budugu

I am totally new to the whole using dividend miles thing. So pardon me if I sound a little too naïve.

So am traveling from bos-tpa RT on us air with a stop/ CLT. After buying the ticket in coach (discounted) I was told by my friend that I could upgrade to F with just 10k miles each way. So I called them up and the CS agent tells me that each segment will require 10K and then says my onward journey has been upgraded for 10K (so is it per segment leg ?) The problem is that on the return flight there is only vacancy from CLT BOS but not from tpa to CLT but says if I rebook my ticket she can get me an upgrade or just get me an upgrade from CLT to bos for 10K.

So what is my best bet. Secondly if you are just upgraded on one leg ... Are there any implications to the other leg? Given that my second leg will be in F will I be able to use the gates etc and ofcourse is it worth it to just take for one leg @10K? Thanks a lot for all your help!

mbmbbost

I do bos/fll all the time through clt or dca mostly. And would never bother using up my miles for first class on US Airways on that kind of trip. Granted, I get a free upgrade most times anyway, but I believe in saving my miles for trips outside the country. Or I might consider using them on a transcon for an upgrade. The US Airways first class experience on 1 1/2 to 2 hour connecting flights just isn't worth much to me (especially now that I've been flying jetBlue some of the time nonstop).

kudzu

It's 10k each way BOS-CLT-TPA, and the same for return. I'm not sure what the agent meant by "rebooking" your ticket - either there's "O" fare bucket upgrade availability (not viewable by general public) or there's not at the time you call. If you wish, you could upgrade 10k for CLT-BOS now and call back later for TPA-CLT upgrade availability (if none, it would still be 10k)

I agree with mbmbbost - better to save your Miles for upgrades on longer flights or for an international trip.

PHXFqtvl

10K upgrades are based on the entire leg, not just the single segment up to 2 connections.

Kudzu is correct in that if only one of the two segments are availble in the upgrade class, you'd still pay 10k but get only that one segment and if that second segment becomes availble later in O, you could get that segment as well. It isn't an automatic process, you'd have to call and check periodically to check the status of the segment that you didn't get upgraded.

budugu

Thank you all for your advice... I never fly US for international travel. Mostly the cheapest and it always end up being on AF-KLM/Emirates/Swiss. And US has the worst trans con pricing (esp from bos to CA generally AA, United have better prices). I agree that using 10k for one leg would be a waste. I would have chosen Jetblue but it was expensive(!) and there was no morning flight which would get me to tampa before my conference time. I will come back and post my experience. I really wish united - US will allow pooling