Not strictly true, need to add:

BD Gold can redeem FFP miles for additional upgrade vouchers for use on BD metal as described in the voucher section of the BD entry

I just called the ANA Platinum desk. They said that this "new" rule applies only to tickets issued in the USA. Thus, if tickets are purchased outside the US H and W fares seem to be upgradeable. The "Group" fares ticketed in T are not however.

Hi MarkUK. Welcome to FT ^

Even though your question is o/t on this thread, as it is a specific question rather than a pooling of info on upgrading on *A, I'll go ahead and answer it.

The latter.


Yes.


I'd suggest that in the future, you start a thread when you have a specific question not totally related to that of the thread ;) . Again, welcome to FT.

Thanks for answering my queries!

I'll repost the question as a new thread so that it gets a wider audience.

Mark

As posted above there is NO difference to UA between E and E+. You do NOT get "upgraded" to E+ ... UA does NOT regard that as a separate cabin "class" of service. As a Star Gold you are AUTOMATICALLY entitled to it.

AFAIK the Star vouchers let you lock in a seat on UA NOW if inventory allows, and the LH system is for day of departure I think, same as for UA 1Ks using SWU.

So .... having a confirmed E+ and waitlist the Star upgrade (if WL are permitted on these) seems a no brainer to me.

See www.seatguru.com for best E+ seats.

Thanks everyone for the corrections and additional info :)

I have now updated to here.

Cash Upgrades on Star Alliance
 

This might merit a new thread.

I'm curious to know which airlines offer cash upgrades at the airport as an alternative to spending miles or certificates.
I've heard UA offering the possibility to upgrade ex-LHR for cash as well as domestically through the easy check in kiosks.
I've also successfully paid for a one class upgrade on several longhaul TG flights ($600 between Thailand and Europe; $150 BKK-HKG) and double upgrades are allowed!
CX also has one cabin cash upgrades between HKG and USA for $1200.
What about LH, SQ, et al?
So if any of you know of certain airports or airlines that do this, please do post. These upgrades are never published anywhere so its word of mouth from the clever travelers that visit this forum! ^

CDG 1K

That would be useful ^ - particularly for the non american carriers. As that info would change a lot more than the "standard" ways of upgrading I'd suggest a separate thread. If anyone wants to get it started I'd be glad to link it in here.

Apparently you can sometimes upgrade with cash on SQ - although I've never managed myself. Will try to find the post.

Bump and some minor updates.

The UK Air NZ flight has a cash upgrade:

http://www.airnz.co.uk/bookingsandof...torupgrade.htm

but at £465 per sector it would work out at £930 LHR-AKL, not reallya good deal.

tht

Due the vagaries of doing a rather complex recent family trip that went SFO-NRT-PEK-SFO, there were 4 of us mostly in C on UA except on the one ANA sector (NRT-PEK) where 3 of the 4 of us were in C and one was in Y.

This is about a 3 hour flight, so on check-in I asked the clerk what it would take -- in cash or UA miles -- to upgrade the fourth person to C.

The answer was (after a HUGE amount of computation and discussion over the phone) -- UA miles, haha! -- but for money, it would be a mere USD1,450. Needless to say, one of us rode in Y on that flight! Too bad, since that person missed the option of chosing a Japanese meal with a "speciality" entree of pickled tongue from Hokkaido.

I have questions regarding the above *A awards...

Booking in H class on NZ but from LAX-AKL-SYD. Me and companion. I hold the certificates. According to what I can read on the certs, I think I can upgrade the both of us right? And will the upgrade between AKL-SYD be processed the same time the LAX-AKL is or will we have to do this all over again when we get to AKL? My companion holds no status.

MY interpretation is since you will be checking through LAX to SYD all at once (I presume) you present coupons for both LAX-AKL and AKL-SYD at check-in in LAX. However the AKL-SYD u/g probably will not be confirmed until you get to AKL depending on availability.

When is your flight AKL-SYD? (There aren't many biz seats and certain flights have a lot of business traffic.)

Hi.. thanks for your response. I will be flying LAX-AKL-SYD at end Sept. I won't be stopping in AKL - only connecting since NZ doesn't fly LAX-SYD anymore. I know that there is the UA option, but I think my chances of scoring the upgrade is better on NZ than on UA with all its FFP members getting upgrades.

So do you think my companion can use the vouchers too?

Sorry I meant what day of the week and what time of flight? There are quite a few on this route and I'd imagine chances very from none at all to quite reasonable.