Hi everyone.

Last year I had a souring experience when my wife and I tried to use or DM to upgrade our PHL-MAD flight. They told us our tickets were W and therefore not upgradeable. Those tickets were almost $1,000 for crying outloud.

Does anyone know (a) which classes are eligible, and (b) how can one hand-pick fare class, especially online?

One last question: does GP help at all when upgrading to Envoy?

Thanks!

Welcome to Flyertalk. Full fares (Y or B) can be upgraded for 10K miles each way. M, H, and Q can be upgraded for 30K miles each way. V can be upgraded for 30K miles each way through February 9.

When booking online, if you search by price, click on the "i" under Fare Rules. The booking code is displayed. The cheapest (not including V) upgradable fare PHL-MAD is currently $641.

Gold Preferred status will indeed help securing an upgrade as you will be placed higher on the waiting list should a seat not be immediately available. I have also been operationally upgraded (eg free upgrade) as a GP from PHL-MAD when the flight was full.

Keep in mind that some of the other US carriers (eg AA, CO) now require a "co-payment" as high as $450 when using miles to upgrade, so Dividend Miles continues to be very competitive in this respect (the price difference between the lowest available fare and the lowest upgradeable fare is significantly less than $450 each way).

Effective January 5, 2005, V class is eligible for upgrade for travel through 2/9/05

Effective January 5, 2005, V class is eligible for upgrade for travel through 2/9/05
Anyone know when this 2/9/05 thing came into play? I bought a V fare for March because I thought I could upgrade it, and don't remember seeing this stipulation when I booked on the website. Looks like I can't upgrade it now (argh!).

Sean

I wish I knew - I just saw it posted about a week ago when i was surfing through the site.

-JC

One last question: does GP help at all when upgrading to Envoy?

It can. Twice in the last year, I have managed to get free operational upgrades (I think that's the term; someone here will correct me otherwise) when the coach cabin was oversold and they needed my seat. The reason they upgraded me and not someone else was because I was GP (apparently there weren't any CP's looking to move up).

I have read here that they might not be doing that anymore, but it hasn't been definitely confirmed.

I bought a V fare for March because I thought I could upgrade it, and don't remember seeing this stipulation when I booked on the website. Looks like I can't upgrade it now (argh!).

Sean:

I agree this is really annoying!!! For what it's worth, I've "upgraded" my fare class in the past by calling customer service and they didn't charge a fee.......somtimes it's not that much more for the assurance of (possibly) getting the upgrade.....good luck!

KIM

The USAirways.com website has had a very good chart for over a year on using points for upgrades.

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

Looks like an underhanded change to me. Pretty much all published fares except W used to be upgradeable. Shame on US. Maybe it's BBB's parting gift to US FFs? :td:

Looks like an underhanded change to me. :

Yeah, it is pretty underhanded. I wonder if you could talk them into something based on that the fare was published as upgradable when you bought it. Did you try talking to someone? This seems like a pretty valid complaint to me.

KIM

Yeah, it is pretty underhanded. I wonder if you could talk them into something based on that the fare was published as upgradable when you bought it. Did you try talking to someone? This seems like a pretty valid complaint to me.

KIM
I've got to call International today anyway as I have a paper ticket that never made it to my home for a flight in February (Caribbean Sun codeshare). When my March paper tickets made it and I haven't seen February I figure I figured I better call them.

I am not crazy in that the "February 9th" stipulation is a new thing right? I booked this about 3 weeks ago and really don't remember this provision being present. But before I make that argument I want to have my facts straight. I booked my trip on January 8th or so, (someone mentione as of January 5th this new provision applies), but I don't think this was noted on the website upgrade page.

Thanks all,

Sean

I am not crazy in that the "February 9th" stipulation is a new thing right?

Sean:

I don't know exactly when that stipulation went up, but I remember someone mentioning something about it in a previous post so you might want to do a search. It definitely is a new thing, I just don't know if it was posted before or after you bought your ticket. I'm lucking out with the V fare with a PHL/LGW trip this weekend returning Feb. 1.

Just fyi, my upgrade with miles cleared on both legs when I purchased the ticket (I think 8 days out).....first time that's happened in a long time!!!

KIM