It actually happened on both outbound and return (May 2012).

Can't complain though... was really my first missed UG in quite some time.

aztimm

Where were you flying between? It is possible that either the seats went to pax who paid for F (yes, it does happen), or to other CP's who have more miles on US flights over the past 12 months.

I didn't get an email last week to let me know I had been upgraded, but when I did OLCI for the outbound leg, I noticed the return flight was upgraded. I did get the 7 day email, letting me know it wasn't successful.

jordieboy

Was IAH-PHL
While the two scenarios you raise are possible, I find them unlikely.
Others to add:
Sometimes there will be a big family that has used the mother load of miles for all to receive UGs, or even award firsts, but this was not the case.
Also I have seen a corporate collection of folks presumably from the same company transferring for an envoy connection to europe (but this did not appear to be the case either).

It was odd because it was the only time I have never received email from the UG robot and missed UGs on both outbound and return

pbuntrock

Actually this has not been my experience this summer.

Just took my two daughters to Disney for a long weekend. Used miles to do F. BOS-CLT-MCO-PHL-BOS. Left on last flight on Friday out of BOS and returned on the last flight thru PHL yesterday.

BOS-CLT 737 confirm 3/12 awards F my family; appeared several ours non-FF's.

CLT-MCO 757 confirm 3/12 awards F my family; two older couples clearly not FF's.

MCO-PHL 757 confirm 3/12 awards F my family; older couple and a women with a young girl; most likely not FF's.

PHL-BOS E190 confirm 3/11 awards F my family; two empty F seats; the rest looked like FF's

So, I'm seeing lots of non-FF's in F. And I don't think any of them were coming from international to and from MCO

jordieboy

I think you missed my point.
Specifically I do frequently see these scenarios, just not on this particular flight which was the one I did not receive the automated emails for.

You would fall under the "family using the mother load of miles... for award firsts"

I also notice quite a few folks who do appear to have paid for first, which is great (not important to get into why one might suspect this). When I used to fly CO a lot years ago this was quite common. It is nice to see this on US which means the product improvements have paid off or that competitor products have declined. Either way, nice to see.

irockfm2

Same here flew out last Sunday from PIT and hadn't gotten an email either

Biggie Fries

Ditto. Got the standard thumbs down, no upgrade available at Chairman's initial window (T-7). At Platinum (T-4) sure enough, there's the upgrade, but I have yet to receive e-mail notification of same. In the recent past, I had been getting this "new normal" as CP (no at T-7, yes at T-4), but with notification upon success.

Two thoughts (comments):

1. When folks complain about US's IT and lack of "consistency," I usually take the contrarian view. I see most of the bugs as "features." Consistency is UA letting us know with certitude that we are 18th in line for an upgrade. That's no fun. But here, with this board info and US's inconsistency, I knew when to expect the unannounced upgrade, and was prepared to hop on and move us out of the bulkhead.
2. Even after US fixes this glitch, I find myself wondering about the logic of the system, from their standpoint. First, I would like to make the following disclaimers: I don't deserve upgrades. They are not owed to me. There is nothing wrong with US failing to release seats at the "usual" window if they think that they might still be able to sell them. Okay, this said ... If the "new normal" is not to release seats at T-7 to CPs, but then to release them at T-4, why not change the standard release times by preferred level from T-7, T-4, T-3, and T-2 to, say, T-4, T-3, T-2, and T-1 ? What's the marketing advantage of habitually sending thumbs down emails to good customers, especially when later you are going to give them what they want ? And aren't there "knock on" effects, e.g., that Platinums don't really have any info between T-7 and T-4, because they should suspect that the CP's haven't cleared, and so on ?

Just comments -- not complaints. From my perspective, the system is working swimmingly.

[New info ... notification finally did arrive (thumbs up, flight listed twice), 11 hours after seats upgraded... Looks to me like they are still working the kinks out, and that thoughts 1 and 2 above still apply.]