Originally Posted by
hopping
Just want to see seat availability as in how many seats are still available by cabin.
UA doesn’t put reliable public information besides the seat map — which you can see for any flight by doing a search for it, or by looking at flight status once you’re within a couple of days of departure — and the inventory data in Expert Mode. And the inventory data is subject to some conjecture, as it’s not necessarily possible to know if there are X seats available or if there are really X+Y seats available, but Y of them have been blocked due to an oversale in a lower cabin.
Originally Posted by
hopping
I don't have any MileagePlus miles. Sounds like a buy-up ($ only) will be much more than a $600 co-pay? If that's the case, it's probably out of my price range. Also when will a buy-up be offered by the way? Another option would be Economy Plus seats which will cost around $310 one way...
Buy-ups can be offered at any time from ticketing to check-in (or even after check-in — you can check-in and then still go back and look at your reservation to see if there’s a new upgrade offer). I haven’t seen a ton of recent reports on SFO-PVG, but pre-COVID there were occasional reports of TPAC buy-ups for about $1000.
Note that if you decide to purchase Economy Plus — the price for which can also fluctuate — it is just extra legroom, but also, if you later buy-up to Premium Plus or Polaris, the Economy Plus fee would be refunded when travel is complete.