Upgrade/Fare class question

I admit that I have not studied the fare classes in order learn when upgrades are available. The only thing I do know is that there is a relationship between R fares and upgrade availability. Please forgive my willful ignorance, but it is only now becoming increasingly important to me, as I'm now choosing to buy so many front cabin tickets if I know that there's no way I'll be upgraded.

My Wednesday, 6/27 afternoon flight from LGA to IAH shows ten of sixteen First Class seats open. I am Platinum, my fare class is L, and we are within the 72 hour window, with equally high seat availability showing in the E+ seat map. The economy seat map is sold out with the exception of two last row seats. The Fare Classes showing on the link are: F8, JN8, A8, Z4, ZN4, P4, PN8, Y9, YN9, B9, M9, E9, U9, H9, HN9, Q9, V9, W9, S9, T6, L4, K1, G0, N0

Seeing no R or RN classes on this list, does that mean that there will be no upgrades until the 30 minute window is reached?

I was also looking at some BOG to BCN tickets for January. The EWR-BCN portions were all showing R0 and RN0, even though there have only been a handful of total seats sold on those flights. If we go, it will be with the plan of using GPUs. I don't even want to go if we can't use them, as those are some long flights. Are the R fares the same for international flights as they are for domestic, or do they use a different fare class to indicate their upgrade availability?

Thanks in advance for the accurate info I have come to rely upon here.

 

@Ken, R = the upgrade inventory that is available. For a flight from coach to First or coach to Business or Business First,, and R must al least show 1. R2 means there are two upgrade seats available. In order to confirm an upgrade, there must be at least R1. From the United Help Desk Thread, the details of the Mileage Plus program show all of the upgrade fare buckets. http://milepoint.com/forums/wiki/united-mileage-plus-merged-program-details/#upgrade-fare-buckets

 

Thank you Chitownflyer! I'm just confused now about why it doesn't show R0 or RN0, although they are obviously not going to upgrade me until we start the take-off roll in this case.

 

Ken, as far as your international trip in January, it's best you try and find R inventory anywhere over the Atlantic ocean. Boxing yourself into only the EWR-BCN flight on a specific day will likely mean you will not go (using your example of not going if you can't use a GPU). Think a little out of the box and play with different routing to Europe and then connect on to BCN.
John

 

If you are looking at an existing reservation it will not show fare buckets with zero inventory in them. If you search a new reservation it will.

Also, for connecting itineraries make sure to search segment-by-segment rather than the whole itinerary. It will give you a more accurate view of the inventory.

 

Ahhh.... More good info. Thanks.

On a side note, I'm flying CM today SJO-PTY-JFK and wish that Copa showed the same info. Their site is far less informative, and what little info they offer is often inaccurate.

 

Update: I arrived in New York tonight to find an upgrade notice in my email for the very flight in question.

I was confused when I wrote the first post of this thread. You guys came through and cleared it up for me. Now (although I'm quite pleased), I'm confused all over again.