adcer

Quick backstory: I need a one-way paid flight NYC-SYD on a Star Alliance carrier. Paid because I need the miles credited to United for status in 2018. I have a lot of Chase UR and Amex MR to use to pay for the paid ticket. Singapore JFK-FRA-SIN-SYD ended up being the cheapest at ~$800. Cool, I think, I have lots of leftover Singapore miles from a failed booking and I could use them to upgrade. But nope, fare class is too low. Also, fare class is so low it doesn't earn miles with United, which was the whole point.

So then I look at the cost of Premium Economy. It's $500 more, or $1300. This earns status miles on United, and I can use Singapore miles to do an upgrade. I use the Krisflyer calculator and it says JFK-SYD upgrade from Premium Economy to Business is 54,000 miles, less the 15% discount, 45,900. I try to put this in motion and things go wrong quickly.

(1) Chase can't find the $1300 rate, only a $1500 rate. Worked for an hour but finally just accepted it.

(2) Called Singapore and they confirmed upgrade would be 54,000 but they can't do the web discount, so I finally just accepted that. They said they could only confirm SIN-SYD at this time, the others would be waitlisted. Fine.

(3) Looked at my ticket and all segments show waitlisted, none confirmed, so I call back. They said if I want to confirm an individual segment, I have to pay the individual segment rate, which is 30,000 for SIN-SYD. I said that's crazy, if I did that for each segment we're talking 96,000 miles to upgrade PE->Business, whereas if I just booked it outright on miles, it's 107,500, or 91,375 after the 15% web discount. He came back and said they'd honor the 54,000 rate, but only if all segments are confirmable at the same time.

So, obviously, what the heck are the chances of JFK-FRA, FRA-SIN, and SIN-SYD all being available at the same time? Nearly zero.

Anyone been in this situation before? If this is in fact what I have to do, what's the best way for keeping tabs on availability? Just searching each of the three segments each day or something? Praying?

Frankly, I'm nervous they'll clear individually on their own, at the per-sector rates, but I guess SIN-SYD would've already cleared if that's the case.

It isn't too late to back out of all this. I could cancel the Chase booking until tomorrow afternoon and try to go at this a different way. Would appreciate anyone's advice!

paperwastage

A) upgrade bucket is different from award ticket bucket (aka you need to search via the 'upgrade' option on a purchased ticket, not via the normal redeem-miles option)

B) you should be able to waitlist

C) if you get an upgrade, new seat might be in a fare class that united won't accrue miles. Might be complicated to get united to pay out the original premium economy, not sure if I want this headache

Will you "settle" for flying on premium economy instead of business?

adcer

Thanks for your thoughts. Sounds like if there's a different bucket for upgrade waitlist, I won't have access to see that, since my Chase-booked flight doesn't let me upgrade online. So that's super-frustrating, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Yeah, they did let me waitlist - all three segments showed in waitlist (so I have six segments - 3 confirmed PE, 3 waitlisted Business. Although curiously, when I just checked, now my last segment SIN-SYD shows confirmed business, with the confirmed PE still there as well. No miles have been withdrawn. Weird. Maybe they're waiting to see how many segments will clear and then they'll bill me accordingly? Or maybe they just haven't gotten around to the one-sector withdrawal cost.

That does sound like a headache, but isn't it the case that the purchased fare class (rather than the upgraded-to fare class) is what counts for mileage accrual/status? That's been the case on other Star Alliance carriers where I've either purchased, bid, or redeemed miles of an upgrade -- I always get the miles based on my economy fare.

Yeah, it would be fine. I was just hoping to burn some of these Krisflyer miles before they expire. And it seems crazy in one sense to burn 100,000 Chase UR points to fly Singapore premium economy just so I can get status-qualifying miles on UA, when I have 117,500 Singapore Krisflyer miles that I could redeem instead to fly Singapore business (91,375) or suites (116,875). But, always the fight to qualify for status...

paperwastage

you have to ask yourself that question.. how much is it (silver/gold/?) worth to you versus the paid options?

This flight: you're doing OW *A, not sure whether you're paying any additional to get back...

The benefits of silver/gold can be attained by buying e+ subscription ($700) + explorer card ($99, one bag free) = $800

Is it faster to get to SYD via delta(lax/SFO) or ana (Japan)?

adcer

Yeah, the rest of the itinerary gets even more complicaed from there. After a period in Sydney I'll be doing SYD-AKL-PPT-IPC on LATAM which I will either do with points transferred to BA for redemption, or through more Chase or Amex points redeemed for paid tickets (would rather redeem as it's a better value).

Then hoping to do a Star carriers -- Avianca, Copa, or United - back from SCL-NYC. Hoping to do paid, with redeeming points from Chase to pay, so I can get the status miles on that.

Largely true, although it's tough to place a value on the exceptions UA gives to its elites. I ask them to do favors for me all the time that constantly result in value - they often waive change and cancellation fees, each time at the cost of $75 (for standby or same day change) or $200-400 (outside of the same day change timeframe), which adds up. Cheaper rates on booking mileage tickets, redepositing them if I don't use them, etc. So it's tough to calculate the value but I should probably try harder before going down this road.

Much. I'd take United EWR-SFO/LAX/SYD and it cuts travel time by a third at least, although it also cuts qualifying miles to 10,000 down from 15,000. I'd get complimentary E+ from status and I could upgrade to business with 30,000 UA miles + $450, or by finding a friend with a GPU certificate since the one-way fare class is high enough to use a GPU.

So the options are:

Singapore option:

• Premium Economy: 100,000 points, $0, earn 15,000 status qualifying miles (6.66 points or ~$0.13 per 1 status qualifying mile)
• To go up to business: 54,000-96,000 points, $0

United option:

• "Premium" Economy: 50,000 points, $0, earn 10,000 status qualifying miles (5 points or ~$0.10 per 1 status qualifying mile)
• To go up to business: 30,000 points, $450