stubpro

I'm flying from the US (EWR) to Spain (BCN) in a few months. My partner and I purchased United Economy (V) tickets.

I'm about to become a Silver status on my next business flight in a few days. My hope was that I could then use my new Silver status to upgrade my seats for my already booked flight to Spain, however I just read this on the United Website:
Upgrades of any type are not allowed for Basic Economy fares or Economy (first bag charge/no changes allowed) fares. This includes Complimentary Premier Upgrades, Instant Upgrades, PlusPoints upgrades, MileagePlus Upgrade Awards, Star Alliance Upgrade Awards, and Paid upgrades.
So just to be clear.... I will not be able to use my new Status to upgrade my seats on my trip to Spain?

fumje

Welcome to flyertalk!

There are a couple of unrelated issues potentially being raised. One is basic economy fare restrictions, and the other is what benefits your Silver status confers (which will apply for all future flights as soon as you qualify).

The bolded word with parenthetical is just being used as a catchall for the fact that when TATL Light/Basic fares were introduced, not all the *A partners used the same verbiage for the fares.

It doesn't appear that you've purchased such a fare, but just to be certain, are you able to make some seat selection (even if restricted options) for your EWR-BCN flight? If so, then you do not have a Basic Economy fare, and you are eligible to apply for a cabin upgrade. You can also check your fare rules to see if the code ends in LGT (meaning Light/Basic), which would preclude an upgrade.

Note that if you want to upgrade to Business, you will need to support the upgrade with miles from your account or pluspoints gifted by someone. There are no complementary upgrades for long haul international flights. If the upgrade request is waitlisted, your status will help with priority a little bit, but otherwise there is no requirement to have status for requesting an upgrade to Business.

With your silver status, you will be eligible to select an economy plus seat at check-in time for yourself and partner with no charge.

stubpro

Thanks for the welcome and the explanation.

Correct - I can choose other seats in the Economy section. What I was hoping to do is select new seats in the Economy Plus section with my new status. Having read that quote at the United Airlines website gave me pause and uncertainty. Thank you for clarifying. I'm glad to hear that a new status will give me the ability to do that.

Just to be certain, how does one check his fare rules?

fumje

There is a link for fare rules when you view your reservation on the website, near the bottom of the list of flights.

stubpro

Does Gold/Platinum Status work the same way? A person could get complimentary economy plus seats at check in?

WineCountryUA

Higher status get to select E+ at booking (or when they achieve those status levels).

And as gaining access to E+ does not change the ticket, on FT we tend to avoid the term upgrade for E+ and use "access". Upgrade rules are very different from "E+ access" rules. It will also confuse many phone agents to use the term "upgrade" in reference to E+ for the same reason.

jpezaris

Just to be sure, the OP should not confuse Economy Plus (E+) with Premium Economy (PE). While elite status should allow selection of E+ seats, it will not support complimentary upgrades to PE.

PE is usually available only on international flights, and might be offered on EWR-BCN. It is a separate cabin between Economy and Business. If memory serves, available E+ seats are blue during seat selection and PE are purple.

VRFast

This should explain the different seats and what they look like when booking.
From UA: https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...nes-fleet.html