Mar 20, 2017, 5:47 pm
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
"GG BUYUP" references to a policy (not publicly published) that UA will waive change fees, if on your presently booked flight you wish to buy-up / upfare to the next cabin. That is, pay the fare difference from your present economy fare to business / first.
If the agent is unfamiliar with the policy, ask them to reference "GG BUYUP" or ask a supervisor.
Note this is only on UA tickets and only applies to the same flight, flight changes are not permitted by policy (a rare agent might but generally no).
This does not waive change fees for buying-up to a "W" fare to apply a GPU but some agents may still waive the change fee and some may not.
If the agent is unfamiliar with the policy, ask them to reference "GG BUYUP" or ask a supervisor.
Note this is only on UA tickets and only applies to the same flight, flight changes are not permitted by policy (a rare agent might but generally no).
This does not waive change fees for buying-up to a "W" fare to apply a GPU but some agents may still waive the change fee and some may not.
Buy up to higher fare class w/o change fee? {GG BUYUP}
Aug 25, 2018, 12:25 am
#496
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Thanks, I am flying mostly international itineraries and looking into booking similar in this way so would definitely want to know if I am paying more if it will end up really worthwhile if i need to make changes or cancel. I do completely understand that the fare difference will always come into it when there is one but I just meant any penalties incurred. Also, I am not sure i am searching things right but I can't seem to find things when I put terms in the search box at top of webpage, this time I tried putting in GG BUYUP but got the message there was nothing meeting my search criteria. Not sure what I am doing wrong but this happens to me a lot when I am trying to find something that I know is on here somewhere!! Could you possibly send me a link and maybe comment/suggest what I could be doing wrong when doing my searches? Thanks again so much!
Sorry, I totally forgot to link the thread, but this post was merged into it anyway.
Aug 25, 2018, 12:45 am
#497
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Sep 18, 2018, 8:51 pm
#498
Join Date: May 2016
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1k
Posts: 312
Does GGBUYUP go to the current in-market fares, or does it look at the fares in place when the ticket was originally issued?
I have a biz ticket and when it was issued there was an /UPDI first fare for about 1k more each way, if I call and ask about ggbuyup will they use that fare, or does it reprice everything?
I have a biz ticket and when it was issued there was an /UPDI first fare for about 1k more each way, if I call and ask about ggbuyup will they use that fare, or does it reprice everything?
Sep 18, 2018, 8:55 pm
#499
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Does GGBUYUP go to the current in-market fares, or does it look at the fares in place when the ticket was originally issued?
I have a biz ticket and when it was issued there was an /UPDI first fare for about 1k more each way, if I call and ask about ggbuyup will they use that fare, or does it reprice everything?
I have a biz ticket and when it was issued there was an /UPDI first fare for about 1k more each way, if I call and ask about ggbuyup will they use that fare, or does it reprice everything?
The GG BUYUP price isn't static (i.e., it's not a set upgrade price at any time between booking and departure, depending on original fare paid).
Sep 18, 2018, 9:19 pm
#500
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OP: Whether or not historical fares can be used depends upon the fare rule and the time of the request. Generally, if you're up-faring the first leg of a trip, you're going to have to re-price everything. If you're up-faring a subsequent leg, you will generally get historical prices applied to current inventory. I'm sure there are some weird edge cases but that's a decent rule of thumb.
Sep 18, 2018, 9:31 pm
#501
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OP: Whether or not historical fares can be used depends upon the fare rule and the time of the request. Generally, if you're up-faring the first leg of a trip, you're going to have to re-price everything. If you're up-faring a subsequent leg, you will generally get historical prices applied to current inventory. I'm sure there are some weird edge cases but that's a decent rule of thumb.
Sep 18, 2018, 9:41 pm
#503
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If it's more expensive to up-fare just the return than it is the roundtrip, either there's some strange combinability issue -- certainly possible, but a little rare -- or maybe you had an unusual fare break or something. For example, if you flew MIA-FRA-LHR / LHR-EWR-MIA, you might have a MIA-FRA fare with a stopover at LHR, in which case I'd expect to see exactly the behavior you're describing.
Good word of caution, though -- definitely something to be aware of if you're looking to do a partial up-fare.
Sep 19, 2018, 12:39 pm
#505
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I think the best answer here is that this would be quite difficult and more importantly prohibitively expensive. Unless you have a specific, cheap-ish Y/B fare in mind, Premier Accelerator (already a bad deal) is probably a better source of PQM.
Sep 20, 2018, 6:26 am
#506
Join Date: Oct 2013
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Is it possible to do a GG BUYUP on a Basic Economy ticket to a higher economy fare (S, T, L, K, etc.)? Use case: segment R is available and want to use instrument, but ticket is BE
Sep 20, 2018, 8:30 am
#507
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Oct 30, 2018, 1:08 pm
#508
Join Date: Oct 2018
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Posts: 1
GG Buy-Up
I figured out that I would still need an additional $131 PQD to reach Gold this year after flying my remaining itineraries. I called the UA Priority Desk and, although it took half a hour, the let me buy up to a higher fare class for one segment for $169.82 which would add $150 PQD. Otherwise, I was going to have to take a shorty one-day round-trip to get in the extra spending, still more than four hours of my time with going to the airport, going through security, etc. I asked for a GG Buy-Up and the rep knew what to do...
Oct 30, 2018, 3:19 pm
#509
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I know this is specifically for UA, but does anyone know of an equivalent process for other carriers on a 016 ticket? I have a 016 ticket with the TPAC segments on UA (already upgraded to PZ via GPU) and I was hoping to buy up to J on the NH segments within Asia. In the past I've rolled the dice and asked at the airport once in Asia with moderate success, but I was hoping to confirm ahead of time.
Oct 30, 2018, 3:23 pm
#510
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I know this is specifically for UA, but does anyone know of an equivalent process for other carriers on a 016 ticket? I have a 016 ticket with the TPAC segments on UA (already upgraded to PZ via GPU) and I was hoping to buy up to J on the NH segments within Asia. In the past I've rolled the dice and asked at the airport once in Asia with moderate success, but I was hoping to confirm ahead of time.