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-   -   Consolidated "Are Upgrades Becoming Easier or Harder on UA?" Thread [2012/13] (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1299885-consolidated-upgrades-becoming-easier-harder-ua-thread-2012-13-a.html)

SFOTurtle Jan 7, 2012 11:26 pm

Consolidated "Are Upgrades Becoming Easier or Harder on UA?" Thread [2012/13]
 
I haven't checked in a while, but just did a search for upgradeable fares to OZ and looks like the lowest W fare roundtrip SFO-SYD-SFO now is more than $2500?? Wow. Now that is making upgrades harder.

LarkSFO Jan 7, 2012 11:37 pm


Originally Posted by SFOTurtle (Post 17770076)
I haven't checked in a while, but just did a search for upgradeable fares to OZ and looks like the lowest W fare roundtrip SFO-SYD-SFO now is more than $2500?? Wow. Now that is making upgrades harder.

Is there NC space availabilty for the flights you looked at?

How much does the lowest economy ticket cost for the flights?

jswong Jan 8, 2012 12:22 am


Originally Posted by SFOTurtle (Post 17770076)
I haven't checked in a while, but just did a search for upgradeable fares to OZ and looks like the lowest W fare roundtrip SFO-SYD-SFO now is more than $2500?? Wow. Now that is making upgrades harder.

But if it is a W fare you are looking for, think about a NZ destination via SYD. W fares to NZ via SYD are cheaper than SFO-SYD fares

Jeff

economyplusfan Jan 8, 2012 10:39 am


Originally Posted by SFOTurtle (Post 17770076)
I haven't checked in a while, but just did a search for upgradeable fares to OZ and looks like the lowest W fare roundtrip SFO-SYD-SFO now is more than $2500?? Wow. Now that is making upgrades harder.

If you DO get upgraded r/t, you will pay $2,500 + $1,100 in upgrade fees + 60,000 hard-earned loyalty MP miles. If you don't get upgraded you get stuck with a non-refundable ticket that you can break up for domestic flights at a fee of $150 a time or stuck in UA's notoriously poor long-haul Y product to SYD. Quite a perk for loyal UA customers, isn't it?

hobo13 Jan 8, 2012 10:52 am

Man, when I saw that the old thread had been closed, I assumed that it was no longer needed because UPGRADES WERE BECOMING EASIER. :D

mduell Jan 8, 2012 11:51 am


Originally Posted by economyplusfan (Post 17772323)
If you DO get upgraded r/t, you will pay $2,500 + $1,100 in upgrade fees

Why would he buy a $2500 W if he's using miles+copay? I suspect he's using SWUs.

Jorgen Jan 8, 2012 2:55 pm


Originally Posted by economyplusfan (Post 17772323)
If you DO get upgraded r/t, you will pay $2,500 + $1,100 in upgrade fees + 60,000 hard-earned loyalty MP miles. If you don't get upgraded you get stuck with a non-refundable ticket that you can break up for domestic flights at a fee of $150 a time or stuck in UA's notoriously poor long-haul Y product to SYD. Quite a perk for loyal UA customers, isn't it?

Well, if you don't like it you can always pay the $8500+ for an actual business-class seat!

Why would United give business-class seats away for free on this route when they're apparently having no difficulty selling 'em off for *six times* the economy-class price?

Doug 1029 Jan 8, 2012 4:49 pm


Originally Posted by Jorgen (Post 17773747)
Well, if you don't like it you can always pay the $8500+ for an actual business-class seat!

Why would United give business-class seats away for free on this route when they're apparently having no difficulty selling 'em off for *six times* the economy-class price?

Totally agree.

GoAmtrak Jan 8, 2012 6:42 pm


Originally Posted by Jorgen (Post 17773747)
Well, if you don't like it you can always pay the $8500+ for an actual business-class seat!

Why would United give business-class seats away for free on this route when they're apparently having no difficulty selling 'em off for *six times* the economy-class price?

They shouldn't (though SWUs aren't entirely "free"). It's understandable that they require a higher Y fare to upgrade. It is not fair to require it for an often-indeterminate shot at upgrading. How would it be any different from having to pay a mileage upgrade copay just to waitlist, even if the upgrade doesn't clear and your miles aren't deducted? Oops, shouldn't give UA any ideas. :rolleyes:

If I ever was to pay for an international C seat outside of a contract, UA would be foolish to assume they'd get my business.

Cantheplanegofaster? Jan 9, 2012 11:45 pm


Originally Posted by Jorgen (Post 17773747)
Well, if you don't like it you can always pay the $8500+ for an actual business-class seat!

Why would United give business-class seats away for free on this route when they're apparently having no difficulty selling 'em off for *six times* the economy-class price?

Every time I see one of these snarky replies, I wish I could get a big bell and ring it next to their ear. Over and over again.

If you are luckly enough that your company springs for C, be happy. The other 50% of companies do not.

When you look at your MP account, it says "upgrades earned" not "upgrades you'll never get"

And for someone who's company has paid $2500+ for my economy seat on a TPAC, your math is a little off;)

LarkSFO Jan 10, 2012 8:22 am


Originally Posted by Cantheplanegofaster? (Post 17783566)
If you are luckly enough that your company springs for C, be happy. The other 50% of companies do not.

I think it is more like 90% (that do not). 99.8% of big companies that are the largest employers do not...

Upgrade success:

I booked (mid december) two R/T's SFO/GCM transiting through IAH. Outbound late Feb, return early March. Booked on CO.

Applied 4 CR-1's that I transferred from my MP account. 3 legs of my partners (GM) itinerary cleared immediately, as did two of mine.

Over the holidays I received an e-mail that the remainder had cleared.

When I looked at our (seperate) reservations on CO.com, it still showed the old economy (pre-upgraded) seats and in a seperate tab had the same flights but with the upgrades to F. Kind of confusing. I called in to the Plat line and they cleaned it up so now the reservations only show the F seats. Not sure what caused this behavior or why I had to call in to clean this up.

mherdeg Jan 10, 2012 12:21 pm


Originally Posted by LarkSFO (Post 17785278)
When I looked at our (seperate) reservations on CO.com, it still showed the old economy (pre-upgraded) seats and in a seperate tab had the same flights but with the upgrades to F. Kind of confusing. I called in to the Plat line and they cleaned it up so now the reservations only show the F seats. Not sure what caused this behavior or why I had to call in to clean this up.

When your upgrade clears via advance waitlisting (miles, CR1, SWU), you will always end up with two segments on the continental.com view of your reservation -- one in R, the other in coach. You will always have to call to get it cleaned up (warning: some have reported that this can reset your position on the waitlist) or have it cleaned up at check-in.

Actually, for an upcoming all-sUA trip that I have, the continental.com view of the reservation shows two SFO-LAX trips, a segment in F and a segment in L, now that my UDU cleared on that segment. It doesn't say "your ticket is out of sync, please call to reissue", which is a surprise, but on the other hand it's an 016 ticket and sCO doesn't touch it at all right now.

LarkSFO Jan 10, 2012 1:25 pm


Originally Posted by mherdeg (Post 17786962)
When your upgrade clears via advance waitlisting (miles, CR1, SWU), you will always end up with two segments on the continental.com view of your reservation -- one in R, the other in coach. You will always have to call to get it cleaned up (warning: some have reported that this can reset your position on the waitlist) or have it cleaned up at check-in.

Actually, for an upcoming all-sUA trip that I have, the continental.com view of the reservation shows two SFO-LAX trips, a segment in F and a segment in L, now that my UDU cleared on that segment. It doesn't say "your ticket is out of sync, please call to reissue", which is a surprise, but on the other hand it's an 016 ticket and sCO doesn't touch it at all right now.

Thanks! This is not very user friendly... (don't tell channa I said that! :))
Obviously more I need to learn about CO's differences from .bomb and UA.

We did get an automated call (Saturday at 7:00 am!) which prompted me to call in to figure out what was going on.

djmp Feb 9, 2012 11:31 pm

upgrades by the numbers
 
Total number of NC seats available SFO-FRA 8/19/12 - 12/4/12: zero

Nice to have those SWUs...:td:

1k650 Feb 10, 2012 12:01 am


Originally Posted by djmp (Post 17987181)
Total number of NC seats available SFO-FRA 8/19/12 - 12/4/12: zero

Nice to have those SWUs...:td:

This (UA 900/901) is the most difficult flight in UA's system to upgrade - I challenge you to find any NC seat at any time till end of schedule...


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