Earlier today, I blogged about my confirmed upgrade from IAD-BOS mysteriously disappearing overnight.
From what I gathered at Dulles this morning, someone with a fat-finger in inventory management accidentally cleared all the waitlisted upgrades last night (to put it in the terms of the IAD customer service director I spoke with: "Some idiot in IM released the upgrades too early"). Can you imagine the mayhem if that happened systemwide?
I still got the upgrade in the end and the flight went out with a few open seats so all’s well that ends well. I’m not sure what I would have done if this was a transcon flight and it turned out the upgrade really was taken away, but I hope UA would have handled it as a downgrade.
Each of the agents I spoke with this morning regarding this issue claimed they had never seen anything like this before. Let’s hope they never see it again…
Probably someone tired after a long day and clicked the wrong check box/key
@Nick: Right. The upgrade cleared around 10:30p ET last night.
I worked in IM in the 1990s, and while we generally worked normal business hour shifts there in Elk Grove Village, there are usually reservations agents with IM training or abilities. I’m sure procedures have changed since my day, but back in the 90s, it would be strange for an IM’er to be at work at that hour.