LufthansaFlyer

JUST SPENT ABOUT 30 minutes chatting with a UA Star Alliance Award Supervisor. Here is what will happen next week, when UA and LH move to electronic GPU processing:

directly from my website:

This information came from a very friendly and knowledgable United Supervisor who answered my call at the United Star Alliance Award Desk this evening.


Beginning on or about September 3, United will allow for the processing of GPUs electronically via their website. This was supposed to take effect August 1 but tech issues delayed the roll out.

How GPUs process will be DRAMATICALLY different from the current process. Currently, you would need to request a paper certificate that would be issued and mailed to you by United. You then present it to the LH check-in or gate agent and hope that they clear it for you on the day of your departure.

NOW FOR THE MAJOR CHANGE:

Effective September 3 (or thereabout), GPU based upgrades need to be requested electronically, and you will know if you clear within 90 seconds of submitting the request. If you are declined, you can request the upgrade again later, either the same day or the next day, etc. THERE WILL BE NO WAIT-LISTING. If you do not clear, you need to resubmit again, until the upgrade clears.

HERE IS THE KEY PIECE:

IF YOUR UPGRADE REQUEST DOES NOT CLEAR PRIOR TO 10 HOURS AHEAD OF YOUR DEPARTURE, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THE GPU TO UPGRADE FOR THE FLIGHT.

In other words, you will not be able to upgrade within 10 hours of your flight, which means no clearing potential at the gate. You will know if you cleared 10 hours before your flight, and have 0 chance to clear after that point.

If you have multiple segments that are GPU eligible on LH, you will have to do this for each segment individually and the 10 hour rule applies to each segment, not the start time of your itinerary.

This will apply to tickets booked either through United.com or Lufthansa.com.





UNITED Mileage Plus members will be receiving an email detailing this new program on September 1 or 2.

mgcsinc

I look forward to the thread full of people talking about sitting on the website clicking submit again and again for days. Seems a bit resource-intensive...

LufthansaFlyer

thats exactly what I think will happen! unfortunately EF does not show LH award inventory, so it will all be random darts at a board. click, refresh, click, refresh.....Perhaps someone will write a script to automate it.

Wickersley

This is better for me.

The current system requires 3 weeks notice of your flight to apply for the upgrade, which means that I'm unable to use the functionality

exerda

Will folks have to use one GPU per LH flight, or will a single GPU cover all applicable flights one direction on an itinerary? E.g. will a single GPU cover IAD-MUC-EDI, or will I have to apply a 2nd GPU for the intra-Europe segment like I would today? (Which I probably wouldn't do.)

It would be nice if one could easily find LH inventory, too.

EmailKid

IIRC the old rules required 1 GPU per segment, and it sound like it stays the same.

Intra Europe is coach seat with middle seats blocked, not worthy of GPU @:-)

Moreover, I'm sure the high fare requirement will remain

LufthansaFlyer

As I mentioned in the post, the UA supervisor indicated that you would need to do this separately for each GPU eligible segment.

There are certainly pros and cons to this. I agree with you, it should be more flexible for most and saves the hassle and stress of waiting for something to show up in the mail.

LeviFlight

This looks to be an improvement for me as I've not been bothered with what seems like hassle of paper GPUs. Some operational issues seem likely but at least I might get to use one or two. Lets see.

mahasamatman

AFAIK, LH upgrade inventory maps 1:1 with award inventory.

Kacee

A really mixed result. Nice to confirm in advance, but no waitlisting at the gate is a HUGE downside and would dissuade me from booking on LH.

unavaca

This is a huge plus for me. I'm so sick and tired of mailing paper certs back and forth, especially when I miss the upgrade.

SJOFlyer

Huge plus for me if this is true...

luv2ctheworld

Feels like 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

I like the elimination of t he paper GPU; but closing out @ 10 hour mark means we're completely at the mercy of revenue management. I've had some success with GPU's @ the gate, I don't know how my luck will hold if upgrade inventory is needed 10 hours before departure (or else you get nothing).

Kacee

This can be confirmed (or not) once the process has been implemented and we have some data points of FTers booking on flights with I/O availability.

For me, with the T-10 cut-off, it would be a situation of confirm at booking or book away.

mherdeg

Scenario where this would help:

Book a full-fare C ticket LHR-FRA-SFO, FRA-SFO is F4, no one at LHR knows what a GPU is, no one at FRA transfer desk knows what a GPU is, 90 minute connection, lounge agents know what a GPU is but by the time you reach them, flight is F0.

Scenario where this would hurt:

Flying UA BOS-IAD-LHR in coach, irrops cause last-minute rebooking onto BOS-FRA-LHR in a flight wide open in J, it's within 10 hours of travel so no way to GPU the flight. (The status quo is only better if you were clever and kept a paper GPU spare…)