VUP/QUP or other "UP" fares. What class fare do you book, for Frequent Flyer Miles?
 

I am thinking of buying a V or Q up fare from YOW to Hawaii this summer.

But the issue of earning frequent flyer miles does come up.

Do Mileage Plus members earn a COS bonus (as if they were flying F or A class), or not. Are they booked in V or Q class, or in P (or Z) class fares?

V or Q does not get any COS bonuses...I fly on V fares weekly....

You missed the "up" part of the question

OP - yes they will (if they are -UP fares), just keep your fingers crossed you don't end up in an IRROPS situation, otherwise you're likely flying in Y

The correct answer is that while UP fares are not supposed to accrue any bonus miles, they frequently do. These are economy fares that book into a premium fare class. MP rules expressly state that they are to accrue based on the underlying economy fare, but this is only intermittently enforced.

Wow! Three responses, three different answers...

Not surprising, given how opaque UA makes these fares, and how badly they handle them

The first responder did not understand the question. The second has apparently not been following the relevant thread: pqm-earning-v-up-fares

Kacee's response is the correct one. In these situations, even though you are booked into P, the underlying fare class is derived from the Coach fare basis. However, as stated, these fares often do earn the CoS bonus.

They typically book in to P or Z, not F or A. Whether you get the CoS credit or not depends on other factors, but start from that premise.

I most definitely have been - and I have yet to see any recent, relevant examples of -UP fares NOT earning the COS bonii. Thus my initial response :-:

I asked the question, because I am thinking of booking myself in "first/business" class revenue ticket from Ottawa to Kona in the summer time, and get my wife/daughter on Aeroplan award tickets.

Aeroplan states that the COS earning is based upon the appropriate business or first class booked. So if I book an economy class UP fare, strictly speaking, I will not earn COS - unless you can tell me that UA converts an UP fare to (eg) a P fare (which will earn 50% COS with Aeroplan).

My question is how do you find/know that its an "UP fare" when you're looking at the fare classes on the UA website?

You have to see what cabin it books into. It will be labeled as a First Class or Business Class fare, but the fare class will be a Coach fare class.

funny, this happened to me just yesterday. i was booked lhr->iad->bos. lhr->iad was in D, iad->bos was in T. I bought the upgrade at checkin and lhr->iad booked into ON (although on my receipt now that it posted it says ZD), and iad->bos booked into P (receipt shows P). I got the extra bonus for the P but not the ON.

Click on the View Rules and Restrictions link when pricing the ticket. It will show the fare. Look at the first letter of the fare. Then compare with what the website is offering.

For example, the website may offer you a "United First (P)" ticket, while the fare is V2UP14N3. V2UP14N3 is an economy fare that books into P which is United First. It is NOT a P fare.

You could also use tools like Expertflyer or the KVS Tool where you can click on the fare and it will say which class it books into.


V
FARE BASIS BK FARE TRAVEL-TICKET AP MINMAX RTG
1 V2UP14N3 P X 331.00 ---- 14/1 -/ - 1
PASSENGER TYPE-ADT AUTO PRICE-YES
FROM-LAX TO-DEN CXR-UA TVL-20JUL14 RULE-MWK1 DFR/11
FARE BASIS-V2UP14N3 NORMAL FARE DIS-N VENDOR-ATP
FARE TYPE-ER OW-ECONOMY RESTRICTED
USD 307.91 0001 E12MAR14 D-INFINITY FC-V2UP14N3 FN-
SYSTEM DATES - CREATED 12MAR14/1950 EXPIRES INFINITY

PUBLISHED RTG LAX-DEN/UA1 /TAR-DRG1 EF-12MAR14 DIS-INDEF

TRAVEL MUST BE NONSTOP
.


See the booking class P under "BK" and the V fare under Fare basis with "Economy restricted" as fare type.