Originally Posted by
mitchmu
1) I'm on UA.COM now and I cannot find any way to search for flights that have R space available. Now, the only option I've got is to choose a flight blindly, even if the flight leaving a few hours later has R space, I can't see it.
If you click advanced search, then submit the search it will ask you which segments you want the upgrade on using miles. Click all segments and submit the search. You will notice that the results will display either as "upgrade not available" or as "United First (R)". So the system does give you this cumbersome backdoor to R space -- and I think by varying the number of travelers on your search you can also deduce how much "R" space there is. When you go to buy the tickets it offers the price in money plus miles for the upgrade.
It didn't offer me the option of using instrument upgrades. I am currently out of instrument upgrades -- I am sitting at 99,950 PQM's for the year, flying other carriers to delay getting the next batch of instruments so I can get a later expiration next year. So I don't know whether it is not offering me the option of instrument upgrades simply because I don't have any to use at the moment.