SFO 1K

Using miles you are able to confirm the upgrade at time of booking, if the upgrade is available. Using e500 upgrades, you must wait until the appropriate time interval (72 hours before departure for PremEx) to see if your upgrade will clear. If you've booked far enough in advance, the mileage based upgrade is more likely to clear than the e500.

If no upgrades are available, at least you are in a position to clear a waitlist sooner too.

Once the flight is under the control of the airport and you go on a departure management list, all things are equal, it's other factors (status, fare paid, time added to departure management control list) that take priority. Your form of payment becomes irrelevant.

lucky9876coins

Welcome to Flyertalk!^

Upgrades with miles have higher priority. Up until your upgrade window, which is 72 hours before the flight, upgrades clear first on first off, which means whoever requested them first gets the upgrade within the respective waitlists. IOW, if there is confirmable upgrade space you will get it when you book, or anytime up to departure. Once the 1P window opens up it makes no difference how your requested your upgrade. If your upgrade does not clear before you go to departure management upgrades clear by status, fair basis, and time added to the waitlist. So the short answer is yes, you have a better shot with miles.

thor17

You get 4 500-milers for every 10,000 BIS miles you fly, so you don't always have to purchase them.

eratosthaenes

Thanks for the great info. And for the answer I wanted to hear. Based on the UAL calculator, ORD-SFO requires 10,000 to 15,000 miles (depending on class of upgrade (again, I am not familiar, as all of AA's planes on that route, and any domestic I have flown have only 2 cabins)). Anyway, it seems a much better deal than $200 for 4 stickers.

eratosthaenes

Thanks. I knew that part, but I will be chewing them up faster than I earn them!

lucky9876coins

It is 8K miles to upgrade from full Y or B, or 15K for all other fare classes.

Stripe

Not true. With no status I was still able to upgrade my spouse one way with 15K of my AA miles. Several weeks in advance of the flight.

xj47

For all practical purposes, there is only one level/type of upgrade to be had. You may occasionally be on a 3-cabin plane, but United doesn't allow double upgrades. In other words, on a 2-cabin, you can go from Coach to First. On a 3-cabin, you can go from Coach to Biz OR Biz to First (if you bough Biz).

There's no (regular) way to go from paid Coach to 3-cabin First. Not sure why there would be a difference in the miles required...

roberto99

UA hasnt used upgrade stickers for about 16 years.

airpaco

i use miles to upgrade all the time and the above answers are spot on. full fare tickets also get you a free complimentary upgrade depending on availability.

yowsa

Hey All!

I have a question I was hoping some of you knowledgable Mileage Plus members would know.

I was wondering if one form of upgrade has a higher priority than another form when it comes to deciding who will get a seat.

For example, there are two 1K memebers fighting for 1 seat to Biz. One 1K memeber uses 15K points to upgrade, another uses Regional Upgrade. Will the points upgrade beat out the Regional or vice versa?

So if that's the case, what is the actual priority among the different ways of upgrading: ie. System-Wide vs. Regional vs. Points vs. 500 miles.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cheers!

nerd

For upgrades that can be confirmed in advance, systemwides beat out miles/points. Not sure where CR1s stand in the pecking order.

Muckus

There are a number of very informative threatds on this, if you do a search for "upgrades." There is a heirarchy of upgrades that governs when they clear based on the instrument (SWU is best, miles clear later), the date of purchase, the fare class of the ticket, the status of the traveler, etc. All of this changes at the gate, when status becomes king.

portishead

It also depends if there is confirmable upgrade availability in advance. SWUs, CR-1s, and miles will all confirm in advance, but e500s will clear according to the window based on status.

lucky9876coins

Assuming you can confirm the upgrade at the time of booking it obviously does not matter. Assuming it is waitlisted, CR1's and SWU's go on the PA waitlist, and miles typically go on the PB waitlist. Also, non 1K's go on the PB waitlist, but there are exceptions to this. The PA waitlist clears first, and up until departure managements upgrades are confirmed based on the other they are requested.

Assuming the upgrade still does not clear until Departure Management the PA and PB waitlists no longer matter, and it goes by status, then fare basis, and finally time added to the waitlist.

So, to answer your question, assuming the miles go on the PA waitlist the 1K who added themselves to the list would clear first, unless it goes to DM. At that point it comes down to fare paid and time added.

I know there are a couple of errors in here since I just typed it quickly, but that's my shot at it.