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2016 Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU) Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)

Old Jan 10, 2016, 10:56 pm
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Previous threads: 2015 Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU) Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)
2014 Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU) Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)
2013 "Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU)" Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)

PCU (Premium Cabin Upsell) Nets extra PQM's and can be done at purchase or anytime before checkin if prompted. This will book into a business/first bucket.
UFC (Upgrade For Cash) is done at checkin (online, counter, lounge, gate) and will not earn extra PQM's.
TOD (Tens of Dollars); please post at another thread Post your TOD buy-up experiences here [2016 Edition]
From #198 of the TOD thread by thejaredhuang: "I think there's still a distinction (from upsell thread). This thread is more about offers at check-in, I always read TOD as Time of Departure anyways."
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2016 Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU) Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)

Old Apr 28, 2016, 10:45 pm
  #136  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Portland
Programs: AS MVP Gold, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum, Starbucks Gold
Posts: 391
Originally Posted by UAkls
Just bought a ticket ORD-SFO next month. It is (a rarity) on an 747. After purchasing it offered upgrade to first for $199, which I grabbed (assuming it would be put me in business). Surprisingly, it put me in 2K. Quite a deal. This happened to me back in January, but I assumed it was a mistake/fluke.
Same thing happened to me upthread in post #68. Seems like the upsell engine doesn't care what the equipment is.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to seat 1A on the 744 in roughly eleven hours!
puls is offline  
Old May 2, 2016, 9:31 am
  #137  
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Programs: United Gold, Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 207
Originally Posted by cesco.g
Great deal! How far out from the day of dept did you receive this offer?
I got it about a week and a half out!
plc44 is offline  
Old May 5, 2016, 4:11 pm
  #138  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 101
Buying up to BF SFO --> LHR or LAX-->LHR

Hi there. I am trying to understand how possible and a ballpark re how much it would be to buy up to BF either going from LAX-->SFO (preferred) or SFO --> LAX. This is for July.

I actually have a LHR - IAD ticket right now for a separate trip in July, and I can't even see that there is any way to buy up. I can see where I can upgrade using miles and cash, but not the pure cash buy up. (It's grayed out.)

So, what I am wondering is:
- Is the cash buy up option just sometimes not available? Or do they just "activate it" closer to the time the flight is supposed to go?
- Is there any way to tell if there will be a buy up available in advance?
- Anyone have a ballpark estimate on what a 1 way buy up would be?

This is for business, so I don't want to use any of my personal miles.

Thanks in advance.
Roar is offline  
Old May 5, 2016, 4:12 pm
  #139  
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K, SPG Platinum
Posts: 211
Originally Posted by Roar
I actually have a LHR - IAD ticket right now for a separate trip in July, and I can't even see that there is any way to buy up. I can see where I can upgrade using miles and cash, but not the pure cash buy up. (It's grayed out.)
You have to call and ask. I do this quite a bit. The change fee is waived when moving up a cabin, so you're paying only the difference in fare. See:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-gg-buyup.html
MattR23 is offline  
Old May 5, 2016, 4:25 pm
  #140  
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Programs: DL DM 1.6MM, Marriott LT Plat
Posts: 5,343
Originally Posted by Roar
Hi there. I am trying to understand how possible and a ballpark re how much it would be to buy up to BF either going from LAX-->SFO (preferred) or SFO --> LAX. This is for July.

I actually have a LHR - IAD ticket right now for a separate trip in July, and I can't even see that there is any way to buy up. I can see where I can upgrade using miles and cash, but not the pure cash buy up. (It's grayed out.)

So, what I am wondering is:
- Is the cash buy up option just sometimes not available? Or do they just "activate it" closer to the time the flight is supposed to go?
- Is there any way to tell if there will be a buy up available in advance?
- Anyone have a ballpark estimate on what a 1 way buy up would be?

This is for business, so I don't want to use any of my personal miles.

Thanks in advance.
test
IBobi is offline  
Old May 6, 2016, 7:06 am
  #141  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: IAD
Programs: UA 1MM *G (recovered GS), SPG Nothing, Hilton Nothing, AA Nothing
Posts: 895
IAD-SEA 12.5k award ticket (~$30 in fees/taxes due to close-in ticketing) -> $249 upgrade to F. Not a widebody but I felt like this was a pretty decent offer for a 5-6 hour flight. RT non-award fare was > $1,000.

I had not seen this before, but not only was I offered the buy-up at checkin, when I went to the seat map to see what was open in F I saw that I could mouse-over the open F seats and the popup contained the upgrade offer including price. Concerns about CPUers left out by ToD upgraders aside, it struck me from a web user experience standpoint as a pretty good way to market the upgrades - just click to buy that nicer seat.

Last edited by CarlTheWebmaster; May 6, 2016 at 7:07 am Reason: Left out a word.
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Old May 6, 2016, 8:55 am
  #142  
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Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: Seat 1A, Juice pretty much everywhere, Mucci des Coins Exotiques
Posts: 34,339
Originally Posted by stimpy
IAD-ORD U-Class. I took the $89 offer.
This leg ended up posting in A class, so 200% PQM and 1.5 PQS.
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Old May 6, 2016, 4:50 pm
  #143  
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: EWR, SFO, LHR, ZRH, FML
Programs: UA
Posts: 55
LHR - SFO
789
B fare
OLCI offer $649

This was a happy ending to a painful rebooking process. Emergency cancellation of a K fare four days out where a 20K miles + $500 upgrade was a high probability. Rebooking the K fare to one day out was > $3200; canceling and rebooking in B was $1000 less. Under 24h so upgrade with miles was impossible.

With 29 of 48 open seats in J, website showed a fare-difference upgrade of $8769. OLCI offered $649. Done!

Does the expensive B class ticket play into the low upgrade price?

As an aside, the asymmetry of upgrade availability and overall load from SFO-LHR vs. LHR-SFO is striking. Among a few coworkers regularly on this route, we have a near 100% success rate in upgrades (miles + dollars) on LHR-SFO and, all being low status, an exactly 0% success rate in reverse. When and how do all the GS and 1Ks fly back?
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Old May 6, 2016, 11:05 pm
  #144  
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: 1 thousand
Posts: 2,110
Originally Posted by jato
As an aside, the asymmetry of upgrade availability and overall load from SFO-LHR vs. LHR-SFO is striking. Among a few coworkers regularly on this route, we have a near 100% success rate in upgrades (miles + dollars) on LHR-SFO and, all being low status, an exactly 0% success rate in reverse. When and how do all the GS and 1Ks fly back?
I imagine there's more demand for business seats on SFO-LHR since it's an overnight flight?
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Old May 6, 2016, 11:37 pm
  #145  
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Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 11,419
Originally Posted by televisor
I imagine there's more demand for business seats on SFO-LHR since it's an overnight flight?
Noticed the same on other TATL Eastbounds as well. US-based business travellers fly to EU to work and want to be as rested as possible. To a lesser degree on the way back, which are daytime flights as well.
cesco.g is offline  
Old May 7, 2016, 4:35 am
  #146  
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: London
Programs: UA GS, BA Silver, Marriott/SPG Gold, Hilton Gold, A-Club Silver, Intercontinental Ambassador
Posts: 32
Originally Posted by jato
LHR - SFO
789
B fare
OLCI offer $649

....

As an aside, the asymmetry of upgrade availability and overall load from SFO-LHR vs. LHR-SFO is striking. Among a few coworkers regularly on this route, we have a near 100% success rate in upgrades (miles + dollars) on LHR-SFO and, all being low status, an exactly 0% success rate in reverse. When and how do all the GS and 1Ks fly back?
I got the $649 LHR - SFO on checkin last week. Return upgrades really depend on the day, almost all my Weds SFO - LHR requests clear, generally M or B fares though, far lower on Thursdays.
startupflyer is offline  
Old May 7, 2016, 3:54 pm
  #147  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: IAD/ARN
Programs: UA Plat/*G, Marriott LT Gold, Global Entry
Posts: 164
UA950 IAD-BRU
U fare
$1529 at OLCI (T-24)
Declined. Going to see if it's lower at the kiosk but given that I have a pretty good E+ seat and the only seats left in BF are middles, I doubt I'll bite.
chleonard is offline  
Old May 8, 2016, 4:28 am
  #148  
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: NYC / TYO / Up in the Air
Programs: UA 1k (12 year fallen GS) 1.7MM, AA 2.1MM, EK, BA, SQ, CX, Marriot LT, Accor P
Posts: 6,190
May 8th
UA 906 FRA - ORD
$829 J-F

Declined - don't sleep this direction and have good J seat - GF was filled with non-rev but surprisingly some non-revs (that didn't make J) were stuck in economy while there are open J seats....
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Old May 8, 2016, 8:48 pm
  #149  
 
Join Date: May 2016
Programs: DL, UA, SW (Gold), MC
Posts: 2
May 8th
UA743 EWR-ORD
$129 Y to F

ACCEPTED
Bought it yesterday on mobile check-in, changing my seat from 37K (second row from the back) to 2K (second row from the front). Thought it was a much better deal than the $79-$89 they originally wanted just to get to E+.

Did I tell you this was an internationally-configured 767 and my favorite GF seats are starboard side window seats? After lunch was served, I had time for a quick lie-flat bed nap.
rlsun is offline  
Old May 9, 2016, 9:21 am
  #150  
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Posts: 13
We have never flown from USA to Europe...so no idea if this is a decent deal or not...

SAT - IAD - FCO booked economy plus

Offer is 20,000 miles plus $550, for each flyer to move to business class on 777-200.

Only outside seats with 2 together are row 10 on both sides of plane.

Current one way price for those seats are about $4,200 each.

Is this a decent deal for an overnight flight?
roxiethehorse is offline  

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