XCstud

Here's my experience and 2 cents on BULK fares. My company has some sort of corporate deal with UA and I'm not exactly sure how it works, but I think at the end of the year we may get some discount or % or the total spend on eligible tickets back. Some of my Intl trips show up as BULK even though we are paying full fare.

I have a trip booked in D and C next month and I know the total fare paid from the receipt (it's a lot) from our in house travel agency, but on UA's website when I look at the receipt it just says BULK and I can only see the taxes and fees paid.

On UA's website, I don't have the option to upgrade online and when I click on the button to change flights I get a message telling me I need to call UA. I called up UA and tried to get my flight routed through another city for MR purposes, but they told me they couldn't change the flights since it was a bulk fare and they didn't know how much was originally paid or what the fare difference would be. I tried with 3 different agents and got the same response each time that I would need to go back to the in house travel agent if I wanted to change the flight.

Because I'm on a D fare, they did let me apply for a mileage upgrade to F and I didn't have any issues getting it done although the agent had to go check with her supervisor and it took a few minutes. When I applied there were no open seats, but I was waitlisted and it cleared this weekend.

Often1

Terrible is in the eye of the beholder. If you want a dirt cheap ticket with no perks, this is the way to go. If you want an UG, don't buy a bulk ticket. Only the individual pax can make the determination as to whether the savings are worth the perks. Often they're not, but that's a failure to do the research in advance.

XCstud

I think you are making some assumptions related to this discussion that may not be valid. We aren't talking about a hotwire/priceline name your own price fares but published discounted economy fares that should be upgrade eligible whether bought directly from UA or elsewhere. Generally when I price out a flight or vacation package on a 3rd party travel site like travelocity or expedia, the airfare is the same as what I would pay booking a flight on UA's website. Here's the text regarding upgrade eligibility from the website:

Upgrades are not available on flights that have already been upgraded, or on certain fares such as industry discount, Hotwire and priceline.com.

I'm not sure what qualifies as "industry discount" but if i'm paying the same fare from a 3rd party travel agent as what i would pay on UA's website, I don't think it would considered industry discount.

The list of upgradeable fares is below so K and S fares should be upgradable

*Fare class structure in priority order is J, C, D, Z, P (for upgrades from United Business® to United First®, or United BusinessFirst® to United Global First® on three-cabin aircraft) and Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K, G, N (for upgrades from United Economy® to the next higher class of service on all aircraft).

Often1

That would be true if the third-party site has purchased at retail from UA. But, what's likely happening is that the site you are using, purchased bulk at a discount and then sales at retail. This is yet one more reason to book through either the carrier directly or a known and trusted TA (someone you know or recommended by someone you trust).

If a flight costs $X on united.com or thirdparty.com, book it on the carrier website. If you can save $100, I'd still book it on the carrier website. Save 50% and maybe I'd consider the other.

350zrx330

Just updating my experience with this last week. I booked a tpac trip with our company's travel agent, fare receipt showed bulk and wasn't able to upgrade using GPU online. Called my travel agent, she was able to get a UA agent from Hawaii call center to request the upgrade for me. While on the phone with the Hawaii call center (3 way calling with UA and travel agent), UA agent mentioned she has been putting in upgrade requests on bulk fare for a while now. UA has changed the policy back on bulk fares, the internal communications still have problems on the change back. If you get a Houston call center, they still can't do the bulk fare yet.

After wait listing my request, the Bulk on my receipt changed to the actual cost of my ticket.

northsideguy

Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)

alex_b

Except there is much more to it than this as others have repeatedly mentioned, just because you think that it's a case of people purchasing at bulk and selling at retail doesn't make it true.

For example I booked a JFK-New Zealand trip through a trusted global TA (Flight Centre). It was a published fare, which the TA issued on NZ rather than UA ticket stock in economy (domestic) and premium economy trans-pacific. Unfortunately because it was on NZ ticket stock SHARES figured it was BULK and refused to allow me to upgrade the UA legs.

Eventually after endless hassles by both myself and my TA, I found someone who was able to type the fare construction directly into the UA copy of the ticket and at that point upgrades immediately became available.

So one concrete example of a broken IT system blocking upgrades on a non-BULK ticket miscoded as bulk.

Of course there were then endless hassles getting the correct miles for NZ because the idiots at UA read O class as upgraded UA GF rather than NZ PE, but that's another story...

davewang202

I just ran into this problem.

Booked a vacation through Hotwire, and the "use an upgrade" button was missing from the reservation. I wasn't aware of the "no upgrade instrument on bulk fare" issue until I searched in this forum. Is there an update to this issue? If I call in, will the CSR be able to process the upgrade for me, or do I have to try the HUACA process a few times?

In a similar vein, I wonder if the bulk fare will count as $0 PQD?

weero

First read the fare rules of your bulk ticket. I nearly purchased one ex UK which then had a remark in it "no Mileage Plus benefits will be provided" which zeroes earning of everything. And can even have you turned away at the lounge.

If the ticket is non-earning then calling will not bring anything.

1KHI

Hotwire is a different issue. If it's an opaque fare (not knowing airline before booking) you will certainly not be able to upgrade or get mileage credit.

For non opaque fares, I had issues with Expedia vacation packages last year and after endless calls, they were able to put the upgrade request manually. I would call at night to get a Hawaiian call center.

davewang202

I customized my package, and specifically selected the carrier and the flight times I wanted. I paid a couple of hundred dollars above the cheapest fare (Delta) to pick the United flights. On my United reservation page, it shows as K fare outbound and W fare inbound. Everything looks normal except for the receipt page which shows "BULK" instead of specific fares, and the lack of the instrument upgrade link.

Ok, I think this problem's been solved.

Since I just completed the purchase of the vacation package no more than 5 hours ago, I called Hotwire's vacation package line and explained that the ticket that I purchased through them was not upgradable on United. Since I was within the 24 hour purchase window, the agent gave me the option of cancelling just the flight and refund the tickets. I then went and booked the exact same itinerary with the same fare codes through Chase.

The difference came out to be $14.90...

FWIW, I called United before I called Hotwire, and the United CSR claimed that some bulk tickets are upgradable while others are not, and I wasn't going to get her to upgrade the BULK tickets for me. I could've tried HUACA, but for $14.90, the alternative was much easier.

ajbinmpca

>In a similar vein, I wonder if the bulk fare will count as $0 PQD?

Confirmed. Just completed KOA-SFO on a discounted fare combined with hotel from Expedia, listed as BULK on UA. I earned the PQM, but zero PQD from this ticket.

SFO-Guru

You still CAN upgrade BULK fares, although most often it's a pain. I just upgraded one today and have been regularly doing for last 6 months. You'll have to call obviously and insist that it's upgradeable. Most efficient way I found out is to have agent ask in their office for someone familiar with the process. Hang up-redial helps but is far less efficient. Some supervisors may also know but depends which center you call.

It's not done on exception basis, still an official upgrade, although one very few agents know about.

Good luck to everybody

valor155

Called the 1k desk today and told that UA fares marked "BULK" do NOT earn PQD but do earn PQM. No PQD even though they are ticketed starting with "016". Doesn't matter. UA's website doesn't explicitly call out PQDs on BULK fares . . . not that I've found. They say there are exceptions to UA issued tickets earning PQDs, and BULK fares is one of them.

I purchased through Vayama. Didn't think that would turn out to be a BULK fare, but it did. Working on the cancellation right now (3 hours after purchase).

So . . . further verifying what this poster wrote, essentially.

WineCountryUA

long active thread on this http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...elsewhere.html


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