Originally Posted by
pinniped
Watch out for N as well: long ago, this was either an award or an upgrade bucket...I forget which. Now it's a regular revenue seat...I recently bought one that is in the same range as what I would have paid for a G or T. After a series of emails with United, I was able to confirm that they did indeed repurpose the fare bucket a year or two ago. Thankfully, they gave me a retrocredit of United MP miles, but alas, no A3 miles.
United also has an annoying habit of showing you a wide variety of Q, M, H, etc. "-UP" fares when you query on A. I'm never sure how these will post to the rest of the alliance so I'm hesitant to buy them. It's a fare that seats you in the F cabin but (I'm guessing) posts to the outside world as a coach fare. Maybe someone here has experience with these?
My data point: I had one of these UP fares last month. The outbound was booked into P, fare basis was Q or V. The inbound was booked into Z, fare basis was also Q or V. I got no mile for the outbound (P class) and double mile for inbound (Z class) when my A3 number was on the boarding pass. I later retro claimed with United Mileage Plus to get the miles for the inbound that I didn't get with A3. A few days after my retro claim, I got 150% miles credited to UA MP.