FlightNurse

That is the only thing UA has going for it in GF is the privacy, every other aspect of the service is strictly a J product on other airlines... Save your money, we flew ORD-FRA a couple of weeks back in GF on one of the last 747. Flying a 747 was on my partners bucket list.. It is a shame that the UA has such a poor product in F to Europe.

bmwe92fan

My only add is that for sleeping the GF seat is far superior to BF (IMO) which is why I will upgrade. Glad I didn't give them my money yesterday in AMS - who knows how long it would take to get back.....

kirkwoodj

$989 J to GF HKG-SFO, declined. On upper deck for first and likely only time ever, so will keep what I've got.

zeus2120

$99 MCO-IAH on 11/08/14. Declined. No food, 2 hour flight..no thanks.

higgsjoa

$1159 FRA-SFO on 11/08/14. W fare, waitlisted with miles and co-pay (actually managed to burn all my GPUs this year). Came soooooooo close to accepting. Ended up #13 on the upgrade list. UA is definitely accepting HOD buy-ups before upgrading elites with instruments.

UA-NYC

Did you check for R space at/inside T-24? How many J seats were still available then?

higgsjoa

UA-NYC, I've been checking R-space almost everyday since I booked the flight in August. None appeared at T-24. 5 seats were available in J at T-24, and by T-19 J was booked full.

UA-NYC

Tough break - UA has definitely gotten "smarter" about R space at and inside T-24...turn it off and max out the buy-ups

Kacee

Did anyone get upgraded within T-24?

btw, placement on upgrade list as 1K suggests that miles + money are not prioritized over GPUs.

higgsjoa

I believe (but cannot confirm) that the guy in front of me in 21D was upgraded after boarding. There was one no-show in J. Mr. 21D was feverishly checking his mobile device and suddenly stood up, gathered his belongings and walked to the front of the plane. Either he was upgraded or had an emergency or developed a sudden fear of flight. I lost my connection at that point, so couldn't see if the checkmarked list of upgrades changed.

kluau88

SINNRT
V-class
At check-in (Mobile-app)
$3679

SFOORD
W-class
At booking
$199

Both from Y->C

Something I will have to think hard about SINNRT

cesco.g

Was flying FRA-IAD-West Coast last month with confirmed GPU. Upon check-in I changed my flight to FRA-SFO and was able to upgrade with GPU at the check-in counter. Interestingly, my name never showed up on the upgrade list as a "cleared upgrade", even though my upgrade was not a HUD. I was on a fully flexible, changeable Y-ticket, which probably would not be considered a SDC.

Btw, a second GPU was pulled for the SFO-FRA flight and I had to call into MP desk to get the first GPU redeposited.

LarkSFO

$1,159 for this route though? (x5 it sounds like)

That is a lot of incremental revenue, granted, at the expense of GPU / Miles & $ upgraders.

If they charged $1,750 per seat (would encourage less people to buy the upgrade), would you think that is fair?

I agree with you on one level: Treat your elites fairly.

But when they can charge a lot of money, and people actually pay it, shouldn't UA do that?

swm61230

Yes UA can do whatever they want. But what has happened in my case is I am speaking my dissatisfaction with it using my pocketbook.

I am doing good this year and have had all my intl flights upgraded with gpu's.(some of the domestic segments with intl hasnt made it) And domestically am about 40% CPU/RPU success. So I am taking my business elsewhere.

I have about 13k in PQD spend this year on UA and well over that with AA. So because of the Buy up garbage I am spending over 13k with a competitor.

Now I know for a fact that the total amount of revenue from selling my "free" upgrade has nowhere netted them the amount that I have spent on AA. Just how smart is it for them to essentially give up 20k-25k of revenue just to make that 2.5k-5k of ancillary revenue.

Because next year I am aiming at 0PQD, 0PQM, 0PQS on UA. Oh and still have 1k MM status too. (I guess at least I will have hertz presidential circle for the year. Yippie!!!!)

Now I understand that I am just one OVER ENTITLED elite but I would hope others could or would do the same and show the jackasses that run this airline that their elites are just as important if not more so then ma and pa kettle getting a $99 buy up to lure their business of which is nowhere near the amount of revenue that they are loosing.

But then again they will find a way to blame anything else as the cause to less then stellar numbers in the quarterly earnings. I guess they have a dark storm cloud only over their portion of certain airports to cause the immense amount of weather delays(revenue lost) that the others don't seem to have so much of.

scottpenderson

PHX-SFO
Monday November 10
Booking class: L
Upgrade for Cash
Offered via mobile app
Status: UA Silver

Upgrade to First offered 7 hours before takeoff via the app for $369 .

Flying on an A319. 7/8 seats booked at time of check-in.

I believe that there were no takers, as an elite cleared off the upgrade list before takeoff.