Hey all! I'm sorry in advance for what may be naive questions, but I'm at a loss and you guys seemed like the best ones to ask! My fiance and I are flying from Boston to New Orleans in November to go to my home town for our wedding. We're flying United and, while I'm a frequent flier member, I just moved from a place where United wasn't the best option so most of my miles are from Delta. What I'm trying to say is I only have ~8750 miles (not enough to upgrade). ANYWAY, I'm desperately trying to find something I can do to surprise my fiance to upgrade our flight experience somehow (drink vouchers, upgrade to first, buy a one day pass for the United club, etc, etc) but I can't, for the life of me, find out how to do this. It seems like United has eliminated a lot of its fun upgrades and it won't even let me purchase an upgrade to First Class! What gives!? I know we'll have the best flight of our life not matter what, but if anyone can give me some advice, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!!! - Ally

It is a short enough flight so skip the airline hassles have a limo with champagne waiting in New Orleans.

Sadly it's not even a direct flight! 4.5h flight to Houston, 2h10m layover, 1h13m flight to New Orleans (and 6h of flying on the way home). Long day! And limo might be tough since my home town is still an hour drive from New Orleans. Hmmmm...

Depending on how far off in November your wedding is, you could apply for one of the UA credit cards for the sign-up bonus. Only problem is that there's really no guarantee of an upgrade on miles as they are the lowest priority "instrument" to upgrade with.

United offers several different upgrade options for domestic flights...

1. 1K Instant Upgrade fares: depending on your status, when you buy a certain fare, your ticket is eligible for an instant upgrade when capacity allows.

2. Day of flight upgrades (aka TOD): during online check-in or airport check-in, you might be presented with an offer to purchase an upgrade to First. These are usually the best upgrade chance you'd have as a non-elite.

3. Instrument Upgrades: Platinum, 1K, and GS elite pax on UA accrue GPUs and RPUs which can be used to upgrade when certain fare inventory buckets are open and can sometimes be confirmed in advance. If they don't clear in advance, they go to what's known as a battlefield upgrade at the gate where your upgrade is processed based on fare purchased, status, and time of check-in.

4. UDU - Unlimited Domestic Upgrades: If you have any UA status, your name goes onto the complimentary upgrade list where as a UA elite, if there are any remaining F seats available and upgrade fare inventory exists, you might get upgraded. This route BOS/IAH is a elite heavy route, so scoring a UDU upgrade is most likely only gonna happen if you're GS, 1K or maybe Platinum. Gotta remember what size aircraft it is as there are only so many F seats.

If I were you, I'd harass some friends who I know fly a lot and ask if anyone can throw you some miles to try and get your ticket upgraded. If you change your search settings on United to expert, it will show you the inventory available so you can see if your flights have R inventory which you could upgrade if you had enough miles...

Pack a secret picnic of her favourite (non liquid) foods for you to share on the flight (for me, it would include some great cheese and crackers, an heirloom tomato salad, some quiche etc). Pop some real napkins in, with a large one to use as a table cloth on the fold down table, maybe a little bud vase with a (probably fabric for ease) flower in it. Get some good chocolates if she likes them, and order your drinks onboard. If you really want to 'up' the experience, have your friends send little (virtual) telegrams for her to read during the meal. On arrival, how about arranging for a friend with a decent enough car to collect you, with a bottle of fizz (if the state law allows alcohol in a moving vehicle - don't want any arrests!) or some favouite soft drinks, snacks etc for the hour's drive. For extra memorability, convince friend to don a chauffer's hat!

With things like this, the thought really does count - and it is going to be far more memorable than a domestic upgrade.

Not that anyone here would advocate this activity, but it is not un-heard of to find passes to various Airline Clubs for sale on eBay (often at a discount over what you'd pay for a single use pass).

I second the limo idea, even if you were to pay $250 for the ride, you would wind up spending less money than it will take to work your way into FC on the flight.

I think this is an awesome idea and much more memorable than domestic first class.

Great ideas y'all! Just to clarify, I'm the "she" so these surprises are for my husband-to-be. We're actually excited to have our families meet us at the airport so we will probably remain limo-less but packing snacks would be nice. As far as surprising him with flight perks, it seems (based on y'all's comments) is going to be difficult or expensive (and with wedding expenses and our limited income we want to avoid that!). So I guess I'll just have to think out of the box to make the 10+ hours of travel a little more bearable!

If your family is meeting you at the airport, why not arrange with them to do something special when they meet you?

Tell him to plan something fun and threaten him with nagging if he doesn't.

doesn't that always work?

More looking for things to do during the travel - the parents have done enough for us already! But it's fine if there are no good options. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. And no, vmsea, I don't nag. I try to find ways to make our wedding travel better!

delta shows a 6 hr one stop. save the money and make a down payment on a house.

Thanks but we bought these tickets a loooong time ago so we can't switch to Delta! I'm guessing at the time this was the best deal.

Assuming the first flight is on time, a two hour layover should be enough time to enjoy a visit to the UA Club, and a day pass is pretty affordable.

Can you purchase those ahead of time?