Originally Posted by
zombietooth
This is a very difficult UG so, if you've got half of it in confirmed Polaris, I'd book it right now and hope the waitlist clears. We were on a waitlist in March and, when it became clear to me that we wouldn't clear (only 5 unsold seats left), I called and up-fared our tickets to P and got 2 of the remaining seats. Good thing too, because we met a GS couple in the Air Tahiti Nui Lounge who were waitlisted with GPUs and didn't get upgraded.
Be sure to watch the P and PN inventory to gauge your chances as you get closer to departure.
Thanks for the heads-up. I should've prefaced that I secured the return flights in Polaris back in July (for May 2020 travel), so we jumped on that while it was available. Our outbound was also booked in July for 35k miles each in saver. I'm 1K until the end of the year, so we've got E+ seats on the long-haul leg at a bare minimum. Not really in a spot where we can pay for a business class revenue fare (wife is in PhD program, so we're on one salary for a few years).
I'm expecting the worst and hoping for the best, but once I drop to Silver in February, I assume the upgrade won't happen. There has been decent availability in IN class when looking 315-330 days out and then sporadic until closer to departure. But by spring my status won't make me privy to IN class.