United Mileage plus upgrade waitlist?
 

Planning trip to for next year SFO-PRG returning MXP-SFO. Looking to use miles plus $$ to upgrade to United Business (Polaris). I don't have elite or premier status, so we'd be last in line for an upgrade. For United, the seats in the R bucket show available for immediate upgrade. I'm wondering if I buy waitlist tickets when the R bucket is empty, and the marketing folks move seats into the R bucket later, will I automatically be upgraded or still be sitting on the waitlist? Hope the question makes sense. Thanks.

Forget an upgrade without status from economy to Biz; not going to happen.

Really? Has it changed? Are you referring to a free upgrade? I got an upgrade that had to pay for, but was waitlisted and cleared.

I think the OP is asking,if his u/g with copay and mileage fees is waitlisted, if seats open up from the wait list, are they given to passengers in order of Mileage Plus status or some other criteria?

Status and fare paid. I have 1K status with United and upgrades are becoming harder and harder to get depending on the route.

weekender -- that's discouraging to hear. I haven't tried in over a year.

United has a dozen or so buckets viewable in expert mode, and from what I've read, the folks in marketing move tix in and out of those buckets. The bucket for upgrading with miles and copay (and without any elite status) is the "R" bucket. If tix appear in that bucket, I can purchase them and receive immediate confirmation of an upgrade. However, it looks like the "R" bucket seldom gets tix thrown into it until shortly before flight time. Understandably, they want to hold on to those business seats as long as possible. I'll just keep checking for my dates and play with different routing to see if I get lucky. The alternative is to be last in line on the waitlist and at the mercy of the gate agent, which I prefer not to do. Thanks for your replies.