Unlikely that will happen with any frequency at all. How many times do you see I or IN for long-haul below the former saver rate?

That is simply incorrect. There are long-haul routes with lots of advance PZ. I've redeemed four of these in 2025.

I have no idea as I don't shop I/IN. To. be fair my experience is with domestic routes on DL, where the upgrade pricing is often much cheaper than I see on UA or AS. So this scheme may offer value for UA flyers who don't get automatic/free E+ seats on domestic flights.

I'm learning to feel a sense of dread when I get an email from MileagePlus with the word "update" in it. 🙁

UA recently started offering miles as a form of payment for "cash" confirmable upgrades / Premium Cabin Upgrades (PCU) @ 1 cpm

Well, given that the existing "upgrade" awards were almost never actually available , it would be interesting to see what they actually price at.

Especially if the refare is a guaranteed upgrade whereas MUA is waitlist.

The cases are myriad for anyone who travels outside of a single zone. For example, currently you can book SIN-HKG in I for 35K miles. Or, you can book something like SFO-AUS, SIN-HKG, AUS-ATL for 45K miles if SFO-AUS is in IN/I and AUS-ATL is in X. I went several years where my redemptions followed the pattern of “identify a region where I need an award, then sandwich that with trips I’ve already planned to take.”

This surely isn’t what UA intended, and I’m not surprised they’re tightening the rules, but I am a bit surprised they dumped it entirely. All they really needed to do was to stipulate that the first and last legs needed to be interregional and most of the creative uses would disappear.

How will this effect *A upgrades? One of my biggest usages was on Southeast Aisian PY trips via NRT/HND, I'd end up in B on the 7 hour flight and could upgrade for 10k. Glad I only have 40k miles left TBH.

This has been my experience as of lately. Ever since the pay with "Money and Miles" option came along, I've found zero PZ space on international long haul when I book nearly 8 months out. Also, I've occasionally found that the mileage rate of the "miles" portion of the payment makes the miles worth less than 1cpm. Note that I'm looking for international Polaris only..

My lowest redemption rate so far is a 2.8cpm rate, but I see that coming to an end by the time I make my next redemption.

I'm guessing this is tied to the rollout of the studio suites...

For those of you who don't get why some of us are so upset about these "niche" use cases, here's a counterpoint: I fly ORD-LHR several times each year, and I have so far had a 100% success rate in having my MileagePlus Upgrade Awards clear.

This route was exclusively operated by a high-J 763 (as is EWR-LHR), with 46 Polaris seats in a 167-seat jet, and you could pretty much guarantee enough PZ seats opening up close to departure (maybe with the exception of some extreme peak travel days like special holidays).

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.

I rely on MUA once my PlusPoints run out, usually around this time-of-year.
Going to be tough, if MUA is out of reach.

Hopefully pricing to China will finally drop to reasonable levels again as this is implemented by UA....but I am doubtful.

Not looking forward to 2026.

Very much an edge case.

As you should, With 8 months to find someone to buy J for cash, why would any airline give away J for miles or certs?

This is where we are headed, the only debate is when we will get there.

J will be come occupied with cash paying customers, only, because they can.

Earn nd burn, or be burned.

This is just Capitalism. It sucks, but it sucks the least of the alternatives.

Yeah midweek TPAC west coast - PVG/HKG seems to usually fully clear their upgrade list from the times I track the upgrade list.

Myself I'm 1/1 on a midweek, 0/1 on the weekend (which ended up offering a superior same-day buyup anyway if valuing at 1cpp). I guess the best we can hope for is to match the same-day buyup now?