Originally Posted by
cfischer
Originally Posted by
findark
That's a K-differential Economy Plus fare. The "real" B fare on BOS-LAX is $1,254 each way.
And how is that relevant? It is booking into B and is/was instant upgrade eligible. Maybe I am missing your point here ... ???
The YBM Instant has long existed to reward booking a costly fare (perhaps greater then first class) and provide a route to first class for those not permitted by employer policy to purchase first class.
Recently UA "cheaper" B fares in conjunction with a bundled E+ access and for a continuing PremPlus ticket segment without PremPlus seating.
In the PremPlus cases there did seem to be a logic for the B to provide first class access for higher elites.
However, It was offered to non-elites as a way to get E+ (and therefore no fear of them making use of Instant Upgrade) BUT elites found if you force B you got a cheapo B fare and could upgrade it. But the Bundled E+ B fare made no sense for higher elites as those elites already had E+ access, and now they had the discount B they could upgrade, contrary to the original intent.
Why UA used B fare class, I do not understand but it was a mistake by UA and their solution is to kill Instant Upgrade.
Another problem for UA
Originally Posted by
Holometer3D
... If you booked B class (which used to be very expensive in the past but is now priced at about $200 more each way over the cheapest non-basic economy fare), the upgrade cost was 20,000 miles with zero co-pay (although you had to pay $128 UK departure taxes on the return leg).
So for about $550 + 40,000 miles round trip, you could have an almost guaranteed upgrade from the cheapest non-basic economy fare to Polaris. That was truly exceptional value (the cheapest cash upgrade was usually around $1800 RT), and there was very little risk of being stuck in Economy Plus.