nyr2299

I am flying from EWR to CDG on a UA 757 with a companion. The flight is in 2 weeks, and is flying on a Tuesday. I used a GPU, but am wait listed right now. There are four empty BF seats out of a total of 16. What are the odds that it clears? Thoughts?

AAExPlat

Your odds are zero.

chinatraderjmr

Same as my odds of winning the lottery. There is only one way to guarantee an upgrade. Book flights with R inventory. If you were flying alone and are a 1K or GS, I would say you have a small chance, but w a companion? No way

karenkay

this.

sorry.

chasbondy

You are considered "overentitled" by the new ruling class,, so forget it.

goalie

41,144* to 1

*for those that are Stooge-o-philes

nzpilot

Your odds are not good, but you can improve them by watching for the opening of R, particularly at the 24 hr mark. Then call in and tell them you see R but your UG has not processed. My last success BF was showing only 1 seat open. Other threads confirm.

Here is a basic posting on the concept. (Note the *advice in the last line.)

Good luck!

JFKSFOLAX_friend

pi / 100

Your chances are not good. About three in 100 would get upgraded given similar circumstances.

Crazyboutflying

Sorry in advance since this is a real novice question, but I have a trip to Paris coming up in August with dates fairly wide open.

Can I get advice on when anyone thinks the best time/day of week/route, when I would have the best chance of getting my upgrade to clear?

I am 1k and would be going LAX to CDG
Thanks

astroflyer

Hey all,

Let's be nice to nyr2299, who clearly is fairly new to FT.

nyr2299:
Alas, the others are probably right...the odds aren't great. That doesn't mean I haven't cleared with almost every seat showing full in the past. One thing to check is the actual inventory count for business seats, that is, J,C,D, & Z (I guess P is a new one as well). Those are more reliable than the seatmap. And be sure to babysit the damn thing, I've called in for upgrades where R was available and nothing was happening with my SWU for more than 24 hours.

And yes, if you're wondering where the attitude is coming from, your post probably isn't appropriate for a new thread and we see a lot of them. It's also a frustrating question where you might as well ask a Magic 8-ball than us. I've had flights booked full where i've been upgraded, and flights booked nearly empty (Z=9) where I've somehow missed it.

Good luck!

JFKSFOLAX_friend

Sorry, who isn't being "nice"? There is a difference between having a little fun with UA policies/chances of getting upgraded and being not "nice," no?

Very

aacharya

LAX-EWR-CDG?

I'd go for any of them, since if you don't clear EWR-CDG, but cleared LAX-EWR, your GPU (note the new terminology) is refunded.

But many here might even recommend EWR to another EU city, and then a short hop to CDG. CDG is pretty popular.

mherdeg

Your best bet is to find a flight whose upgrade will clear immediately after you book it -- that is, a flight with "positive R inventory".

To see R inventory on a flight, search for a regular flight at united.com, then click "Fare Class" on the first results page:


If you see something other than "R0" this means that there is more than one seat available for an immediately confirmable upgrade into the front cabin.

Beware that R availability is shown in married-segment fashion: if you search for a flight from LAX-CDG, and are shown flight options LAX-EWR, EWR-CDG, you will only see R inventory that is available on both segments when you click "Fare Class". This is dangerous because there are often lots of legal international connections and some, but not all of them, have confirmable upgrade space all the way through; but some, but not all of them, are shown on united.com. Just to spell this out: it's possible that you might do a search LAX-CDG, click on an EWR-CDG flight's "Fare Class" button, and see "R0", when in fact a flight EWR-CDG might have R availability (and a different flight LAX-EWR might be available).

To get started, run a bunch of searches for various days in August on United's Web site for nonstops to CDG -- take a look at ORD-CDG and EWR-CDG. Once you've found R inventory on the transatlantic portion, finding upgradeable space on a domestic flight that gets you to the gateway city and is a legal connection is not too hard.

If you don't see anything nonstop to CDG, you might also check availability to ZRH, GVA, FRA connecting on a Star Alliance carrier to CDG. All told there are about 50 city pairs where United operates transatlantic flights, so this far in advance you should have no difficulty finding upgradeable space given your schedule and travel flexibility.

Good luck!

UA-NYC

Good luck to you - as you can see by this thread, it ain't easy. Skip going via EWR and (I think again) IAD as they fly little planes. Better luck via IAH or ORD.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...dg-flight.html

DrDesmo

Also - try ExpertFlyer.com if your dates are flexible and you want to see everything. Free trial ^

Cheers,
Adam