Originally Posted by
michaelmorio
I am thinking of taking a round trip flights in the end of January. It should be a slow season. 70-ish on the list sounds extremely top-elite heavy. Even in slow winter time???
Yes — 50th to 70th in the offseason; 70th to 100th, or later, in the high travel season. Hub-to-hub transcontinental routes on widebody equipment are magnets for Premier travelers, and Gold is the fourth tier.
Originally Posted by
michaelmorio
777 non-stop flight from SFO to IAD has a $780 B class fare for a round trip vs. $2,100 or so for the cheapest Biz. But I see Biz class lowest around $1,200 for other non Polaris flights
Fair enough. The actual B fare on that route is over $2600. However, UA is test-marketing lower “B” fares in some markets that are actually discount fares that book into B for the purpose of bundling E+ for travelers who don’t get it for free. SFO-WAS appears to be one of those markets, so you would have found a back-door into J if there were PZ space — but there isn’t likely ever to be any. Part of the reason that the widebody flights are $2100 is that UA knows they’re more desirable and either (a) discount fares have already been sold or (b) discount inventory was never made available on that equipment.