The upgrades are often sold at a very substantial discount to the current F fare differential. In exchange for the discounted upgrade, UA takes away flexibility. It's sort of like booking a cheap nonrefundable hotel room.

EWR-Europe tomorrow. I'm #4 for 9 seats on the waitlist. Buy-up is $799. They've been playing with fare class availability on this flight for weeks and keep opening up P even though seats were getting sold. Nonetheless I think I'll be waiting for my T-24h upgrade. I'm hopeful they clear down to J4 or J3 so I can secure it today instead of hoping tomrw at the gate. Really prefer Polaris Lounge access as I have a lengthy EWR layover tomrw.

-RM

SFO-YVR J was offered at $89 this month.

Booked an award ticket in August for November travel. The offer had been $89 until J had 3 or 4 seats available for booking. Then price went up to $189, $478, and $189. Back to $89 when J2 at T-48. I took that offer as I was not on top 2 of the upgrade list. Don't know if the last J was sold or being offered free to a premier member.

I booked a flight in Premium Plus GRU-EWR-XXX.
I upgraded at purchase the EWR-XXX and it’s now showing as D fare.

I’ve been looking at upgrading GRU-EWR which is showing P9 and completly empty and it has been over 3K since booking.
When I look at repricing, it is offering me GRU-EWR in D and other options in C.

Question : did buying the upgrade and getting a D fare on EWR-XXX is now locking the rest of the itinerary to a D fare minimum ?

I purchased an upgrade to Domestic First and my seat selection fee in economy was refunded within 3 days.

Weird thing happened yesterday on my daughter’s flight from Boston to London. I had booked her in economy using miles. When we checked her in we saw a day of departure upgrade to premium plus for $275 which we selected. However no Premium plus seats were available so her boarding pass said “see agent”. As she drove to the airport she looked at her boarding pass and it showed her seat as 17L in business class. The boarding pass still said premium plus but her seat was in Polaris on the plane.

So a double upgrade on a mileage award ticket.

Does she have status ?

Strange things can happen when you do a buy-up. I remember a buy-up from coach to business and getting an OPUP to first :)

yes - she’s a 1k as my million mile companion.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We have a related question. We are 1K Chase cardholders with an economy award to LHR. The aircraft is a 767-300 high J.

The website offered us a cash upgrade to Premium Economy on the outbound (which we purchased). But the return flight shows “upgrade not available”. I’m wondering if this availability might open up closer to our trip which is not until June? OR if the system isn’t offering it because the UA return flight appears to be linked to our Aer Lingus intra Europe flight?

Thoughts?

My experience is that cash upgrade space does open up and priced depending on whether there is R, O or A availability on the flight. Keep checking the flight using expert mode to see. Is Premium Plus sold out on the flight?

R, O and A are all showing 9.

Lounge upgrade.
 

Hi. Flying tonight SFO - AKL in Y+. I see there is still plenty of availability in C. Does UA offer cash upgrade at the lounge? If so, what price can be expected? I'm UA*G
thanks

You can ask but most look in the smart phone app or united.com online. Once checked in, just start the check-in process again and look for options. Same with check-in kiosks

Appears 18 unsold seats and only 8 on the upgrade list
4 unsold for PremPlus , 9 on that upgrade waitlist

Data point:

Just been offered $299 for ord-las tomorrow during TATL check-in. J3,D2,P2. I'm on CPU list with a decent seat already so I'll wait it out...

edit: CPU came through t-6 :)