Today’s how-to post is about how to find and book fares on which System-wide Upgrades (SWUs) can be redeemed. There is a check-box on the site that lets you search for generally upgradeable tickets, but that doesn’t limit the search to fares which are SWU-eligible, namely W fares or higher. But is it possible to limit the searches to specific fares, so the new site makes it somewhat reasonable.
To start, click on the link for an
Advanced Search at the bottom of the search form on the main page:
Towards the bottom of that form there is a section for fare preference:
The key is to put the eligible fare classes – Y,B,M,E,U,H,Q,V,W – in the box at the bottom there when searching. If you can remember all those and type them in every time that’s great, but there should be a better, easier way to do it. Welcome to GreaseMonkey scripts. Much like the script I built to make searching for upgrade inventory easier, this one makes putting the correct fares into that box automatic. Just
load the script found here into a compliant browser and going to the advanced search page will automatically populate that box:
If you don’t select the radio button then it will still search all fares, but if you’re looking for a SWUable fare then select that button and the results will limit to the appropriate fares.
Combine that with with the
script that shows upgrade inventory on the search results page and you’ve got a solution that shows the proper fare and the upgrade inventory all at once.
Note that you should book the ticket first and let the ticket actually be issued before requesting the upgrade. It is a two step process.
In addition to booking the fares, sometimes it is useful to be able to find the cheapest published SWU-eligible fares. To help on that front I’ve built another tool that collects the W fares for about 100 North America departure points and 50 or so international destinations and displays them in a reasonably easy-to-read and -parse view. Pick a departure or destination city and compare rates, or just pick a price point and see what’s available below that point:
Click on a city and get:
Those fares are all without the YQ and without taxes, so they are artificially low, but if you are comparing fares to/from a region and looking to know if a nearby airport can save you some cash it can be quite useful. And there are a few improvements coming in the very near future which should help even more.
Happy flying!