US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - How to upgrade 3 pax PHL-LAX

My sister is flying with her husband and daughter to LAX in a few months. She is newly Gold after being a lowly US4 for years after I taught her about Getting Out and flying on Philly's Wings. Her company lets her fly paid Envoy to MAN, other than one or two RT's a year to MAN she doesn't fly much.

So now she has 4 SWU's and 4 NAU's and wants to upgrade the whole family to F. I know she can only upgrade one travelling companion with coupons, and since she will be on roach fares she is looking at the 3 day window.

I have no experience with mileage upgrades. Can she upgrade the 3rd pax with miles? At any time even off a V fare? From the web site it looks like it is 20K miles and can be anytime > 3 days in advance. And does it need to be G availability or does the mileage upgrade go into I? What if the two certificate upgrades don't clear at the 3 day window, can she downgrade the 3rd pax back to Y?

TIA for your advice. My sister thinks I'm an expert and I need to maintain the image!

Yes, she can upgrade anyone with a 20K award for a domestic roundtrip. If her window doesn't clear however for her and the other companion, she can redeposit the points for a fee and send the third passenger back to coach.

She runs the risk, however, at the 3 day window of not being left with many good coach seats if the upgrades don't clear. You have educated her on how to use ITN in expert mode, right??

If she opts to upgrade one of the pax to F with points, have her reserve 8A and 8C(on a 757) or 9A and 9C(on a 321) to at least get the best coach seats. They'll unlikely give up that middle 'B' seat until they have to.

I'm curious - As a Gold, how does she have 4 SWU's if she just made Gold? Are they all the newer DMUPSYS02's or does she have 2 of the older 'DMUPSYS' certs?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PHL:

You have educated her on how to use ITN in expert mode, right??

I'm curious - As a Gold, how does she have 4 SWU's if she just made Gold? Are they all the newer DMUPSYS02's or does she have 2 of the older 'DMUPSYS' certs?</font>

I plan to do the ITN thing for her.

She has 4 systemwide because she got 2 for making Silver then 2 more in her Gold package. They are all the DMUPSYS2's, I believe.

Do you know if the mileage upgrades get booked into "G" or "I"?

They are booked in "G".

US20's are booked in G, US10's are booked in I.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
US20's are booked in G, US10's are booked in I.</font>

Beckles, do you really think Gardener's sister's family will be travelling on Y or B fares to actually use US10's? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by nawlinsdoc (edited 11-15-2002).]

Thanks folks.