United MileagePlus (Consolidated) - LAX-PVG-LAX Non Stop Upgrade Chance

Hi there,

Looking to travel Mid October to Mid November to PVG. I see good fares for the Non Stops and $500 or so more to play the UG Lottery with W and GPU. All R buckets are O. What are the chances of R opening up soon, if I purchase a W fare now and have a 1K sponsor me with a GPU R/T?

Has anyone seen the R Space become available shortly after the sponsorship of the GPU?

Thanks and Safe Travels..

I don't know, but I just came off of a AA flight PVG-LAX that cleared at time of booking. It's so nice not to have to play the UG lottery anymore!

Hi there,

Looking to travel Mid October to Mid November to PVG. I see good fares for the Non Stops and $500 or so more to play the UG Lottery with W and GPU. All R buckets are O. What are the chances of R opening up soon, if I purchase a W fare now and have a 1K sponsor me with a GPU R/T?

Has anyone seen the R Space become available shortly after the sponsorship of the GPU?

Thanks and Safe Travels..

Given the price premium, I would avoid GPU roulette. Are there any flights to NRT that you could take that have upgrade space today (and then connect to NH)?

Alternatively, if you mean $500 each way, miles+copay may be a reasonable choice (yes, it costs the additional miles rather than a 1K's SWU, but at least you ought to get the premium back if the upgrade doesn't clear).

I wouldn't bet on any upgrades that aren't available at time of ticketing. To add to all of the other problems, if they don't clear by 24 hours before the flight the requests disappear into a black hole.

Hi there,

Looking to travel Mid October to Mid November to PVG. I see good fares for the Non Stops and $500 or so more to play the UG Lottery with W and GPU. All R buckets are O. What are the chances of R opening up soon, if I purchase a W fare now and have a 1K sponsor me with a GPU R/T?

Has anyone seen the R Space become available shortly after the sponsorship of the GPU?

Thanks and Safe Travels..

There are a few from LAX, but many others if you would consider going through another city (Taken from getmyupgrade,com) :

Date Flight Number Orgin Destination Aircraft R Inventory Flight Details
2012-10-01 UA86 EWR PVG Boeing 777-200 2 Flight Details
2012-10-01 UA877 LAX PVG Boeing 777-200 3 Flight Details
2012-10-02 UA877 LAX PVG Boeing 777-200 9 Flight Details
2012-10-02 UA86 EWR PVG Boeing 777-200 9 Flight Details
2012-10-03 UA86 EWR PVG Boeing 777-200 3 Flight Details
2012-10-23 UA835 ORD PVG Boeing 777-200 1 Flight Details
2012-10-24 UA86 EWR PVG Boeing 777-200 2 Flight Details
2012-10-24 UA877 LAX PVG Boeing 777-200 9 Flight Details
2012-10-25 UA877 LAX PVG Boeing 777-200 9 Flight Details
2012-10-25 UA86 EWR PVG Boeing 777-200 2 Flight Details
2012-10-30 UA857 SFO PVG Boeing 777-200 1 Flight Details
2012-10-31 UA835 ORD PVG Boeing 777-200 5 Flight Details
2012-10-31 UA877 LAX PVG Boeing 777-200 9 Flight Details
2012-11-01 UA877 LAX PVG Boeing 777-200 2 Flight Details
2012-11-01 UA835 ORD PVG Boeing 777-200 2 Flight Details
2012-11-01 UA857 SFO PVG Boeing 777-200 1 Flight Details
2012-11-01 UA86 EWR PVG Boeing 777-200 4 Flight Details
2012-11-06 UA835 ORD PVG Boeing 777-200 2 Flight Details
2012-11-06 UA877 LAX PVG Boeing 777-200 5 Flight Details
2012-11-07 UA877 LAX PVG Boeing 777-200 9 Flight Details
2012-11-07 UA835 ORD PVG Boeing 777-200 5 Flight Details
2012-11-07 UA857 SFO PVG Boeing 777-200 4 Flight Details
2012-11-08 UA877 LAX PVG Boeing 777-200 3 Flight Details
2012-11-08 UA86 EWR PVG Boeing 777-200 3 Flight Details

There are a few from LAX, but many others if you would consider going through another city (Taken from getmyupgrade,com) :

I was just about to say this is what omegadeal's website comes into use.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-mileageplus-consolidated/1366858-new-search-tool-gpu-availability-awards.html

Hi there,

Looking to travel Mid October to Mid November to PVG. I see good fares for the Non Stops and $500 or so more to play the UG Lottery with W and GPU. All R buckets are O. What are the chances of R opening up soon, if I purchase a W fare now and have a 1K sponsor me with a GPU R/T?

Has anyone seen the R Space become available shortly after the sponsorship of the GPU?

Thanks and Safe Travels..

Based on my recent track of that flight, I would say upgrade to C class on UA877 is NOT as difficult as many other TPAC flights. By the way I do not think R availability is related to the number of people on the waitlist. Actually I feel the revenue management "secretly" sends upgrade confirmation to those with priority status.

Based on my recent track of that flight, I would say upgrade to C class on UA877 is as difficult as many other TPAC flights. By the way I do not think R availability is related to the number of people on the waitlist. Actually I feel the revenue management "secretly" sends upgrade confirmation to those with priority status.

R availability is definitely very random ... this p.s. flight i've been waiting on has been R=0 for perpetuity, then this morning shows R6 even *after* my UG waitlist auto-cleared.

R availability is definitely very random ... this p.s. flight i've been waiting on has been R=0 for perpetuity, then this morning shows R6 even *after* my UG waitlist auto-cleared.

Why "this p.s. flight"?

UA has a flight 857 that goes SFO-PVG. Does anyone fly this route regularly? Was wondering what the odds were on having a SWU clear. I know for example that SFO-HKG is practically nil with a W class ticket, for example. Is SFO-PVG the same?

There's also a flight 877 from LAX-PVG. Do SWUs clear on that flight often?

UA has a flight 857 that goes SFO-PVG. Does anyone fly this route regularly? Was wondering what the odds were on having a SWU clear. I know for example that SFO-HKG is practically nil with a W class ticket, for example. Is SFO-PVG the same?

There's also a flight 877 from LAX-PVG. Do SWUs clear on that flight often?

SFO-PVG is similar to SFO-HKG, both hard to clear upgrade since this route has lots of 1K/GS flyers, and Y/B full-fare economy tkts, and even biz-class revenue tkt passengers. SFO-PVG is definitely harder to clear upgrade vs. LAX-PVG. If you must fly SFO-PVG, pick mid-week flights if feasible to increase chance of upgrade.