UA Upgrade driving me crazy!
 

Ok, this is not a question, but more just a vent for my frustration.

I purchased an upgradable economy ticket (read, more expensive) for LAX-IAD-CDG and planned on using UA Miles to upgrade to business.
The return flight upgraded no problem for both legs and I am in Business for LAX to IAD.

I am still waitlisted IAD to CDG and the flight is this Friday.

When I look at the seating charts for tickets to be purchased on united.com there appear to be 8 seats left in Business.
However, when I called UA yesterday, I was told that my chances for an upgrade are slim to none because Business was "sold out" and those business class seats available for purchase are basically "oversells".
Meaning, if everyone shows up for the flight, some people will get bumped. Can you imagine paying over $9000 for that ticket and getting bumped? Or planning a year out and using your miles for the ticket and getting bumped?

Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that somehow I will get my upgrade. If not, I'm hoping to get back 15,000 of my miles and at least I have a seat booked in Premium Econmomy.

I do have one question. Anyone know if I can use the Red Carpet room on arrival at IAD if my connecting ticket is not in Business class but my arrival flight is?

Kristina, yes it is maddening.I think you might have spoken with an overly zealous agent.Though the number of seats for sale at any time might vary, right now there are 3 Business Class seats available for purchase.There are 6 "unclaimed" seats on the seating chart.Anything can happen.Best of luck.

You have a Y/B fare?? That is what it takes to upgrade for only 15,000 miles.

You'll get the miles back if the upgrade doesn't clear. Keep your BPs of course. If they oversell in business class then somebody will probably be moved up to first class.

The flight shows C4 availability at united dot com meaning four full fare seats available. Six unassigned seats.

The ORD-CDG flight would be an option for you. It has less C availability and no NC availability (upgrade seats). Lots of C availability on Saturday but they are also NC0.

Good luck.

Hmmmm...I'm wondering why she insisted it was "sold out" then?

Thanks for the reassurance anyway. I am hoping I'll get the upgrade. I have Premier (the lowest one) status, so that should give me a small edge, but I don't know how many people are wait listed ahead of me, or their status.

Mrwunfl-I don't know what kind of fare it is, only that it was "upgradable".
It was 30,000 miles each way to upgrade and I'm hoping that if I only upgrade LAX-IAD, I will get 15,000 miles back since it is only a Domestic upgrade (at least that was what the UA agent said yesterday after checking with her supervisor).
Why would the ORD flight be an option if there are no upgrade seats? I can't go on Sat either.

You'd get your miles back only if you downgraded to economy on the LAX-IAD flight.

A domestic business class ticket is not going to get you into the RCC.

I just saw your most recent post.

For a Y/B fare it would be 15,000 total to upgrade LAX-IAD-CDG. But now I understand that you have an M/H fare, upgradeable with 30,000 miles. It would be 15,000 miles for LAX-IAD only. You must be on UA 946 from LAX. That will be good as it is international business class (better than domestic first).

Yep! flt 946.
So, if I don't get my IAD-CDG upgrade they will credit back 15,000 of my miles?

I really want to keep my business seat LAX to IAD because last time I checked there were no aisle seats in economy plus.

Still, I am not giving up hope yet. This trip is for my 40th birthday and I need to travel gods to smile on me!

Check out this FAQ from the United site. It would seem to indicate that you could get 15k back.

http://faq.ua2go.com/al/12/1/article...1311&bt=4n

I've had this happen a couple of times, but it was the short domestic segment that didn't clear--so I did nothing.

Good luck with the upgrade.

That link won't work for me. But I've got to believe you would get the miles back. Might have to call. Keep your boarding passes.

When you go to My Itineraries you see "Upgrade Confirmed" for LAX-IAD and "Upgrade Waitlisted" for IAD-CDG?

If you have Premier status then you already have your E+ seat assigned for IAD-CDG, right? Your upgrade window starts 48 hours before departure.

Aisle seats 26B and 19G and 21G are open. The center sections of rows 22-25 are empty, so there are 8 more aisle seats. For windows are open. All in E+ Biz class is C5, NC0, with 6 seats.

How odd, the link worked last night but not now (different URL this morning; good old United site...). I've pasted the text below. You can also find it by typing "upgrade re-credit" into the search field for FAQs. I don't know what "re-credit" fee would involve.

<b>I booked an upgrade using miles but was not able to be upgraded on my whole itinerary on United. Can some of the miles be re-credited to my account?</b>

*For itineraries that are completely within the United States, re-crediting of miles is not allowed.

*For itineraries with international segments, whether mileage is re-credited depends on whether the upgraded segment(s) cost the same as the entire itinerary. For example:

--Taipei - Narita - San Francisco = 15,000-mile upgrade Award

--If only Narita - San Francisco segment is upgraded: there is no re-credit of miles, because an upgrade award for Narita - San Francisco by itself is also 15,000 miles

--If only the Taipei - Narita segment is upgraded: a 10,000-mile recredit is due, because an upgrade award for Taipei - Narita by itself would be only 5,000 miles.

If miles are due to be re-credited, please contact the Mileage Plus Service Center. A re-credit fee may apply.

I don't think the 48-hour window applies to mileage upgrades; only to the 500-mile domestic e-upgrades. Mileage upgrades can clear at any time. If still on the waitlist when it goes to departure management control (few hours before), the waitlist is cleared first by status, then fare paid, then time added to the departure management list (generally that means check-in time). Before that, it's a bit more complicated. There are two waitlists, and Premiers using miles are on the lower of the two lists.

ms_go-Thanks for the details, I couldn't get the link to work either. It sounds like I should be able to get my miles back. Unfortunately, you last post doesn't give me the most hope for my upgrade.

Mrwunfl-Yes, my itinerary says &quot;Upgrade Confirmed&quot; for LAX-IAD and &quot;Upgrade Waitlisted&quot; for IAD-CDG&quot;
And yes, I am confirmed in E+ for IAD-CDG in an aisle seat. I was was more concerned about having to go back to E+ on LAX-IAD.

You never know what'll happen. There can always be cancellations or no shows. I've cleared at the gate a number of times (including a couple of times on international flights) on when it didn't look promising beforehand.

My 15 y/o daughter (Premier) flew a few months ago to visit her grandparents. About 48 hours before her flight, I saw that she had some soon-to-expire e500s in her account, so I decided on a whim to add her to the waitlist. The flight was almost sold out and first was showing only one seat for sale. I figured nothing would come of it--so imagine my surprise when she starts texting me from the gate saying she'd just been paged and given a first class seat.

So don't give up hope!

Ms_Go- Thanks, my fingers are crossed and I just keep repeating my mantra, &quot;business class aisle seat&quot; over an over hoping that the power of positive thinking will somehow win over. :-)
I promise to post from the RCC if I get in!

It is C6 now with 6 seats.

mrwunfl- what does that mean? What is &quot;C6&quot;?

It means that there are 6 C class (full-fare business) seats available for sale. That's the good news. The bad news is that your real competition for the upgrade is from higher-status fliers or those in higher fare classes than yours and there are likely to be a bunch of those.

A Plan B for upgrade is for coach to be oversold, so they push folks up. Even if business is full, they'll make room for additional upgrades by moving people up. I flew this flight a couple of weeks ago and I was upgraded from upgraded business to first. But they're showing 9+ availability for coach, so don't get your hopes up.

Ok, here's where I'm confused and this goes back to my original post.
When I look on united.com, I can see those 6 business class seats for sale.
But when I called UA, they told me that actually business was &quot;sold out&quot;. That ALL seats had been sold, so even if those 6 seats don't sell, I probably won't get upgraded because Business is full.
So, what's the truth. Are all seats sold or not?

The number of seats available for sale includes oversells.

Flights are generally &quot;authorized&quot; for a certain number of seats to be sold, in each cabin--economy, Business and First Class.The number that is authorized is the number of seats in the cabin, plus any oversells.Obviously the number of authorized seats is the number of actual seats plus oversells.On your flight, there are 49 business class seats.The number of authorized seats appears to be 55.The number of authorized seats varies,day to day flight to flight, hour to hour.Most airlines do not oversell F/C.It can get nasty.Now, you ask, who authorizes flights?? Well, some schmuck who may or may not resemble a geek.But he/she looks at past data and makes a decision according to a complex formula and chooses the number of seats for overselling.Tomorrow, the flight might be &quot;even&quot; which means it is equal to the number of seats actually on the plane.

It was C4 yesterday, then C5, now C6, so availability increased.

As of this morning on ua.com there are only 3 seats showing open in Business. I'm not sure what site you guys are looking at, but is it the same?

Looks like there are 5 seats in first, so can I hope that some people will be moved from Business to First and I may still get a seat?

I'm now 48 hours from departure. Will it do me any good to call UA again?
Should I get to the airport extra early on Friday? Anything I can do to increase my chances?
At what point do they stop waiting to see those seats and give away the upgrades?

seatcounter.com and expertflyer.com are showing C5 currently.

There really isnt much more you can do.The final decision to convert the &quot;for sale&quot; seats to upgrade seats rests with the person who will maintain departure management control, or whatever United calls it.One person will monitor the flight beginning at some point in time, whether it be 24 hours or 12 hours prior to departure time.Now, keep in mind that at any given time there will be airline employees standing by for the flight.The agent in control of the flight knows how many, since it is proper protocol for an airline employee to advise the airline of their desire to be on the flight.So anyone, anywhere can be moved up for any reason.You probably wont know until it happens.

C5 with 3 unassigned seats (at ual dot com). F5. YES you can hope that pax in C will be upgraded to F.

Economy class is still wide open. The E+ seating diagram hasn't changed since Monday.

My experience (I'm 1K) is that UA won't move people from business to first just because there are empty seats in first. As I said before, the only way they will move people from business to first is if they have to open up space in business to avoid bumping people from oversold coach, but it doesn't look like that'll happen on this flight.

What you have to hope for is that there are enough no shows in business so that everyone ahead of you in the upgrade queue (and you have to assume that there are at least a few ahead of you in the queue) clears and you get in.

C9 now with 7 unassigned seats

Seriously, the suspense is killing me!
I love that you guys keep looking and checking for me. :-)

Note to self: keep repeating mantra. &quot;Business Class, Aisle Seat, all the way to Paris&quot;.

That makes sense, EricH. If C is oversold by 1 and they all show up then UA would move someone up to make room for that 1. But they wouldn't move someone up to make room for a Premier on the waitlist with miles to spend. There aren't any C/D-paid pax waitlisted for upgrade - all 5 F seats are available for upgrade.

Mrwunfl-can you actually see the waitlist?

Less than 24 hrs to go now. I see only 4 seats in business on united.com
Would it help me to check in online now?

The flight is NC2 now. That is two upgrade to business seats are available. Call United right away, if you ug has not already cleared.

I called this morning and they would not do anything. Said it would happen &quot;automatically&quot; or at the gate...
I am still waitlisted right now.

You asked about the waitlist. I was referring to the upgrade-from-business to first waitlist. I could see that there were 5 first class seats available. The number of available upgrade-from business to first seats was also 5. Logically, the fact that upgrade-to-first seats were/are available means nobody was on that waitlist.

mrw.....From what I gather, American is the only airline that maintains any &quot;wiggle&quot; or &quot;manually inserted&quot; opportunities for domestic upggrades.All others, completely automated, from the queue.

I just called United AGAIN.

Was on hold for almost 20 min while the agent checked the wait list.

I am confirmed!!!!!! YAY! :-)

I am a VERY happy girl.

Thanks to all for the advice!

Have a wonderful trip!

BeachBoi, I suggested OP call if the &quot;ug has not already cleared&quot;. It was not about wiggle room. If her online itin still showed waitlisted then that would be a problem. The ug should (and probably did) clear automatically, but I wouldn't assume that it did. I figured that if OP saw my post that she would skip looking at her itin online and just call. Apparently, she was calling anyway.