Does anyone have tips on using the paper upgrades? I have good luck with online and airport upgrades for west coast trips (Sea/LA/SF/SAC) I am flying with my son to OGG next year. I called to see if I could use the paper upgrades but was told no. There are seats and I suspect 4 months in advance AS wants to sell F seats. But what is the point of having paper upgrades if you cannot use them. I am sure there are tricks but I have not asked until now.
I suggest checking different routes that you might fly and try looking several months into the future for availability. You'd be surprised that some very long flights (e.g. OAK - OGG, LAX-DCA, etc.)offer paper upgradability if you book early enough.
Others can prob weigh in on which routes generally have this availability. There are some routes (e.g. SEA - BOS) that don't generally haev any availability because AS has determined they can sell most of these F seats for full fare...
Are their certain fare codes to look for? Can you use paper upgrades when either booking online or View/Change a current reservation? Thanks for the reply and advise.
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The transcons seem to have very little U availability - though I have seen some from PDX at times. HI and Mexico flights have pretty good U availability - at least until somebody else comes along and books it !
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PDX-BOS-PDX has been pretty good in teh U availability on many days. SEA-BOS not so much. Well except on my last trip there was U on SEA and none on PDX. I used all 4 on my next trip. BOS-PDX-ORD-PDX-BOS
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What is the expiration date on the UG certs?
If you have 2009 Gold UG certs, you can't use those in 2010. If they are 2010 UG certs, then you should be able to use them but you may have to wait for U space to become available.
When booking a flight, use the schedule option [pricing, schedule, and low fare calendar]. Look for the Gold "U", and roll your mouse over the "U" and it will tell you which flight has U availability. If a particular flight shows "U" then you can use the paper certs to snag an upgrade on that flight after booking. Be careful, on some flights SEA-LAX-DCA will show the Gold U, but that is for SEA-LAX only not LAX-DCA, so be sure to read the entire box to ensure that the U is available on both legs.
Try searching SEA-LAX using the schedule option you will see many gold Us. Then try flights such as PDX-BOS, LAX-DCA, or PDX-Hawaii and you will see some gold Us.
To increase your chances on Hawaii flights, I would hop on QX and fly over to PDX and connect onto Hawaii, or connect in OAK.
I have a question myself about paper certs as a newbie MVPG. If I am flying one way from LAX-SEA-ORD and there is U availability on both flights. If I want an upgrade on all flights, I will have to burn two certs?
When the time comes, I would only use the certs on the SEA-ORD leg But just wanted to know, because AS's website says 4 complimentary one way upgrades, so just wanted to clear up the dust a little.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SeattleMadrona
Also, how do you know when a U fare is available?
www.seatcounter.com shows it directly, but if you get the golden "U" indicating MVPG UG availability on the AS availability page then that indicates Upgrade space is available.
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I have a question myself about paper certs as a newbie MVPG. If I am flying one way from LAX-SEA-ORD and there is U availability on both flights. If I want an upgrade on all flights, I will have to burn two certs?
When the time comes, I would only use the certs on the SEA-ORD leg But just wanted to know, because AS's website says 4 complimentary one way upgrades, so just wanted to clear up the dust a little.
One itinerary = 1 cert. It has to be a valid one-way itin and I believe that the limitation is a 4-hour connection or less.
So, if you can book it on AS.com, as a valid one-way trip, and there is U availability for both segments, you should be golden .
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dgwright99
www.seatcounter.com shows it directly, but if you get the golden "U" indicating MVPG UG availability on the AS availability page then that indicates Upgrade space is available.
seatcounter used to be accurate, then a couple others... sadly best way these days is to do a paid one like expertflyer or call up AS to confirm there is U space on a flight...
But unless on a peak holiday, Hawaii has been very good to me with upgrades!
We used certs to upgrade to Hawaii last year. When I called four months out, I was told that there were no upgrades available, even though there were still seats in F. I called back regularly and finally, a month from our flight, got two upgrades. So don't give up and keep checking in with reservations.
But just wanted to know, because AS's website says 4 complimentary one way upgrades, so just wanted to clear up the dust a little.
