ahegyi

Ah T-2 - got it. It was closer to about an hour/1:15 before actually.

GeP

ORD-MUC, UA952, May 12th:

~1500 M->Business 20 hours before,
down to 499 ninety minutes before departure,
while several were dying on the upgrade list (in addition to some non-revs).

hokiebuy

Flew IAD - YYZ on award ticket. Got offer to upgrade to business for $119 on iPhone app. Checked moments later on PC and it was $59 with special discount. Checked through app again and it was still $119. Accepted $59 from PC.

YYZ - IAD - CUN. Booked cash, hidden city, no FF number. Got $69 offer for upgrade to business, accepted. IAD - CUN was being offered for $129.

theboss7593

Booked:

EWR-CUN in late Aug. Offered $199 per seat soon as booked. (seems like it's the standard difference between F and Coach)

PVR-IAH-EWR on a multi city trip- $199 per seat per flight segment for a total of $398. Had to take all or none. Soon as I went to the reservation page was offered $234 total for all segments per person. (again had to take all or none)

Ended up cancelling both reservations and just booked F since it's vacation. It was a difference of an additional 50,000 MR points (after getting the rebate back) for the 2 of us total for the 3 segments and I thought to myself we have baggage and the points are devaluating come June 1st and I have over 700K points sitting there so I went for it.

Even if I got the $129 offer come OLCI EWR-CUN and something sub $199 for PVR-IAH-EWR I think the F from the gate maybe the better value anyway. Maybe I'm right maybe I'm wrong. Oh well

ckidder331

Curious what y'all think for my flights next week
LAX-MCO $280
MCO-LAX $222

The $280 has gone up since booking and there are 12 of 24 seats open still
The $222 has gone down since booking and there are 5 of 20 seats open still

LAX-MCO has seats available using miles (20k for me)
MCO-LAX doesn't have mileage upgrades available (would be 17.5k)

Thoughts? My company paid for my ticket so a little extra for some comfort is actually kinda nice...but things keep changing every day so I wonder how long i should wait. BTW I am a Premier Gold

Thanks!

swag

If I'm interested in buying a TOD upgrade, is there a consensus best time to check in, in terms of either availability or price? Is it better to check in at T-24, or to wait until closer to flight time?

prometa

What time of day and how full is E+? For TCON flights like that, my personal auto-accept is $200. But, if it looks like E+ is going to be fairly empty, I'll typically skip it because big F recliner is less room than E+ exit row with the middle seat empty.

For red-eye or late night flights, I'll pay more. Same for lie flats.

FWIW, for most buy-ups done prior to checkin you'll earn the extra PQD for the purchase and bonus PQM. Not so for miles upgrades or upgrades purchased day of. If you're on the edge of re-qualifying for premier status, those dollars spent might be more valuable than miles.

krazykanuck

Checking in for my LGA-IAH flight yesterday (flight today) offered the seemingly standard $159 buy up to first from economy. What's strange, at least to me, is that I've seen the same buy up offer on wildly different fare classes. I got had this price on a U class fare last August, and this weekend on an XN fare.

Didn't take it. I had a window seat and I planned on sleeping most of the flight after drinking in the Centurion Lounge. The only parts of the flight I didn't sleep were when I got up to use the bathroom and watching the descent. Flying domestic economy in general is way more pleasant when you get on the plane and just go to sleep.

Ruhr

Yesterday, red-eye SFO-PHL V fare, I was going to be on the bubble. #3 on the list with two seats available. I was in a situation to snipe the upgrade from #1 and #2 . The offer was US$299. Declined.

I did sit in an exit row aisle and they were slimline seats, but luckily a couple sat together next to me and the middle person tended to lean against her partner in the window seat, so I tended to have more space.

flyingmike

May 18...ANC-ORD-BOS...$194 upgrade from E+ to F.

ANC-ORD alone would have been worth that much; that is more flight miles than BOS-LAX even.

Mike

Starman

how do you find an empty middle seat ex SFO to a hub?? I truly haven't had one in years.

findark

Fly on a Saturday?

megalab

I guess because it was a Saturday afternoon on a 753, hence the only non-stop, non-red eye with Saver Award availability. In fact, ended up having the whole row. The last row was also empty. I didn't look very close but I also seem to recall about 10 empty middles, 2 empty windows and an empty aisle.

Also the first time I can recall an SFO-ORD flight with <20 pax on the UG list.

sfo789

Possibly the craziest TOD I have seen in my life:

Wedesday 5/17, SFO-LAX, 6am (UA261)
K fare
$949 offer, F1 showing and ~10 on the UG list

Declined (surprise!)

TribalistMeathead

Not sure if I'm misreading your post, but:

1) TOD upgrades don't become available until T-24

3) You can still purchase an upgrade after you've checked in.