Man this is awesome! Thank you! :)

Yes, do it all the time

how easy is it for a *G to upgrade on SQ (sfo-hkg-sin-sfo) from biz to F using delta miles?

the link on post #2 does not work.

Thanks. I've fixed the links under SQ for Kris Flyer and Delta upgrades.

Upgrading to India
 

I'm not sure if this the right place to ask, and when I tried calling United's MP they were completely unhelpful.

My husband and I are looking to fly to India in January 2007 and would like to try to upgrade to business on the trip. How do I go about booking this? We'd fly out of SFO, and fly into any major city in India (our final destination is HYD, but we can fly Jet Airways for that). We have no preference on flying through Europe or Asia.

Is it possible to upgrade using miles? Currently we're both Premier with United.

Thanks,
cindy

Easiest way is to buy SFO-NRT-SIN or SFO-NRT-BKK in UA H class or higher. Then upgrade with miles.

SIN-HYD on Jet via MAA or BKK-HYD on Thai via MAA are both short flights ie 3-4 hours or so.

Buy the UA tickets way in advance to ensure uprgade availablility. SFO-NRT is always full of 1Ks :D

I'd suggest SFO-FRA-HYD on LH - it is the most direct routing you'll get on *A. With a much shorter connect time than most other alternatives.

Flying SFO on an asian route (SQ or TG) will kill you with the jetlag and moreover you get to spend a whole day in singapore when your flight from the states lands early in the morning and your flight to BLR takes off only late in the evening [not a bad thing, a whole day at singapore but its something to keep in mind]

As it is LH you can probably book it on a UA flight number without any problems - and flights FRA to India are usually solidly overbooked so most any kind of status will get lots of op-ups as a rule.

LH will op-up elite members when coach is oversold. They will do this for both *G and LH M&M elite members and tend to do it automatically for the LH M&M members in order to clear space in C and/or Y. They will not op-up anyone unless Y (or C) is oversold.

As noted in Post #1, if you want to use UA miles to upgrade the LH flight, it has to be a LH flight number, not a UA flight number. I do not believe that this has changed with the advent of *A upgrade awards.

Added UA's (partial) participation in *A wide mileage upgrade scheme.

No UA upgrades on AZ
 

Still can't upgrade on AZ using UA FF miles- :mad:
Wish they'd get their act together on this- it's just frustrating, that's all- we're flying return to SYD from AKL so we can upgrade to Biz for return to US- just a pain in the north end of a south-bound horse!

If it is any consolation, your chances of upgrade AKL-LAX/SFO are not good. Business class usually sells out (slightly better chance on NZ6 than NZ2 or NZ8), and not forgetting *A mileage upgrades require a high economy fare.

One question I have is how NZ (not AZ which is Alitalia) will handle these upgrades on 747 and 777 aircraft. NZ Airpoints upgrades consider economy to business a double upgrade on these aircraft, single upgrade is to premium economy.

So, I'm trying to figure this out.

Later this fall I need to fly to Dubai. Given that I live in DC, it makes sense to simply fly United to FRA, and then pickup LH to DXB.

What is best upgrade 'use case'? From what I gather, I can't use SWU's to upgrade all the way through to DXB on one upgrade cert because it's 'mixed UA/LH'. It's my understanding however I could use miles and do it confirmed each way - correct?

I have booked tickets yet, so I have plenty of flexibility there. I have SWU's to burn, so it would make sense to use those if I can - but by the same token I don't see the point in throwing one away just for the sake of throwing one away (meaning, no point in doing IAD-FRA on an SWU and then burning FRA-DXB on miles).

Any thoughts?

Bump... :)

What is the prevailing strategy wrt check-in for LH? Check-in online as early as possible? or wait 'til the last minute at the airport?