Originally Posted by
Midsomer
Yes I have. The customers select plus points upgrade when they book the ticket. It’s not usually instantaneous they get their upgrade . No guarantee they get a seat upgrade. They will sell upgrades for non plus points up to check in cutoff time. Yes the list may be long but not all get seats. Also those plus points come with a minimum spend to achieve them. They aren’t gifted. Money exchanges hands and large amount for the chance to upgrade.
How many empty Polaris cabins do you see prior to the upgrade list being cleared one hour before departure? The ability to revenue control the inventory has been better at United than it has ever been. If you yourself really want a Polaris seat for your vacation buy yourself a seat.
And that's my point. The Polaris upgrade list was mostly identical to the standby list on International flights before PlusPoints. Getting Polaris was easy. Now that's not always the case. If there are Polaris seats available come upgrade time, the upgrade list is sometimes long with 1k/platinum Pluspoint upgrades.... the Standbys start 6 or 10 numbers down the list. Oh well. It was GREAT while it lasted. And 27 years in, it's still pretty good.