Thanks, Kannai! You're the first to answer my question. I tried reaching out directly to United, but the customer service rep actually wrote back that "members are expected to read the rules" and included a link to the fine print of UA MP membership. Not helpful at all!
None of us have status--the miles are all transferred in from Chase or from the annual int'l flights we take (hence less than 20K miles per family member). I can transfer more Chase points in to meet the upgrade miles, but I'm hesitant to lock my Chase points into even more United miles.
I'd love feedback on 3 scenarios:
- I already confirmed that the upgrade to J for miles plus co-pay is available immediately at booking for SFO-NRT for 4 passengers (a Thursday morning flight). Unfortunately, going onto the waitlist is the only option for the miles+ co-pay upgrade for the return red-eye flight on a Saturday. That's the flight I want the lie-flat seats for! It would be about $1900/person for a round-trip economy ticket + $3600 and 240K miles ($450/person each way + 30K miles/person each way). This is the option I assume I'm going to do.
- Pay cash. Economy is $1900/person round-trip, Premium Economy is $2300/trip, and Business is $5400/person. I absolutely do not think it's worth $20K for Business. If I pay cash, it's likely I do Economy or Premium Economy, but I have up to 670K UA miles I could use so I'd rather save some cash.
- I see Saver awards are available for the outbound flight for only 35K plus $5/person. The return flight is 80K miles plus $50 for economy or 122K plus $50 for Premium Economy (versus $2300). I could get the guaranteed Premium Economy at this award level. I just don't know if it's worth it. I could go with Economy (and pay $200/person for Economy Plus) for the outbound flight as we'll just watch TV/movies/read anyway. But I really prefer lie-flat seats for the red-eye flight home. If that's impossible, than Premium Economy sounds better than Economy Plus.
What would you do? Is it nearly impossible for 4 non-status passengers to get upgraded to J on a Saturday HND-SFO flight?
Last edited by smiles33; Feb 13, 2019 at 9:37 pm