sfoboy85

Hi folks,

Long time lurker here but just getting into United a lot deeper (will hit 1K by the end of the year) and would love to get some info from the more experienced guys from United. If you know any of the answers for my questions, I would love to hear from you.

1.) What happens - in terms of upgrade - when I fly and the flight miles/PQMs get credited in about 2 days which will trigger my Platinum status but the next coming flight is 2 days after the miles get credited and assuming that all the Platinums get their upgrades (in the 72 hour window) and since there are so many Golds on the upgrade list that they make them wait. Do I clear as soon as I get my Platinum (after the Platinums get theirs but before the Golds are able to clear) OR do they put me on the upgrade list along with the Golds and putting me ahead of all of them? I am just curious...

2.) GPU/SWU: How much time will I have to use them if I qualify for them by the end of the year? One calendar year (e.g.: 21st of December, 2012 - 21st of December, 2013) OR as long as my status is valid? Do they expire AND can I roll them over to next year (save up a bunch), assuming that I keep my 1K status for years and years....?

3.) If I apply SWU/GPU, can they be applied instantly to secure my upgrade or do I have to wait till the day of departure to clear? Or does that vary?

4.) I noticed that if you buy PQM from United (not for me but for someone else, and yes I know it is not worth it but let's not get into this part) the PQMs get credited "almost" immediately... at least that's what I have heard (official statement is within 24 hours). Now, I read it that PQMs are NON-REFUNDABLE. My question is: To what extent are they non-refundable? Since, if I buy a non-refundable plane ticket, they can still refund the price within 24 hours. Is that valid for PQMs as well?
Or once you buy them you stick with 'em? Is it possible to buy them, let them post and get the refund (it may sound silly to many of you but I have a good reason to ask that)... in theory, how does that work?
That's something I am dieing to know....

5.) I was on a flight recently, where the first class upgrades cleared for all of us, except for one person. He never cleared the upgrade list even though he was on it and there were over 6 empty seats on first class... Question is: How is this possible? Was that just a glitch? (I made it so I do not care as much, just trying to figure out if I missed something?)

6.) If I am looking for a specific flight number's routing, what's the best tool to find it? More specifically: Where can I find let's say UA1099's flight schedule? like:
10/24:
UA 1099 LAS-SFO 6:55am-8:10am
UA 1099 SFO-EWR 9:00am-5:05pm
UA 1099 EWR-DEN .... etc.

Any place where I can such an information?

Thanks for all the responses in advance!

mherdeg

Re #1 -- if have a reservation for travel very soon and have recently changed status, if you remove your frequent-flyer number from your reservation and then re-add it, you will be prioritized in the correct order.

If you leave things exactly as they are, you may be prioritized for upgrades as a Gold even if you are a Platinum; no guarantee, sometimes we're told it works OK.

Re #2 - if you qualify for 1K in November 2012, your GPUs expire at the end of November 2013; that is, they must be used on a flight which takes off on November 30, 2013 or earlier, or they will expire.

This year, UA has shown some willingness to extend GPUs until the end of the calendar year, which may be their way of mollifying customers who were used to the previous behavior of the United subsidiary whose GPUs were always "issued in Jan 2013, expires in Jan 2014" regardless of when you qualified for 1K.

You cannot "bank" GPUs past a year.

Re #3 - GPUs can be applied instantly if R inventory is available immediately. (You can look this up online by turning on "expert mode" in your MileagePlus profile and searching for flights while logged in; or by searching for flights with the advanced search and using the extra "MileagePlus Upgrade" option and picking only flights that don't say "not eligible for an upgrade").

Otherwise upgrades waitlist into the R booking class. If they still haven't cleared within 24 hours, you'll be added to a "departure-management upgrade list" and your upgrade will clear at the gate.

(There is some controversy because R inventory often opens up at 23 hours ahead of time, leaving a lot of people on the upgrade waitlist who have used instruments and allowing someone new to show up and apply an instrument and clear immediately ahead of them.)

Re #4 - yes, you can buy only PQM by buying a ticket, buying PQM, and then cancelling the ticket.

This is well-documented on FlyerTalk and a great profit center for UA. For this purchase, their passenger revenue per seat mile is, like, infinity.

Re #5 - that one person may have declined the upgrade, either because they really liked their coach seat, they were with a friend, they had paid for the upgrade with miles and had changed their mind, or they were a nonrevenue passenger who preferred to fly in coach because it cost them very slightly less (?).

Maybe not, though. I've seen this happen via a glitch on CLE-LAS, which had a 24-person F cabin only about half full with one person on the upgrade standby list. That one person came up to the gate asking what in the world was going on with her upgrade and why hadn't it cleared yet?. The gate agents looked confused, then surprised, then grudgingly offered her an F boarding pass immediately. Much to their consternation, she declined!

Re #6 - your life is pretty hard if you're trying to find "what UA1099 does" because the same flight number may operate very different flights from day to day or week to week.

To see what the flight number has done historically, plug it in to flightaware.com.

To see what segments are upcoming, check out mobile.united.com and plug the flight number into the "flight status" box -- it'll give you a choice of segments that lets you see all the segments operated as that flight number for the chosen day.

sfoboy85

Dear Mherdeg,

Thank you so much for your answer.

1.) Clear now.
2.) Clear now.
3.) Clear now.
4.) I might have not expressed myself properly. I am fully aware that I can buy a ticket, get the PQM and then cancel the ticket, but that's not what I want.

What I need is to buy a ticket (refundable that I can later cancel and get the full refund) wait till it gets ticketed, then buy the PQM and 5 minutes after the PQM posts, cancel BOTH the ticket and the PQM I purchased. Question is, if I cancel both within 24 hours, do I get my entire money back? (I know I will lose the PQM but that's fine). If you know the answer for that please let me know, that's really something I would like to know.

5.) Clear now.
6.) Yes, I found the site where I can see where a specific flight number has flown to, but past does not interest me at all...
I assume then, that there is absolutely no source to find where a specific flight number will fly in days or week's advance?!?!?! Because I know I can check it what a specific flight will do the next day or the day after but nothing later on... Please let me know.

And once again, thanks for all your answers!

mherdeg

Optional extras, like "elite maximizer miles" or even "economy plus", are generall nonrefundable if you cancel the ticket they went with. (If you have to cancel the ticket involuntarily, because of a huge schedule change or a flight cancellation, you could probably apply for a refund.)

You could also try the Star Alliance Timetable product available for free for Windows via http://www.staralliance.com/en/services//timetables/ (they have a downloadable .exe and also a PDF, http://timetable.staralliance.com/do...r/STAR0001.pdf) . It's updated weekly.

There used to be a United-specific product but it's no longer maintained, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...plication.html.

It looks like UA1099 is actually a pretty stable route -- it only shows up in four different places in the huge *A timetable PDF! For a good time, check out all the routes that "UA1011" operates.

Thorgils

Or, for an even better time, "UA444."

I note also that these profligate flight numbers sometimes flout the "odd=westbound, even=eastbound" convention.

tods27

Do you want to see where a flight number goes, or where the plane that will be that flight come from? The only place to see this that I know of is the mobile app. You can pull up the flight by flight number, then link to the plane that represents that flight and track it back. Many flights are fairly static as noted so you can use representative data from this week to see what is happening next week, but you can't do that too far in advance.

mduell

Keep clicking "Track inbound flight" on FlightAware.

aacharya

Correct, if he/she is looking for the plane status, not the flight status.

Thorgils

Or, if you're really dedicated to the task, you could do a search for the flight number in the (searchable) .pdf version of the timetable. Depending on the particular flight number and its potential applicability as a time of day or as part of a longer flight number, that could be a daunting task!

Actually, looking at the hard copy timetable is eye-opening. It shows not only how volatile the flight numbering is right now, but also how much not only the flight numbers but the schedule timings and equipment allocation are changing by day of week.

sfoboy85

Thank you very much guys, I appreciate all the answers I got from you.

Only a few more that I could not find anything about:

I just reached Platinum and when I log in to my United account, I can see that it shows Premier Platinum however:

1.) I can NOT apply any RPU (Regional Premier Upgrade) to ANY of my flights... (and yes, there is 9+ availability for most of those flights)

2.) I have a flight and total of 4 people under the same confirmation number (family trip LAS-SFO) and the "You are eligible for a space-available complimentary upgrade, starting 72 hours before departure. When available, these upgrades are cleared automatically and in priority order." message does NOT show up there... nothing... Family has no status, only me... Is that the problem, or what's going on? I thought that if I am a Platinum and others are on the same confirmation number, then they are treated as Platinum as well and get upgraded with me... Am I wrong?

3.) Also, some of my bookings (next year only though) show 48 hour advance CPU but not 72 hours... maybe the system has not updated certain bookings yet?

Please advise!

Thanks!

OK... update:

Question #1 is answered itself automatically... just had to wait for another hour or so to get my SWU deposited!

Still curious about #2 and #3 if you know it...

Thanks!

HAPPY FLIGHTING!!!