Dublin_rfk

Starting with the "K" class ticket there is not much chance of an upgrade. I was quoted a $ 600.00 USD up charge to bring it up to an upgradeable class. At that point it's not really a good deal.

crnk

yes--the upfare wouldn't be cheap and the CORRECT copay method would be something like 600 each way (plus 30k miles). The "glitch" is that if you buy a ticket overseas, with stops everywhere at under 24 hrs, and I think you can't backtrack through the same city, and I think you have to return to a different destination, THEN sometimes UA sees it as a domestic itin and will show the upgrade price as 20k miles--the domestic one way price.

dts9

If you have a 'k" class ticket, I dont understand the low chance of upgrade. Aren't upgrades the same as domestic and based on status with list of upgrades waiting on app etc.

crnk

I don't even know where to start. GUM itself is not in the US with regards to upgrade policies--no different than how HNL has different policies than the rest of the mainland.
If you're asking about free upgrades to GUM--you can't route through NRT, longhaul into HNL, or the nonstop to GUM. None of those options are free upgrades.
I think HYPOTHETICALLY one could upgrade something like IAH-LAX-HNL-Island Hopper to GUM. The problem there is that island hopper upgrades only clear if all segments have availability.
If you're asking about gaming your way through the upgrade, you're jumping into several conversations: Kmxu's vague blanket assertion about how easy it is. My reply about someone's thread about how UA cheated them. Dublin_rfk's discovery that Kmxu's blanket assertion isn't true--I read the comment "not much chance of an upgrade" as a reply to "very, very low miles + copay" and the fact that without a very specific set of factors to the itinerary that confuse the system, "there is not much chance of low miles and a minimal copay upgrade" (to paraphrase)

Madone59

I can't find one w/ the hopper but it would be great if you could.

notsosmart

GUM fares (fares that allow transit through GUM on tanspac itins) almost always allow the island hopper (i've never seen one that didn't).

Also, as someone else mentioned, if you're hoping for an u/g you have to have ALL segments clear - even one of the flights on the island hopper that doesn't clear will cause you to sit in Y on all of them. It's very frustrating.

Also 2: the Island Hopper... Meh. I guess I'd do it again, mostly to show it to the new GF who is not the old GF who did it with me years ago... but honestly... MEH.

Novemurr

I've yet to post a summary still of my trip last October from Chicago to Manila, but the upgrade process for the Island Hopper was very frustrating.

The gate agent at HNL wasn't willing to help very much with trying to upgrade me and my friend even though there was R (upgrade) inventory on all segments except TKK-GUM. But there was J (revenue) inventory available on TKK-GUM so I called United reservations and got a really nice agent and supervisor who was willing to try to force the upgrade through for me when I explained the situation. Unfortunately, after being on hold for 30 minutes, the supervisor said that the system wouldn't allow her to bypass the upgrade process no matter what she tried to do, so we flew HNL-MAJ-KWA-KOS-TKK with at least half of J empty. Very frustrating to get an agent who was willing to help only to be ****blocked by SHARES. :/