Originally Posted by
bookeew
The last time I used OS smart upgrade (a few months back), this was not possible:
1. The ticket must be issued by OS, because they will re-issue it IIRC
2. Award tickets (X) were not eligible
This might have changed since then, but I doubt it.
Appears the Austrian upgrade policy for X class tickets has been revised. When checking in for our flight (47 hours before departure), we were presented with the option to upgrade our VIE>CPT leg to business class for €1000 per person (5 of us were traveling). I seriously considered it but €5000 seemed a little much. I waited another 24 hours and when I went back to check-in, we were offered Premium Economy for €350 per person. While I was disappointed it wasn't for the full ORD>VIE>CPT itinerary, the roughly $2K was definitely worth it for the 11 hour flight down to CPT. I guess it helps to fly to Europe over Thanksgiving when very few others are. Annoyingly, none of this availability showed up on UA's website for mileage redemption.