sapman986

As I understand it, if I purchase a domestic ticket on, say, a W fare, I will be given an offer to buy an upgrade to first.

Is the cost for this upgrade equal to the fair difference between the W fare and the next elite upgrade bucket (i.e. - m for plats, b for other elites)?

Will the upgrade be offered upon ticketing, or upon check in?

TIA

mgobluetex

In my experience you'll be offered the upgrade, if available, at online check in. sometimes it's not even offered at online check but rather check in at the counter when you check your bags. The cost of the upgrade is dependent on length of the flight. A couple of years ago my wife and I were offered the upgrade for $99, one-way, to Phoenix and last year my wife was offered an upgrade for $119 to Chicago. It's much less than the full fare price difference.

trm2

You can look for one any time after ticketing. Pull up your reservation and click on the Upgrade link above the details if it isn't highlighted below the details.

njcommodore

That's a segment upgrade, only supposed to be offered when all elites are accounted for. Those should be offered at checkin (online or airport)

That's the buy up to first. Those have a little bit of a sliding scale. You can always check your reservation before checkin for the difference between your fare and the lowest upgrade bucket (m/b for elites, z for non). The catch with this is that at some point they will figure out the most expensive your fare bucket was (w for instance) and the least expensive upgrade bucket fare, and offer a buy up for the difference.

Example (for a plat):
W fare from SFO-EWR (purchased 3 months ago for $300)
M (3 months to 1 day): $600
So from 3 months until 1 day you'll get a $300 buy up offer

Now if at some point in those three months the W shot up or the M dropped you could get a buy up offer a check in for let's say $129.

Fun times.

sapman986

Thanks for that information.

Once ticketed, will I always have the upgrade option available online?

If so, will it ever cost more than the fare difference between the purchased fare and the b or m fare?

njcommodore

Once ticketed, yes. If you go into view your reservation you'll see both the cash and miles options. Assuming you're elite, you won't have to pay more than the difference between your fare and the m (plat) or b (other elites).

sapman986

Based on this advice, I went ahead and looked at the itinerary I was looking to take

U fare - $779
B fare - $1476

I was expecting to be offered an upgrade fee of the difference ($697) ( I am a silver elite)

However, I went ahead and booked the U fare and was offered the an upgrade charge of $622 each way ($1244) total. This is nearly twice the the price of what I was expecting.

Did I miss something?

stevenshev

Is ZE open? If not, it could be pricing a D fare (or, theoretically, but much less likely, a Z fare).

sapman986

Not sure, but I was able to choose the flights as a B fare with Elite Upgrade fare specified.

Looking at the D fare price, it certainly seems to be what it is offering me an upgrade to.

sapman986

It turns out ZE was open. I cancelled the original ticket and bought a b fare.

Looks like the logic discussed isn't necessarily true.

ijgordon

What? The "tens of dollars" upgrade logic? Of course it wasn't true. (Though I'm surprised they seem to have gone in the other direction.)

walkerci

Silver? elite? Oxymoron.

Seriously, 25,000 miles a year is nothing.

UA-NYC

So there was nothing true about the CO Elite reporting (about a month ago) getting a ~$479 UG offer on the same flight his non-elite children got offers for ~$79? OK...

sbm12

sapman986

As you so eloquently put it - "Seriously?" You are looking down on me for being Silver? Do you get some sort of gratification from posting something like this?

FYI - I put my time in as a plat (for 5 years). I am now very fortunate in not having to fly 75k+ BIS miles every year. It's a bit odd that you would think you are in some way better than me because you did last year.

I earned my silver elite last year through personal vacation travel.

Thanks for your less than valuable contribution. FFers like you give the rest of us a bad name.