StuckinITH

Flying today might have been better. Polaris Business only sold 48/60.

A comment about what you said yesterday. Passengers cannot redeem RPUs or get a CPU on international Polaris flights.

FlyerTalker70

StuckinITH

FlyerTalker70

Quick update: took train from city where I live around 6 AM (near London, Ontario) got delayed 4 hours en-route to Ottawa due to a train derailment near Cobourg... ended up getting into Ottawa at 6 and to my hotel around 7. Having slept 3 hours last night and spending most of the day on the train, I am exhausted (and need to get up for my 6 AM to EWR!).

With the rant out of the way I thought I'd provide an update on the upgrade status for the flight:

• Current mobile/desktop upgrade offer is $1769 USD
• No miles+copay buy up offer
• ExpertFlyer is showing J5, C5, D5, Z5, P4 on the flight with around T-14

Odds aren't looking good but won't mind my Executive Economy seat on UA. Here's to hoping I get one of those $49 Kirby walkup specials at the gate UA is famous for!

Safe Travels,

James

skycrab

Today I have a rare opportunity to compare TOD update offer for a reservation with a 1K and Plat on a paid L class fare, using miles to upgrade with a saver business (IN) class ticket for upgrading to Polaris first.
On the mileage award ticket, the pax has not entered their MP number, and they are being offered an upgrade from IN to O for $200 less than the 1K who paid for an L class fare, paid $550 co-pay and paid 20,000 miles upgrade.

Genuinely, I feel this is unfair, and penalises those who may be the most loyal to UA.

FlyerTalker70

StuckinITH

Yuck! A full flight. Yesterday's flight was so good. Economy+ half empty. Bulkhead seats with no neighbors...... No surprise that the TOD was not reduced further on your flight. Now you have to think about the TOD for your return.

Have a safe flight and enjoyable time once you are at your destination!

bariww

I am travelling IAH-IAD-FCO on 8/9 and I'm wondering what, if any, buy-up or TOD offers have been thrown out in recent memory. Any help would be appreciated!

StuckinITH

I have not seen any offer on that route (IAD-FCO) on the list by j2simpso but I would expect if there's a TOD to be in the range of $800-$900 unless you are already at a very high fare. What is the buy-up showing you?

FlyerTalker70

Couple of thoughts:

• You'll generally receive offers on a per segment basis (i.e. IAH -> IAD and another offer for IAD -> FCO), sometimes its combined
• What fare are you booked into? Depending on fare code you may be able to upgrade using miles or miles+cash which can often be a lot cheaper than the deals you see on the site
• Some FTers have mentioned that removing their FF # from their reservation made the offer price go down - I haven't tried it personally but it may work for you
• A good chunk of pricing will be based on availability at the time of upgrade... looking at your flights:
  • The segment IAD -> FCO is showing J9, C9, D9, Z7, P4 which means that the business class is partially filled since the discount buckets are low, prices may fluctuate a bit between now and then
  • A similar story for the segment IAH -> IAD which is showing F9, C9, A9, D9, Z7, P4
• There is a risk of the price sky rocketing the closer you get to OLCI, especially when the number of seats are limited... this just happened to me on my EWR -> NRT flight I'm on, had a confirm upgrade to business for 30,000 miles + $600 USD but cheapskate me thought I could get a better deal waiting it out... never materialized!
• A lot of the decision for upgrading should come down to your travelling circumstance, if you think you'll get a lot of work done (and not much sleep) then a decent Economy+ seat works just as well.

Hope that helps.

Safe Travels,

James

jsloan

When searching for load information, it's important to look segment by segment. If you search from origin to destination, you'll get married segment availability (that's why those two inventory lines look so similar).

In fact, IAD-FCO inventory is J9 C9 D9 Z7 P0. IAH-IAD, assuming you're on the 11:55 AM departure, is F9 A9 C9 D9 Z3 P0. While UA is willing to sell a deep discount (P) business ticket to a through passenger, they're not willing to make the same concession for someone flying nonstop. The best available information about these flights is that UA believes they can fill them without upgraders or a fare sale. A quick look at the flight status page for that flight tells the story; 16 of 30 available seats have already been sold in J. That's quite full for two months out.

bariww

Thank you for this. We'll be booked in W and I just found out that we can also take the ORD-FCO flight as well. It's for my husbands work trip so we have to play by their rules for flights we can/can't take. Our primary goal is getting into business and I don't care which flight or how we do it - straight cash (since we're not paying the base fare, I'd probably spend a decent amount), miles + copay or whatever. I just don't know which flight to hedge my bets against and what strategy to take - to waitlist or not to waitlist, leave my FF# in or take it out, check daily for buy-up's/R availability, etc. Does there need to be R availability to get a miles + copay buy-up offer? I presume so, because that's no different than an upgrade but I've heard people talk about them here as a buy-up so i thought I'd ask. Any thoughts on the ORD flight and/or tips and tricks? We can wait until as late as 7/6 to book so maybe we should hold off, but then any buy-ups could skyrocket by then too! UGH, this is so maddening...

threeoh

How much does it cost just to buy up from W to P? That's a cap on how much you will have to spend.

pmarrsouth

Offered $109 Buy-up at OLCI for EWR-PTY. Had purchased an exit row seat anyway for $97, so for $12 more its a great deal. Obv took it. Same as I got back in 2014 too.

COSPILOT

My wife and kids are being offered $119 for DEN-SNA tomorrow. 4 seats left, with a few showing on the waitlist. E+ is $59 each for them. Not going to pay it, but suprised its offered for all 3 of them. Pricing like this is a no brainer if you needed to check some luggage, as E+ doesn't help with that, but first sure does.

I really think paid first upgrades should be more expensive for non status flyers, but what do I know?