Yesterday over Thanksgiving dinner, I met with a friend who is a prominent Harvard business school professor.

During the conversation, I found out that he is also 1K. Apparently, he travels on paid C fares to Asia and Europe. In a summer trip to PEK, he and his family were in economy, and he complained about how crappy UA's economy seats are.

So I asked: do you know that you can upgrade them using SWUs?

He said, "SWUs"? "What SWUs"?

I was speechless. So I asked him to email me his MP number.

Today, I set up his password at united.com, registered etc. Then I clicked E-Upgrade Summary.


I fainted.

It shows:

5 SWUs expired on 2/1/2007

Total of 8 CR1s expired in 2007

In addition, he has 8 SWUs, about to expire in 12/31/2007 and 1/31/2008.

So I took over his MP account, become his manager, and booked a Christmas trip to Europe for his family of 4, and upgraded all.

Meanwhile, I looked at his itinerary:

he booked standard coach awards BOS-ORD-MCO (Ted), at 50,000 miles each. Total 200,000 miles. geez

I strongly objected this based on the value of 200,000 miles. Apparently this business school professor was convinced, and I canceled this crazy mileage award reservation for him. A nonstop ticket on JetBlue costs $300 or less. He saved 200,000 miles, enough to book 2 tickets in business class to PEK for summer 2008 Olympics.

I shall have some SWUs CR1s as commission next year based on my hard work, he agreed.

suck him into the program...
get him to be one of us...
Viva le flyertalk

So much for an Ivy League education...

Good luck on getting 2 saver C for the summer Olympic.

I will be there in person, but I cannot get my family there. Only 120,000 standard Y awards are available at the moment.

I don't see that changing anytime soon. There will probably be plenty of people willing to pay for premium cabins for those flights.

UA is out of question. No saver C to China for summer 2008.

But NH or SQ may be available, with connections in Japan.

However, you can also do UA SFO-NGO, plenty of saver C, then connect from NGO to China on NH.

Tried the NH and SQ options without success. I will check out the NGO route. Thanks for the tip.

You did a good deed, kb1992!^ Kudos to you, and it's always amazing to hear about 1K's that don't know about their upgrades. Did he at least know about 500'ers?

Nope.

He has no idea whatsoever.

All his e500s expire, auto-converted to miles before, but now just expire, because he never registered for that promotion.

He should have been able to nominate 3Ps etc. but he didn't register.

Most of his travel is in full C fare. I checked his mileage summary, paid C on UA, NH, LH, SQ. 90% of them.

Now I am taking over his bookings.

Each $11,000 ticket gives my MP Visa 22,000 miles.

That's a pretty good commission.. almost a free saver Y domestic award for each $11K ticket...

Of course friends don't let friends totally squander their benefits, but don't we need people like this so that UA can keep the UG's at their current levels (and so there's ever any availability)?

There have been previous threads almost exactly like this -- friend or boss or co-worker complains about flying Y, poster summons up the courage to ask why they hadn't upgraded, together they open up account online, finding available 6 SWU, 8 CR1, and 48 e500.

So what's everyone's best guess on what % of 1k's are completely oblivious like this?

Great story professor!!! It is easy to get jaded to think that everyone knows how to work the system when FTers become the model of what you think of as a frequent flier. You gotta love United and the friendly the skies (even if one is as myself a humble 1P)!! Safe travels!!

I'm going to guess 30% bare minimum.

A mitzvah to you, kb. But what can you expect of an HBS prof?

I rated this thread as "excellent" (5 stars I think). OP, you've hit the mother lode.