I have to admit, I'm not a fan of United. They were my primary career until about 7 years ago. Then I gave up on them and finally switched out to a combination of Delta and Alaska for my travel (about 150k/year split between the two). However, I work for the federal government now, so I fly the carrier they tell me to fly. I usually can find some wiggle room, but I'm heading to Guam soon, which has no gov contracts from the states other than United. So as of right now, I don't have anything but lowly Silver on United, which if I recall correctly I'm getting free via my lifetime Marriott Titanium. Or maybe it was Hertz President's Circle. I don't know, doesn't matter. I didn't earn any status on United with my butt in a seat on its planes.

Routing is SFO --> NRT --> GUM on the outbound. Return is GUM --> HNL --> SFO.

I fly out on a Friday and return on a Sunday.

My fares are government-contract Y class in economy. I'm military traveling on official orders. I have already paid $341 out of pocket for Economy Plus seats. The pricing for Premium Economy and higher is a non-starter -- it's around $3,330 on the way out and $1,600 on the way back.

Do I have a snowball's chance in hell of getting a complimentary upgrade? It's a long, long way to Guam. I'd love to be in Premium Economy, but I'm betting Silver won't get me anything, especially out of San Francisco. I'm willing to change my outbound routing to go through HNL instead of NRT if it might increase my odds. But that seems unlikely too.

EDIT: I have nothing left in my United mileage account except 41k miles. So not enough miles to secure anything with, and even if I got a card, the miles won't post soon enough to be useful.

Just curious for thoughts from anyone who still travels on United regularly. I'm probably not going to have a choice but to fly United a lot more going forward.