FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Consolidated "Waitlist for Award Seats Questions/Issues [ARCHIVE]
Old Feb 2, 2018, 9:39 pm
  #79  
jsloan
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,186
Originally Posted by timlarry
Hi everyone, I am trying to book Award seats ORD-SYD. Not easy as you know, so we are considering purchasing economy and then using miles + cash to upgrade. When I go to purchase, it gives me the price and UPGRADE WAITLIST. Now, here is the issue. We are not going to fly if we cannot fly biz, so we dont want to buy the econ tix if we are not guaranteed the upgrade. Thoughts?
The only way to be guaranteed an upgrade is to look for confirmable space at the time of booking. The easiest way to do this is via Expert Mode. (There's a board thread on this). Search on your dates of travel from the UA gateway to Australia (in other words, from IAH, SFO, and LAX, not from ORD). Look for R>=2 (or however many of you are going). If you find it, go back and do your search from ORD, make sure you get that same flight, and do the upgrade. You will likely be waitlisted on the domestic flight, but the international flight will clear immediately.

A word of warning -- R space can be very difficult to find.

Good luck!
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