I won’t get to witness UA’s new UDU program first-hand until Friday (my upgrades are waitlisted, BTW), but my brother traveled from FRA-IAD-LAX on United yesterday. He is a Premier and was traveling on an H-fare–an upper-end Economy ticket.
Sunday is generally not a good day to travel from Europe to the U.S. if you want to upgrade, especially during the spring break period, so it came as no surprise when his SWU-sponsored upgrade did not clear for the transatlantic flight.
What surprised me was that he had to sit in the back on UA947, the evening three-cabin 777 from Dulles to Los Angeles. A SWU was applied three weeks before the trip, which has always has resulted in upgrade clearance in the past, usually well before departure the date. Not this time, though. Even though 15 Business Class seats remained just an hour before departure (and more than 30 unassigned seats when the upgrade was requested), he was #35 on the waitlist because UA’s same-day upgrade processing is determined by status. You would think UA would clear SWU upgrades in the days before departure: better to collect a SWU than give a free ugprade, no? But that wasn’t the case this time at least. I guess that is good news for 1Ks like me.
Glad it was not me spending the extra money for that H-fare, though.
Bottom line, it looks like Premiers are going to find it very hard to upgrade on UA now, especially on hub-to-hub flights. Unless you can confirm an upgrade in advance, I wouldn’t chance it by buying a higher fare class–it probably is not going to help your chances. Even if you are applying a CR-1 or SWU, make sure you have a comfortable seat in Economy.
Irrespective of swu or cr1 upgrades are now given buy status of the person flying.
@brad: That may or may not be the case. That seems to be the consensus on FT, but UA’s upgrade policy is not transparent. Last week, an agent told me that FOFO still applies. Then there is the question of the PA vs. PB list.
In any case, it seems strange that with 15+ seats remaining, UA would not clear some SWU upgrades in advance (no matter who applied for them) rather than giving away so many freebies at the gate.
You may be right but me thinks ua is using the co trick of making money on buyps rather than swus. Also which meal do you special order that nets you all the apology certs.
@Brad: Good point. UA certainly may be holding out for buy-ops.
I usually order the Hindu or Moslem meal. Much better than the fruit and cheese plate on redeyes.
Matt,many thanks on your meal choice secrets. My gf and I are apology certs addicts and almost pay for 90% of travel up to 1k with these. Can you upgrade a companion not on your pnr with udu at the airport?
@Brad: Wow. 90%? I wish I was that fortunate.
Yes, you can upgrade a companion on a separate itinerary at the airport. I also usually break up itineraries so I can use a voucher for each one.
I’m glad to here we can upgrade 1 companion at the airport and not have to be on the same pnr. The original rules seemed to discourage this. Whats the answer on code share tickets ua operated.
@Brad: codeshare operated by UA can be upgraded only on the day of departure, but all you have to do is ask and you’ll be added to the DM list.
RE: companion upgrades. It’s possible, but upgrades are going to be tough for companions added at the airport because they will clear after 1Ks, 1Ps, and 2Ps. I’m not sure how companions clear if they are on the same reservation as a 1K (for example). If it’s like the old e500 system, they will clear with the 1K.