Cheetah_SA

^Thanks for that good advice Thai-Kiwi!

CdaWorld

Don't think it's been asked but I was wondering if there are specific fare codes that would not be upgradable? Specifically now that TG doesn't give points to codes G, V & W. If you wish to seek a stand-by u/g can you do so from the cheapest available fare?

I guess that it would be a wise investment to pay the small fare difference anyway to collect the miles should the u/g not clear.

I'm planning to try the stand-by thing next month for BKK-DPS. Hopefully it works. Does anyone have any experience with this route and can make observations on how the loads are and u/g success?

Thai-Kiwi

Standby upgrades can be from any fare class. Specifically, some have succeeded in gaining a standby upgrade from an award ticket. YMMV on that.

cheers, TK

1K Student

I have just upgraded from award business (I Class - UA issued award) to First yesterday from Bangkok to Hong Kong.

The cost was TBH 6600which was about USD200. The whole process is not too friendly as you need to go to the ticketing office to pay the fee and the line was like 20 people deep. Ended up waiting in line for 15-20 minutes to pay the fee, but after that everything was fine. Especially the Spa! Did a 60 minutes full body massage.

SK AAR

Did you get any miles for the flight to HKG?

kiam

Rate as of today from BKK-CDG is exactly 26,000 Baht to upgrade from Y to C and 825 USD equivalent from CDG-BKK (using 1.41 conversion, comes to ~581 Euros). The agent reconfirmed me that I would earn Biz class miles, and not Eco. Using 1.41 makes sense for EUR-USD but converting 825 USD to 26K Baht seems to use a strange exchange rate.

After I hanged up, then I am now thinking about how this mileage credit would work when upgrading Award tickets as mentioned by TK.

thaidai

can see 07 price$380us for NRT BKK quoted by TK any ideas of 2009 price?

1K Student

Nope. No mileage posted to my MP account. I was kind of hoping for it to happen since the booking class was indeed F.

kiam

I am surprised to hear that you didn't get your mileage posted on MP. Maybe UA system knows that your ticket number is an award ticket (assuming TG did not change the ticket number when reissuing). I couldn't think of any other reasons why it wouldn't be posted. This happens in AF because they use the same fare class for award (elite only) and for purchased ticket, the only way the system knows whether to post miles on this fare class is the ticket number.

I also just talked to TG Paris today, they confirmed that I can pay for the standby upgrade on an award ticket and I "will" get my miles posted on my ROP account for the upgraded class. I will try this in March, will post the result. I really hope this would work because I need these two flights as part of my Gold requalification plan or else I would be really screwed.

If anyone has very recent experience on getting miles posted to ROP account for standby upgrade on award ticket, please post your result.

vivamuci

The rule is that it is only credited to ROP members and in 95% of the flights I had to send in the MCO, ticket copy and boarding pass. The miles for stand-by upgs will not get credited to all other * ffps. No miles at all if tickets booked in V or W, even as ROP member.

kiam

So paid standby upgrade on Award ticket will FOR SURE not get miles credited?

Cheetah_SA

I managed to upgrade both JNB/BKK and BKK/JNB (on today's final TG flight to JNB for a while) from I (award J) to F. I had called the Jo'burg office and a very helpful agent made notes that we intended to upgrade and promised to send a note closer to the time to BKK. He said that on occasion they had been unable to upgrade pax because of lack of catering even when seats are available. (Guess this is more of a problem at the outstations like JNB with only 1 flight on the day. Also a reason to there early so that they can still make a plan with their caterers.)

At JNB the duty manager at the check-in desks walked me over to the SAA ticketing desk to arrange everything. SAA didn't have the premium desks open so that caused a bit of a wait and I told the TG chap he could get on with his duties once he'd told me what to ask for. Payment was USD825 equivalent. We were the only pax in F! There was no printed menu although there was a full choice of dishes. (Another sign of last-minute catering?)

On the return, as I entered KBV I noticed there was no queue at the ticketing desks so I enquired about the upgrade from BKK expecting the response Thai-Kiwi described. Instead the agent got on the phone and ascertained there were seats and that she could issue the upgrade. ^ (Maybe it's better to ask at ticketing rather than check-in?) So all arranged for THB 26,000 p.p. Plus they met us at BKK to escort us to the F lounge. Not that it's at all difficult to get there from domestic but, hey, why risk any of precious lounge time taking a possible wrong turn. (We only had 2 hours - not a long enough visit to do it anything like justice, but it was great to get a taster of it.)

My miles have shown up on my BD account for the first leg. SO's did not because the SA check-in agent moronically put in 2 FF numbers next to his name: mine and his with mine first! Now I'm in a quandary: do I ask BD for the miles and risk having a query raised about mine? Or is it a bona fide F trip with full entitlement? On the one hand you have travelled on an F class ticket and the rules for F class travel are clear. On the other hand there's the award element. Mmm.... enough to exercise the debating skills of Talmudic scholars for a good while. Guess I'll just play it straight and live with BD's decision.

kiam

Thank you for your post. At least we know that your first segment was posted on BD account as F class. However, I have received confirmation from ROP this week that no miles will be credited when paying an upgrade on award seats and because I know their system can really pin point this when it comes to crediting ROP account, so I won't do I seats with paid upgrade to F hoping my ROP account will be credited and lose my 50K qualification for this year (plus GUP2). But I will take this risk when I want them to be credited to LH account next year when I no longer need to be requalified on ROP.

Thanks again for posting this.

TGflyer

Does anyone know how much it cost for a one way upgrade from Economy to Business on LHR-BKK route?

p.s. my ticket is a ROP award redemption

Thai-Kiwi

Ummm, it's been posted at the start of this thread (06/07 rates) and, with a bit of inflation, you can calculate the likely current rate. It's around USD 960...

Y to C costs the same as C to F. You can also buy Y-F for 2x the cost ... for those who have won lotto....