1K Buy-Up to F | You win SMI/J. But only this time.
 

Well, I have to admit it, SMI/J finally beat me. Upon checking in for my EWR > PHX flight today I was offered a $99 buy-up to F. That's a six hour flight with the head-wind. I was 3rd on the WL with 3 open F seats (from what I could handicap). I pulled out the corporate card and took 2B. $100 in the scope of my business expenses is about a cup of coffee, but this still bugs me. You may have my $100 the new-CO but each and every day I feel as thought his 1K thing is a bit over-rated. Happy I put the time in on DL last year.

TOD. I've fallen victim. For the record, this was a p.s. inbound LAX>JFK and then a CO EWR>PHX today with a UX PHX>LAX leg on Sunday which cost me (my firm) $290 a.i. (now $389) Can someone please tell me who's making any money at all on that?!

In what fare bucket was your flight originally booked? I'm assuming it was priced as LAX-JFK, EWR-PHX, PHX-LAX as a circle-trip, right?

ETA: Probably doesn't matter as I don't see an M fare published on the route and the lowest B is too much higher to work at the $99 fare difference, except maybe from a Q fare, but even that is a stretch.

well, at least you were offered a buy up at check in. Maybe UA is actually listening to us.

Don't feed the beast, you're only encouraging it ;)

Probably a smart move, I bet someone after you would have taken it...and the GM price was probably $59

Same thing happened to me earlier this week. Last minute trip to PHX from EWR, bought one-way ticket at about T-22hrs, fare was $149 (S class). Saw a $99 buy-up offer at OLCI but didn't go for it at the time - wanted to see where I would end up on the list. Was no. 6 with 2 seats left so went back to OLCI, got the same offer and took it. Easy decision :)

First time I've seen this on one of my flights.

And being #3 on the list with 3 open seats would you have gotten the free upgrade? If so seems like a waste of your companies, and possibly clients, money to me. And good that your company feels they can spend the money. I don't know of any myself thast would allow the buyup to be reimbursed.

That's assuming that none of passengers #4 and beyond on the waitlist took the $99 offer. If any one of them had, then #3 could have ended up in the back.

Unfortunately too many companies seem to employ overzealous clerks who are combing through expense reports looking for abuse. The more enlightened ones take a holistic approach and look at whether your overall spending rate is justified by your work. To my mind, the guy who works the system by buying cheap advance-purchase tickets as soon as he thinks he's going somewhere and frequently incurs change fees and upgrade fees, but overall spends much less on travel than the guy who follows the rules and buys walk-up-fare tickets at the last minute, deserves his upgrades.

Welcome to the world of TODs! ;)

FYI no M filed for that route, just a B at $789.

You fell victim?

I actually think YOU won... I would have bought the upgrade too (out of my own pocket in my case) and not thought twice about it.

Why don't you go buy 100 or 1000 shares (whatever you can afford) of UA stock. Then, no matter which way it goes, you will win! :)

9.9 of them, correct ;)

I was obviously grateful here that it was offered since I had no chance of being EUAd but I was surprised at how low the price was - far lower than I've seen on even shorter routes in the past.

Be it incompetence or intentional, it seems clear CO has tossed its own rule book out the window at this point. Too bad this likely becomes part of the new UA.

I agree that 99 is a good deal for six hours, I wish 1K's got a free meal or a split of wine for their loyalty to United Airlines when they don't clear into F/C space.

At these levels TODs seem to be cheap enough to be a better value than even instrument-based upgrades. I wonder if that's the new, new plan TOD upgrades offered as an alternative to purchased stickers with lower rates for higher level elites?

What's next? Are they going to combine upgrades with the OnePass auctions site? :)

Of course that's the plan - why give something away for "free" (even though they're earned through loyalty) when you can grab a few more bucks? They can chalk it up to "computer error", but at this point...come on.

Pennywise, pound foolish IMO. But that seems to be a recurring thread with this leadership team.