Originally Posted by
astroflyer
Just in case you were not aware, on UA upgrading from Y->C requires miles
plus copay. These copays on US-Asia are as much as $600. See the web widget here:
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps...ardTravel.aspx
Based on the fare you quote, I'm guessing it's in the $500-$600 range in addition to the 30,000 miles. A business class fare to begin with is only 60,000 miles. If you have the miles or can get some miles with a credit card between now and then, you might be better off just booking the trip with miles in the first place.
You're also right that these are very tough upgrades. The upgrade lists are sorted by status first regardless of upgrade means. So presuming you don't have status, anyone who has M+ status will be above you fighting for the few open seats in C. If you go the miles+copay route, I highly recommend you try to find a flight that has R availability now so that you can upgrade instantly.
You are correct, i have over 120K of miles already, so i'll be paying $600+30K miles per person each way for the upgrade. (So total trip would be 120K miles and $2400)
If i use mileage, it's 150K each way per person, which means i will need to use 600K for both round trip, that's overkill as award saver option isn't available.
Also, since both route are so far out, R shows zero, but seat map so far only have 2 business class sold.