Buyer beware! I was just scheduling international travel from IND to FRA and made a reservation on USAirways.com. In previous years I have used system-wide upgrades to go from coach to envoy regardless of class-of-service and you could confirm upgrade up to 1 year in advance.

Oh my how things have changed and without notice I might add. Long story short, I wanted to confirm what class of service I was about to book so on USAirways.com (because it won't tell you on the website) so I called international reservations. What I was about to book was a V and the price was coming in at $637.

Guess what? International told me, and the chairman's desk confirmed, that I had to buy a Q class ticket at $927 to be able to use the system wide upgrades.

Both the V and the Q are non-refundable coach tickets. In other words, no difference at all other than price. So a "FREE" systemwide upgrade based on appreciation of frequent patronage just became a $299 upgrade. Also, you can't confirm your upgrade until 7 days in advance.

Did anyone get this memo?

I believe this has been the case for about 6-8 months now. -V- not upgradeable on transatlantic , that is.

I know I've already warned you about talking about stuff you obviously know nothing about ... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

On the specific flights you want, Q class must be the next available class above V, but SWU's are usable on all Tranatlantic fares except V-class. I thought Q class was a special booking code for tours and such though and is not typically publicly available.

If you have an old SWU (DMUPSYS) they can be used on any fare, even V, just make sure to tell the agent the exact designation (DMUPSYS) and that it's an "old" Systemwide and not a new one (DUMPSYS02, or something like that, it ends in 02).

That has been the case since the beginning of the year... nothing new there. What systemwide coupons are you using? DMUPSYS or SMUPSYS02?

One (DMUPSYS) can be congfirmed at any time, the other can only be used withing the normal Preferred window.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
I know I've already warned you about talking about stuff you obviously know nothing about ... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

On the specific flights you want, Q class must be the next available class above V, but SWU's are usable on all Tranatlantic fares except V-class. I thought Q class was a special booking code for tours and such though and is not typically publicly available.

If you have an old SWU (DMUPSYS) they can be used on any fare, even V, just make sure to tell the agent the exact designation (DMUPSYS) and that it's an "old" Systemwide and not a new one (DUMPSYS02, or something like that, it ends in 02).</font>

Displaying your vast and supreme knowledge of this is what you do best. I guess I'm just an 'average' joe who flys about 150 times a year. I don't claim to know everything about they system nor do I want to. I have a life outside of this chat room. I was asking for information that I, and I would suspect many others, did not have information about.

Geez Beckles, come on...have a cold one and lighten up.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by marcuspratt:
I was asking for information that I, and I would suspect many others, did not have information about.

Geez Beckles, come on...have a cold one and lighten up.</font>

Have you read the SWU's you received at the beginning of this year? All the information is clearly listed on them. Anyone who has read the SWU's (or failing that, using the Search feature here would have worked, this issue was discussed to death when the change first occurred many month ago) knows about it.

Discussions earlier in the year:

Yucky new SWU rules for 2002 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum51/HTML/002091.html)

What to do with the New SWU? (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum51/HTML/002272.html)

P.S. The fare class and rules are right beside your flight info on the web site when you price it out.



[This message has been edited by planeluvr (edited 09-12-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by planeluvr:
P.S. The fare class and rules are right beside your flight info on the web site when you price it out.</font>

Fare class is one click away. Another click to get to the rules. Both fare class and rules might be different for every segment. You could be doing a lot of clicking. (And then there's the minor detail that the rules are unreadable by mere mortals.)

(FWIW -- I agree that the title of the thread is overly alarmist.)

Keep in mind we are all still a bit touchy over other major changes that have gone through, so its worth researching and asking questions before getting everyone VERY excited. I'm still interested to know if you can upgrade V class to Europe using the 20k miles, I am hearing yes.

Chris

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by catwood:
Keep in mind we are all still a bit touchy over other major changes that have gone through, so its worth researching and asking questions before getting everyone VERY excited. I'm still interested to know if you can upgrade V class to Europe using the 20k miles, I am hearing yes.</font>

If they're telling you yes, maybe it's true ... if it is, I wouldn't be surprised if next year's SWU's change to reflect the same also ...

My parents and I are going to London in early January. We all purchased V-class fares and are upgraded across the pond. However, since we used 20K each way for two of the upgrades and an old DMUPSYS for the third, we only have one seat in F from JAX-PHL and PHL-JAX. With the 20K upgrade, it is only good for the transatlantic part; therefore, you must still use the 7-3-1 window for the domestic segment.

Just a little bit of information that I did not know until we made the reservation.

[This message has been edited by abbeachbear (edited 09-12-2002).]

So you were able to upgrade a V-fare with miles too?!? Interesting ...

I raced over to my bulletin board.... Oh no! I was looking forward to my annual US transatlantic leisure trip in C class this fall.

The risk of winding up in US economy is too large and not worth it since I have to connect to PHL. That's what I like about UA -- I can tolerate E+.

How can people have DMUPSYS coupons left? Wouldn't they have expired in Feb 2002?

That's it... all my miles are going on UA next year if they sort out the agreement.

Some people who got packets near the end of the year got the older ones. The latest expiration date is Jan 31st.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nawlinsdoc:
Some people who got packets near the end of the year got the older ones. The latest expiration date is Jan 31st.</font>

For what it's worth, and at risk of more "alarmist crap" from a layman, I have DMUPSYS including companion upgrades that expire on 01/31/03.

The comments here are all correct and these older coupons are still good for use as normal, regardless of class of service and confirmable at any time.

But, don't be so quick to slam me. USAirway's made no attempt to ask me if these were older coupons or not, they only said that systemwides and V class fares are not upgradeable at all...period. This was the same story from Reservations, Chairmans liasion, and consumer affairs (which didn't really know much of anything...you know...like me). Their only statement, which was repeated over and over and over...was that any and all 'systemwides' are not available on V class fares.

Anyway, I don't have any of the 'new' systemwides and there has to be a slew of other flyers out there that don't know anything about the 'new' coupons either because they have not received them yet. It took me 5 more calls to finally get ahold of someone in International Res. that allowed me to use them and then it took 10 minutes on the phone for them to figure it out. Even the lady that finally let me use them said that she was told that no more of these old coupons even existed. Obviously they do, and to your credit, it was because of the information that you provided. Otherwise, I would have trashed them because I'm not about to pay for a $290 upgrade.

So, I hope at least somebody else reads these comments and doesn't trash them after US tells them, catagorically, that they are not valid for use. Otherwise, unless they do extensive research, they would have no idea either.

Not all us have received our new annual membership packets. I'm not alone here, just a minority at this point.

[This message has been edited by marcuspratt (edited 09-12-2002).]

[This message has been edited by marcuspratt (edited 09-12-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by abbeachbear:
My parents and I are going to London in early January. We all purchased V-class fares and are upgraded across the pond. However, since we used 20K each way for two of the upgrades and an old DMUPSYS for the third, we only have one seat in F from JAX-PHL and PHL-JAX. With the 20K upgrade, it is only good for the transatlantic part; therefore, you must still use the 7-3-1 window for the domestic segment.

Just a little bit of information that I did not know until we made the reservation.

[This message has been edited by abbeachbear (edited 09-12-2002).]</font>

WHAT?? The 20K miles is ONLY for the Transatlantic piece? Living in Philly, I've never really cared, but are you sure this is right? Most international upgrade awards include the connecting flight on other airlines (e.g. United lets you upgrade the entire itinerary PHL-ORD-SFO-NRT-BKK on 25K upgrade award.)

Are you sure they just didn't have G class seats available PHL-JAX.

[This message has been edited by kv99 (edited 09-12-2002).]

Either the rules have recently changed, or there is bad information out there.

Earlier this year I flew SFO-PHL-AMS with a stop-over in PHL for 7-days. The ticket was booked in K and I used the 20K award to upgrade the ticket. This confirmed me in F on the SFO-PHL leg and in Envoy for the PHL-AMS leg a week later. The award is covers your entire trip, not just trans-atlantic! Of course you need to have G seats available in order to confirm into F on the domestic legs. Otherwise I can see them making you wait until your winow to upgrade.

I used one of the OLD SWU to upgrade a RT ticket in V-class from AMS-BTV. There were no hassles and it was easy. I still have one left, expires 12/31/02, and am planning on using it for my holiday travels AMS-BOS.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by noah:
Either the rules have recently changed, or there is bad information out there.
</font>

No, the rules have not changed. I upgraded with 20K miles my LGA-PHL-FCO on 10/8. The domestic portion has been upgraded as well.

Ciao,

TP

When we made the reservations(Dad - US2, Mom - currently US3 soon to be US2, and Me - US2) we were told that since it was a V-fare that only the international portion was upgradable with the 20K each way. I actually have no problem with this. Flying in and out of JAX I have a circa 98% success rate of getting upgrades (sometimes I am the only one in the cabin). As long as I am in Envoy on a 330 across the pond, I really do not care were I sit from JAX-PHL.

However, guess which one of us will be sitting in 2C from JAX-PHL both ways?!?

[This message has been edited by abbeachbear (edited 09-13-2002).]

Your mother ("I don't care where I sit as long as it's 2C").

Now go to class.

Actually it's very clear on the website:

http://www.usairways.com/dividendmiles/redeemingmiles/howtoredeem/upgrades.htm

V fares CANNOT be upgraded with the 20K mile award (transatlantic sector or complete itinerary), and I just confirmed this with the international desk. abbeachbear, sounds like you might have gotten lucky.

I've still got a pair of the old-style DMUPSYS certificates, expiring January 2003. I've almost used these twice (but decided to use miles both times), and each time the rep has been surprised to hear that there are still a few such certificates out there, but had no problems accepting that fact when I told them I'd qualified for Silver in late 2001.