TA

Hi all -- seeking your advice on whether it's worth booking a B fare late December to Singapore (January return), the idea being that only Y or B is upgradeable with UA miles.

Is there even a chance of an upgrade happening, or has SQ / UA "temporarily suspended *A upgrades", or is there so little upgrade space that it is pretty much a non-existent fantasy to pay extra for Y/B? (Also I recall hearing that upgrades are not even possible on some routes with A380 service?)

Given that UA doesn't even list major SQ routes for miles redemption, I figure it engages in some restrictive shenanigans on upgrade availability as well.

Thanks.

mherdeg

SQ supposedly prohibits *A upgrade awards on routes operated by the A380 or the 777-300ER. *Supposedly*. See http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...rade/saua.aspx :


But, to be honest, the Star Alliance upgrade scheme is a bit opaque. (In general across partners it does not always come from exactly the same space as award inventory — for example there is *A upgrade LX F available.)

If you find a refundable ticket or have 24 hours to spare, you could try this out — book the ticket, try to upgrade it, see what you learn.

My empirical experience has been that on the routes where SQ has affordable Y/B fares, they are flying 77W/A380 equipment (and probably know exactly what they're doing, heh). But absolutely give it a shot; who knows, maybe something like AMS-SIN will work out!

WineCountryUA

Given this a SQ question on availablity of *A upgrades, will move this to the SQ forum.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

stargold

That's because LX upgrades to F using miles is booked into A class, different from the O class which is the one blocked to non-LH airlines.

I can't speak with certainty as I've not had to do a Star upgrade in this way before, but I'd be very surprised if it works since it would be unusual for SQ to have overlooked something like this.