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.

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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;)

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.

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.

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:

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...

I found 32 flights total for the next 330 days that had any NC availability SFO-FRA.

Curious - how do you do that without going through one day at a time ? And was this NC space on UA 900/901 or 926/927?

Agree in a way, whereas I am still debating if its the SFO-FRA or the SFO-HKG run ??

Did you find a pattern, whereas NC was available?
e.g. day of the week, days out ?

Want to know how you did it +1

Perhaps used expertflyer.com, which lets you check a week at a time, plus it's easy to "refine" (as they put it) your search so as to easily check other dates pretty quickly. Plus, not to sound like too much of a shill for the site, these searches indicate how many upgrades are available for any given flight.

Good question. I'd be curious about this too.

I don't regard myself as an amazingly lucky or instinctively brilliant person. I do have some skills, but ...

In any event, I fly Australia - US - and often on to London a lot. I am 1k and about to break 1MM, admittedly this has been helped by a couple of hundred thousand miles I seem to have got from the recent rule changes, by most of my miles are this run and I do it a lot.

In the last 3 years I have failed to be upgraded (to business) once on London - San Francisco and failed once four years ago the other way.

Across the Pacific, I have failed once in the last four years.

Where I can I follow basic rules (avoid weekends, if possible fly to London out of Lax etc) however nothing I do not that is unreasonable to get the benefit of flying business class.

As to this benefit, I think it is pretty damn high. I have flown Singapore business a few times, and I would give a win on the quality of the product, but not by a long way. I think the UAL product is pretty damn good. Economy is rubbish, as I remember it, but as I said, I hardly ever fly it.

Right now I am stranded in London sick, and having had to move my flight home three times while I recover. On the original flight, and each of the changes I have made, upgrades have been confirmed for each sector of the flight home.

I think it is all pretty good and I am a fan of United.

There you are I have said it.

That is a pretty good record, Rob! ^
As to fares: What booking class do you typically book in?

I flew PHX-SFO-IAD-GSO last weekend as a 1P on a K fare. I knew I'd never get SFO-IAD (it was a Sunday redeye A320) but I was very surprised to miss PHX-SFO. I wasn't even close (#8 out of over two dozen when boarding). I've never missed this route before so this was not the welcome back to 1P I was hoping for :(

Here is my record:

Since 2006, I have taken about 60 flights to and from Asia: HKG/PVG/KIX/ICN/PEK.

About 55 upgrades have been requested. Only one failed to clear: ORD-HKG.

I booked XF ticket to HKG, paid a fee and canceled my revenue ticket. :cool::cool:

I always have flexibility, and book far ahead, most of upgrades were cleared at booking. NC is indeed very hard to find these days.

Life is too short to suffer 15+ hours in horrible UA 747 Y. ;);)

Nice record, indeed. How far out is your booking typically?

Mine since 2001 to 2010 (all C to F):

around 120 flights to and from Asia: HKG/BKK/SIN/NRT, another 20% more (or so) to FRA/LHR/EZE/SYD

All cleared.

I have been hearing that C to F on some segments with SWU's are struggling to clear these days. Even GS on a J fare is missing out on the upgrades as well :eek:

Typically, 10 months in advance to secure NC, or 2 weeks in advance to check the C cabin load before booking.

95% of time, upgrade is cleared at booking.

I am always willing to change dates, routings, even destination cities to find positive NC.

Tues/Wed/Thu are the best time to travel.

HKG is the most difficult, followed by PVG and NRT.

The key for my 54/55 upgrade success rate for trans-Pacific flights is flexibility.

By the way, when flying BOS-Europe I don't even bother to upgrade. Just buy the cheapest fare, and sit in exit Y seat.

Nice to have that time-flexibility. :cool:

Agree with HKG. Looking at your East Coast location, you probably have no experience on the SFO-FRA run?

SEA-IAH tomorrow morning on a CO 753... 24 seats in F. I am 5th on the list as a 1K with 1 seat left. Only 7 upgrades out of the 23 that are booked into F.

So, all the others are revenue Fs?

Well, if you want that nice upgrade, you have to be flexible, or pay $8000 biz class ticket. ;)

From east coast, I don't do SFO-FRA. Here is what I would do in your situation:

Book far in advance and try to secure NC on nonstop SFO-FRA. I see very few NC>0 in 12/2012 if you can avoid weekends. UA doesn't release them!

If nonstop SFO-FRA is impossible, then I would try SFO-ORD/IAD/EWR-FRA if I can find NC there.

Domestic F+ int'l C beats Y, any Y. Extra stop or not.

You might even find wide body 767/777 for SFO-IAD/ORD with int'l configuration to connect to FRA. That would be an added bonus.

Revenue/Buy-Up or Awards, one would have to assume, right?

I feel your pain.

Mr. VAU/B should just resign to economy. No way you'll get an upgrade. Find an ELR seat (row 33 is still available for this flight).

It appears that "Assorted fresh menu items and packaged snacks available for purchase". ;)

No direct TV though.

I'll stick with 21C for the time being ;)

Valid approaches indeed! ^

Probably what it is. Add to that Y, B, M instant upgrades come 3/3: Not pretty.

Tomorrows UA291 (MCO-IAD) is still showing as a 757 with 10 booked up front and 14 unassigned yet F0. It's been F0 for days which means they're expecting an equip swap to an A320. However, the seat map and unitedcargo still say 757. I guess a whole bunch of us will get upgrades at the gate tomorrow unless UA opens up F inventory and then subsequently releases NF.

-RM

That was 900 & 926 - the outbound.

For 1Ks, the party is over
 

Sad to say, but I really think the advantage of 1K is about gone.

I flew four United transcons in the last two weeks -- and got zero upgrades, even when trying to apply regional upgrades, weeks out.

The upgrade lists are crazy, and disspiriting. On many long-haul domestic flights, especially out of near-monopoly hubs like SFO, the upgrade list can top 75 people, with 1K members nowhere near the top. Apparently it's world of GS members at all of United's hubs.

And the international situation is only marginally better, if you use SWUs. The upgrades may clear, but it often will not be until hours before departure, and only after you've paid the much-higher-than-lowest fare to be eligible for an upgrade that you may not get.

AA is far better to its Executive Platinums. Never this sort of hassle. Much more willing to give upgrades, and confirm them, in exchange for loyalty. On international routes, allows upgrades on virtually any fare.

I think most people are trying to use the SWUs and Regionals before they expire at the end of Feb. I know we cashed some in on a flight from IAH-DEN, that we haven't ever missed the upgrade for, just for the purpose of not letting them expire.

We tried to use one on a flight from IAH-EWR, and my husband was 10th on the list with a SWU as a Presidential Plat (on CO metal). That never happens, but then again, there weren't a bunch of people trying to redeem them before they expired.

I think flyersfo in post 38 above is conflating several separate issues here.

First and foremost, when UA had excessive capacity (ie when there was a recession on and they had not reduced the schedule) there were plenty of upgrades and very low fares, and we 1Ks benefited accordingly. Those days are gone.

Second, UDUs have meant it is far more difficult to get upgraded domestically when we really want it - ie we have been stripped of our competitive advantage.

Third, UA's focus on improving its international premium offering, and reducing the amount of it, should, if it works, increase the numbers of GS customers - thus pushing 1Ks slightly further down the pecking order.

Fourth, and this is where I agree with the flyersfo's contention although this point was never mentioned, is the question of handling when things go wrong. I feel here that 1Ks no longer get the special attention they did. It's always hard to put your finger on the crux of the change, but I have not been feeling the love recently with several itineraries where recovery from problems simply did not happen.