Can anyone shed any light on the subject of
paying for upgrades at the counter before the
flight? I have done this before with TWA, but have not done so with any of the other majors. I have heard of purchasing a book of
upgrade certs before, but have not gotten any feedback from those who have used them. Thank you for all of your timely replies.
JMS....

at united one booklet with four (4) upgrade vouchers (each one for 500 miles) costs $200 (that is the "discounted" price for premier members).

If you are not a premier yourself, let a premier-friend post the upgrades for you (they are transferable), but as a non-premier, you have other disadvantages to use them: non-premier can use them only with unrestricted fares (premier with any published fare).

JMS, if you want an upgrade FIRST I would
request it when you make the reservation.
(Obviously the higher tier in an airline's
program, plus seat availability the better
the chances for upgrade.)

Then either the night before when you confirm
your flights or at the check-in counter I would say are there upgrades available.

As PremEx I have a very good upgrade rate.
But I still carry two coupon books of certificates and a few times this year the
gate agent asked for the certificates. (another CATMAN tip: always carry the upgrade
certificates with u, and have them within
easy reach.)

I assume it's teh same situation with AA
and COntinental. Good luck! CATMAN

You can also buy upgrade certificates at the
check in counter. It puts a few more minutes on your time to get to the gate BUT if it
gets you a better seat it's worth it.
CATMAN

OK, here is the AA scoop. AA has electronic upgrades in addition to stickers. I only use electronic. When you receive awards, your account is automatically credited. You may purchase more upgrades in the flollowing ways:

* Over the telephone using a credit card (e.g. when making bookings).
* At the counter when checking in.
* At the Admiral's Club (if you are a member).
* At the Platinum Service Center (if you are a Platinum or Exec Platinum Member.

Upgrades normally run $35/segment (i.e. 500 miles), but if you buy 8 or more at once, they are $25/segment --> what a deal, it is like getting 3 for free and some change! This is a promotion, but has been running as long as I have lived in the US.

You can upgrade companions from your account too. When flying Reno Air, I ask the agent to print out some upgrades and hand those in to the Reno agent.

Hope this helps.

TCrazy

Can you upgrade any published fare on AA?
I have been flying Delta, they will not let you upgrade their L class fare.

Delta has told me that all domestic carriers have a similar upgrade policy of not allowing passengers (regardless of frequent flyer status) to upgrade the lowest published fare. Is this true?

dansil: one exception would be CO. If you are Gold Elite and show up at the airport 2 hours from flight departure and there is a seat in F, you get it. No upgrade certificates needed at all! It doesn't matter what fare inventory you're booked on either. If you are traveling with another passenger and there is a second seat available in F, your companion gets upgraded too. Regarding DL: well, we all know about those L fares.

Delta no speaka da truth. United's Premiers and above can use the 500 mile certs to upgrade themselves and one traveling companion on ANY published fare. And if using miles from your account at the gate, United now permits domestic upgrades on any fare as well.

And Rudi, a slight correction on your prices for purchasing 500 mile upgrade certs: $200 is the price for non-Premiers. The price for Premiers is $125 for a book of four.

Here's another upgrade certificate question:
Can you get back half the 500 miles per unexpired certificate for those you buy, not
just the complementary ones?

Last time I had 3K worth of certificates I
bought and they expires because UA was nice
and just upgraded me at the gate. This was
before I knew FlyerTalk and offer it to you
guys. CATMAN

I frequently buy upgrade coupons from United, either at the ticket counter or the gate. Sometimes they are a bit strange if you do it at the gate (scolding---you should have done this before now), and one time at Orlando they told me to go up to the Red Carpet Club (this 10 minutes before flight time (?)) to purchase the certs. Sorry gate agents--I don't want to overinvest in certificates if I may not be able to use them.

PremEx, do you mean you can use the 10,000 mile award to upgrade any fare at the gate? Or is it the 20,000 mile award, in which case wouldn't you be better off taking the upgrade at the time you make the reservation?

QuietLion. Yes, I was refering to the 20,000 mile Continental U.S. and Canada upgrade on "Select" fares. A couple of months ago United removed the restrictions on these so they can be used on any published fare. It used to be that you couldn't use these on some of the deep discount fares (like W, which I would guess is similar to Delta's L) Yes it would be better to upgrade at the time reservations are made, but sometimes there are situations when you can't because of availability or other circumstances when you want to upgrade at the gate at the last minute. I was just mentioning that this can be done. The 10,000 mile upgrade is still for "Full Fare" economy only.

I should also mention that they removed the fare restriction on the "Select" 30,000 mile Hawaii Only R/T upgrade level. Sort of related to this: On our recent Hawaii trip, back before they removed the fare restriction on this "Select" 30K R/T Hawaii Award, when I called and booked our trip, there was a lower fare available at the time, but it could not be upgraded, so I took a higher fare just so I could use upgrade. I was a little ticked that I had to play this little game at the time, I can tell you. About a month later when I heard they had now removed the restriction, I called reservations back and explained that now I was really ticked that I had to paid a higher fare for (now) no reason. She totally agreed, explained the situation to a supervisor, who approved a retroactive refund for the difference on the spot. Another case of good Customer Service...thanks, United.

So, in a nutshell, I guess you can now say that on the Continental U.S. and Hawaii "Select" upgrade awards, they have removed the "Select" (it still has to be a published fare, however). International "Select" upgrade restrictions still apply.

As for American, this appears to be their policy:

If you are non-elite, you can upgrade with e-stickers at the gate (or placed on the waiting list) 4 hours before flight time and you can only upgrade on full fare tickets (I have experienced some exceptions).

If you are elite, you can upgrade 24/72/100 hours (gold, plat, exec plat) before flight time on ANY fare (including M class). 500 mile E-stickers are $35 for 7 or less, $25 for 8 or more.

In terms of upgrading ff tickets, I have never tried it. I usually purchase the lowest coach fare and upgrade with miles (currently 20k on American)

JIMBOLIGUY... My friend a "regular" AA member
has the upgrade stickers and when she remembers to bring them (I have to remind her
to) got an upgrade only once )She flies out
of DFW which is next to impossible to get
upgraded unless you are an elite.)

I would prefer that they put the upgrades
into the mileage account bank as a reserve
(Like a Vacation day) so you don't have to
carry out cards, paper, sticky things.
You can also purchase the upgrade coupons and
have them automatically put in your account.

My Frequent Flyer Wallet is already filled
with certificates. Anything to cut the paper
would help my back! CATMAN