Why is there no R bucket showing in the fares?

I was under the belief that if there was no R available, it would show R0. So why isn't the R fare bucket showing at all on this flight?

What's the flight #, date and route?

What page are you looking at? Can you show a full screenshot?

Clicking on "Fare Classes" to show inventory will not show the R bucket (or a lot of award buckets like XY/XC/XF), if you visited the "Fare Classes" link by looking at a "View My Itinerary" page, or if you have fake-booked a flight and are most of the way through the booking process.

Clicking on "Fare Classes" to show inventory reliably shows the R bucket if I visit that link from united.com->"Search" and don't go beyond the very first search results page.

That's not my experience. Just this morning I looked at an upcoming PNR of mine and saw that it was R6. I assume that if the bucket is empty, it doesn't show R0, but rather completely omits the bucket.

This is correct. On existing itineraries, fare classes with no inventory are simply not displayed, rather than displaying with the fare code and a 0.

Correct.

So you'll see R0 if applicable only when searching for flights to buy, my guess they do that so you'll know whether you can upgrade or not.

Once a itin is purchased and a PNR is created, it will not show the R0 -- it will just omit the "R" code being listed their completely.

Thank you for that information. There is a lot I have to learn about the CO websitr. I was looking at it through my itinerary. I did a dummy booking and it did show R0.

Ooh, that's very subtle. Nice catch.

And now this morning it is R8, but I have to wait for the sweep to clear.

Good luck!

If you have status, you can help things along by calling your dedicated elite line (if there is one) and requesting an upgrade that will clear right away...I will definitely not wait for the sweep if I am waitlisted and R > 0.

That is officially only supposed to work if the upgrade is support by an instrument. For CPUs agents are not supposed to push it through if you call.

The assumption was, of course, that one had put down an upgrade instrument (GPU, RPU, miles)... CPU is, well, complimentary, so, therefore, it is hard to lay claim...

Well the upgrade window went by and it is now R6 and I didn't clear on the CPU.

Called the 1k desk. It took 3 calls to get someone to answer the phone 1K desk (she was in HNL by the way). She said that my upgrade should have cleared, she apologized for their unreliable system that works one day and not the next, and assigned my preferred seat.