Originally Posted by
hikouki
How vastly different are the domestic upgrade probabilities on UA if I were flying on an extra legroom ticket? I figured that that would be the biggest advantage - I could just buy economy tickets next year and hope to get upgraded to first at least 75% of the time for my flights next year.
1. There is no such thing as an "extra legroom ticket" on UA, as Economy Plus is not a separate class of service. In any event, as a Gold you will get E+ at booking for free.
2. The increase in upgrade odds from Gold to Plat is minimal and even as a 1K it would almost certainly be well under 50%. Further, there are no comp upgrades on UA's premium t-con routes (SFO/LAX-NYC). You would get 40 PlusPoints which you could use to (try to) upgrade up to two of those flights.
The only reasons I can think of to stretch for Plat would be the access to IN inventory and the ability to comp E+ at booking for up to 8 companions. Possibly some would find one extra bag at 70 lbs to be of value.