Somehow this didn’t get published last Friday. My apologizes.
This morning was a nail-biter in Frankfurt. As I mentioned earlier today, the upgrade on my 747-400 flight to Chicago was still waitlisted and according to my friend at the UA ticketing desk, my chances did not look good for an upgrade.
I was a bit more encouraged upon check-in this morning when the kind Lufthansa agent working the 1K check-in desk informed me that I was number one on the list with two seats remaining, two waitlisted for an upgrade to first class, and nine who had not checked in yet.
I headed through passport control and up to Lufthansa’s Tower Lounge confident that I would get the upgrade. On the way over to the lounge, I stopped by the gate for my flight just to see if my upgrade might already have cleared. Suddenly, the picture did not look so rosy. I was still number one on the list, but first class had checked in full and now there were only three passengers who had not checked in for business class.
The agent warned me not to board the flight if I hadn’t cleared prior to boarding or I would be passed over the upgrade, stating that there was not time to wade through economy class to find an upgrader. That proved to be an essential piece of intelligence.
I hung out in the lounge for about a half hour then checked around 7:40am, 30 minutes prior to departure, if my upgrade had cleared with the United associate in the lounge. He grimaced and said there was one seat left and I was number two on the waitlist, showing me the screen.
Dejected, I headed downstairs, having consigned myself to an 8-hour flight in the back of a United 747—not an exciting prospect without personal IFE.
Most had already boarded, but I heard an announcement paging the man who was in front of me for the upgrade (I had seen his name on the screen in the lounge). A service director and a couple agents were talking amongst themselves about what to do, which I took as my cue to step forward.
I told them that I was number one on the upgrade list for a seat to business class and wanted to check if my upgrade came through. Their eyes lit up as they looked at each other and smiled. They took my BP and promptly awarded me the upgraded seat, at the expense of the poor guy who had decided to board early.
It was wonderful to be in business class today. The flight crew was great, it was nice having AVOD and in-seat power, and I was able to get some sleep after only managing four hours last night.
I am not condoning UA’s policy (at least at Frankfurt today) of skipping over people who have already boarded for upgrades. While it makes sense from operational point of view, lists exist for a reason and skipping over anyone for any reason rubs me the wrong way. Continental does a great job, in my experience, of coming onboard aircraft and upgrading elites who already boarded if a seat in the forward cabin suddenly opens up.
Nevertheless, learn from what happened to me today. If you ever find yourself waitlisted for an upgrade—especially if you are near the top of the list, DO NOT BOARD. The counterargument, of course, is that (especially on U.S. airlines) overhead bin space is a scare commodity and unless you get on right away, you might end up checking your bag. Fair point, but that is a risk I am willing to take. I was one of the last to board today and had no trouble find overhead space for my two carry-on bags. Even on domestic flights, where overhead space can be a little more difficult to find, I find that with a little effort you can always find a spot for your bag.
So I’m back in the United States and well-rested after a smooth transatlantic trip in United Business. Remember—never give up hope on an upgrade and it is to your advantage not to board if you still have a chance of scoring that last upgrade seat.
I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestion to hold off boarding AND making yourself known to the agents at the gate. Nice job… glad you scored the upgrade.
When I waited to board on the possibility of an upgrade, the GA got annoyed at me and said that she’d come aboard and pull whoever’s next on the list up from economy. I saw it actually happen on another UA flight as well.
So apparently it varies.
On a domestic flight (post-UDU) I recieved a similar upgrade back when I was a 1P going IAD-SFO Monday evening on a 767 ghetto-bird. I was way down the list untill they offloaded ~10 misconnecting passengers from an international flight (I was near the podium so I heared the GAs discussing this). At this point I was ~15 with ~13 seats remaining. Boarding was an absolute zoo, so I made the decision to not board with *G, etc. By the time we were on Zone 2 boarding, they were close to the last of the seats (according to the LCD display) and apparantly several ahead of me on the list had already boarded. They called a few names, and after getting no response for a few minutes, they called my name. To-date it is one of my most memorable upgrades, simply as I expected near 0% chance of getting it prior to the flight. I never asked for the UG prior to being paged and at least one other person got one after me, so I don’t feel too bad, though I agree, in a perfect world, they would always follow the list.
Bottom line though: sometimes it pays not to board early.