nygiants242

Even with the smaller 767s going to Europe, it always feels so much easier. Envious of folks in ORD. EWR and SFO are nearly impossible.

goodeats21

Totally dependent on a lot of factors, in my experience. I have cleared many Polaris upgrades to LHR already this year from EWR. They have a LOT of capacity on that route. Also sometimes IAD.

Don't think blanket statement is correct.

BlueZebra

Beware of statements that include "always" or "never".

NJSwamplands

But you have to deal with ORD

Kmxu

�Always� travel on Tuesdays, but �never� travels on Fridays and Saturday.

Replace ORD by any UA hub.

tcdtcd

The 767s are the high J version. And mainly just to LHR. Most other routes are 788/789/781.

drewguy

Yeah, my sense is that those planes, other things equal, are easier to clear on because of the ratios of J/Y. Plus, if upgrade doesn't clear it's among the better widebody experiences.

eng3

I agree in that, YOU "feel like ORD is always the easiest hub to clear Polaris upgrades w/PPs"
But I Absolutely Always Disagree that ORD is always easiest. It is Never Always ORD.

First, what do you mean by clear? At Gate? At Booking? In between?

I almost exclusively only book if PZ>0. For Europe, I'd say EWR, IAD, ORD are about equal. Don't even consider DEN or SFO since I live on the east coast. In terms of "impossible", I've considered IAH but have never found anything.
Going to Asia, you're mostly going via SFO or LAX so you'll naturally clear there more than other hubs with alot less flights.
Going to South America, its mostly through IAH so I guess IAH would clear more.

If you're talking at the gate, That depends more on your status and booking class and luck.

The route matters too, some routes have more flights or more people buying J.
I find for europe, I've mainly been going via FRA, LHR, BRU. The nice thing about europe is that it is easy to connect and not have to spend too much time in Y.
Asia much harder going out more than a few weeks.
Pre-Covid I would see South America and India frequently but not lately. I've never seen anything for south africa.

For day of week, I have found most of my upgrades has been Tues-Thurs
In terms of planes, there's the ratio of J/O/Y.

If you read through the PP Q&A thread and/or the PP Success thread, it should give you a better idea.

MatthewLAX

The key is the Y to J ratio on the 763 premium config...I do find upgrades much easier on that aircraft, all else equal.

halls120

I'll take ORD over EWR any day of the week.

MysteryTour

Mrs MysteryTour, also 1K, didn't get a Plus Points upgrade on a high J 767 ORD-LHR on a Tuesday just over a week ago. Easiest doesn't mean guaranteed.

dkc192

ORD also has quite a few TATLs on the 788 (AMS, MXP, BCN, ATH, CDG sometimes?), which has probably the worst Y:J ratio and thus upgrade chances among the long-haul fleet.

JimInOhio

That might be off-season. Looks like AMS, BCN, CDG are all 78X now.

dkc192

BCN and CDG get the 781 now, but AMS still seems to predominantly remain on the 788 (I see one weekly 781 frequency).

nexus7556

I was able to burn all of my 1K PPs earned last year by beginning of April this year flying out of SFO