lskohn

Well, it's not the old UA, but for once, I managed to get our upgrades in advance of the windows...
We're flying ORD-YVR, ANC-SEA-ORD in late May, both 1Ks (well, I'm a lowly C1K or 1KC, not sure which is the terminology) - the first and third legs were upgraded within a week of booking but the ANC-SEA redeye was not, and several weeks passed without change. Tonight, I decided to check all our rez and noticed that the ANC-SEA leg showed R=4, RN=4, with only one seat occupied on the seat map. So I called 12:15 am CDT...got through pretty quickly (for the new UA) after repeating "agent" several times ... the agent had to put me on hold for 15 minutes, but when she came back we had our upgrades and seat assignments, and the website reflected it even though I hadn't logged out and logged back in. (and the flightstill shows R=2, RN=2, so any other elite on UA 1674 June 2 might want to call in...)

Whew. Moral: Keep checking those fare class pop-ups, and call after midnight!

UA-NYC

We have to celebrate the small victories with the new UA, like getting an agent able and willing to process our waitlisted upgrade that should have happened automatically

The bar is set quite low now. I had miles post after only 4 days! That's progress.

SFOTurtle

Question re married segments and forcing an upgrade. Looking to fly SFO-AAA-BBB. If AAA-BBB R space is available but when checking online SFO-AAA-BBB, the same segment AAA-BBB does not show R availability, after booking can an agent force upgrade on that segment assuming AAA-BBB R space is available?
Flights I'm looking at right now show ample R space for the overseas flight, but I don't want to book if agent will look at SFO-AAA-BBB and say no dice. Fyi, the SFO-AAA flight number is different than AAA-BBB, so this is not a "direct" flight issue.

Wondering how folks have fared bypassing married segment issue in getting upgrades cleared manually.

sbm12

It probably isn't actually married segments. The website doesn't display the inventory for the individual flights, even if it exists that way in the back-end systems. If you request it online or with an agent the individual segments which can clear will and the others will be waitlisted.

V9

In the old dotcom, you can choose from the menu to show those upgradeable flights and price them.

Now you have the option only to indicate what specific class, not classes for a round trip or multi-trip.

When the lowest available round trip showing S going and H coming back, You can only have that combination (that means you cannot upgrade the going portion), or you would have to choose class H in order to find the upgradeable fare for both ways, and it's most probably not the lowest upgradeable fare.

How do I find W/H, V/H or Q/H fares? If I do two oneway searches, I am certainly losing the benefit of roundtrip combination savings.

SFOTurtle

But the website does show R and RN inventory for specific flights if you're looking at nonstop, point to point. So say there is upgrade inventory showing on the website on a nonstop long-haul flight. Shouldn't there still be upgrade inventory on the long-haul flight even if adding on a domestic connecting flight? Asked another way, would passengers traveling only from AAA-BBB have R inventory whereas passengers traveling from SFO-AAA-BBB would not have R availability even on the same AAA-BBB flight?

sbm12

You can put a comma-separated list in that box which should meet your needs. If you want all the GPU-eligible fares there's a tool here which can help.
Both sets of passengers have access to the R inventory. The problem is that when doing the initial fare search the passenger on the connecting flight won't know that it is there because the display algorithm shows only what's available on both flights rather than the actual inventory of the individual flights. If you book the ticket then go in to request an upgrade it will actually upgrade the AAA-BBB flight and waitlist you on SFO-AAA.

1kdreamer

Can someone please tell me how to find upgradeable flights on the new UA website? There must be a thread about this somewhere but I can't find it. Thanks.

redburgundy

Go to the Flight Reservation page, enter the cities and dates, and select Mileage Plus Upgrade Award at the bottom of that page.

coplatflyer

If you want to use a gpu for intl flight make sure you also input W fare to search. Also click the upgrade box as previously mentioned.

1kdreamer

Thanks, guys! I finally got it!

Silver Fox

OK, I am tired, but I am not sure that I am making sense of the GPU classes small print and classes that are eligible or not for upgrades. Can someone tell me when going from LHR-SFO-LHR what are the classses that I can use GPU on?

Eligible flights says:

They can be used on all paid, published fares except:

S, T, K, L, G and N fare classes, for upgrades from United Economy® to the next higher cabin on most long-haul international flights

See the upgrade regions chart for full details on upgrade eligibility and fare restrictions.

This says:

For regions with a *, Global Premier Upgrades are not available on flights booked in fare classes Z, P, S, T, K, L, G or N. (LHR falls in this region)

So, it seems to me that if the class is Z, P, S, T, K, L, G or N, then I cannot use GPU, but any other classes I will be ok to apply a GPU with Y, B, M being the favourites due to its clearing because "Premier® 1K® members on M fares are available on all flights that are eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades."

I would be grateful for a sanity check.

UAPremExecflyer

GPUs can only be used on W fares and higher for economy > business upgrades.
GPUs can be used on J, C, D fares for business > first upgrades.
There are no M fares or higher complimentary upgrades for 1Ks on international routes.

CASAFlyer

Essentially anything including and above W is OK for SWU from Y-->R (BusinessFirst).

Sorry to deliver bad news regarding the Y/B/M fares... but those only give you only a slight advantage on the waitlist compared to lower fares (the waitlist is ordered by status first, though.

The instant upgrade sentence you quote only applies to "Complimentary Premier Upgrades" (from economy to Domestic first) and not to international BusinessFirst markets such as SFO-LHR. Also... SFO-LHR is considered one of the hardest routes to clear Y-->R in the UA system. So my advice is to be mentally prepared to fly in the class you purchase and be positively pleased if you get an upgrade.

Silver Fox

Thanks. Well if the website wasn't such a POS I would have booked by now. Ho hum.