Kacee

August 5 both flights are R9.

EmailKid

Last time I flew DFW-SFO-PVG as 1K with GPU applied well before the flight I sat in E+

Return was PVG-LAX-DFW, which cleared within days of booking.

Of course my carefully selected row 4 on 788 bulkhead turned into last row of 789 after equipment swap, but I lived to tell the tale

Ya, ya, first world problems

If still 789, better chance of u/g @:-)

kyee

I do the SFO-PVG route a few times per year, and I always try to go mid-week for better GPU chances. I do have a little flexibility on my dates, but not a huge lot. Still need to be in the office on at least a few workdays that week. I was thinking since it was the brutal August month for hot weather, that upgrade chances would be a little better. I've avoided travel to Shanghai July/August successfully for the past few years, but can't this time.

kyee

Aug 5 would be tough, as that puts me in Thursday night there, and then into the office on a Friday. Guess that's why there's so much R availability that day.

michaelworchid

I would guess LAX-PVG. The flight is usually way more empty than the SFO-PVG flight. Maybe the second SFO-PVG flight could be a better choice for upgrade, but the launch of that one has been delayed yet again (to September IIRC).

Usually when I travel on SFO-PVG (mostly in May and December tho), 2-3 people are cleared on the day of travel.

But as a silver I sit in E+. Maybe it's just the large number of tourists who fill up my previous SFO-PVG flights.

jjmoore

I am now 1 for 6 on economy class upgrades that do not clear at booking. One of them was E, and the rest were B and M. This is a distant cry from years past as a 1K where I was better than 70% on CPU upgrades on far cheaper fares.

These days, if I don't buy the seat in F, I don't count on it anymore. Pretty sad, especially with these stingy upgrade offers to non-elites going around.

To add... Flying from EWR-DEN today on a B fare, I am #5 on the UG list.

bldr1k

Sometimes buying F doesn't even work...

I sat in coach tonight SNA-DEN on a full F fare when 10 of 12 people in coach were upgraded...

Completely my fault - had to switch flights at the last minute, but still frustrating that not even a single seat was open.

kyee

I need to fly to PRG next month/September, out of SFO.

I'm Platinum, and a 1k colleague will be sponsoring me with his GPU.

SFO-FRA and back is a very low possibility of a GPU clearing, no matter the day of the week. Are my chances better out of IAD or ORD or even EWR?

escapefromphl

I would choose LH via MUC or just FRA. If there's an option to go through LAX those flights have lower premium loads and less UA elites.

IADFlyer123

We just cleared 2 GPUs on our way to Prague. Routing was IAD-BRU.

JBord

Using a GPU on LH will likely require a much more expensive Y ticket.

I've had the best luck in the past going through MUC and BRU on UA. Also ORD-FRA when they were flying the 747 last summer, not sure if that's still the case.

jmanirish

Not to mention LH LAX-FRA/MUC actually does have a lot of paid premium business (presumably due to the minimal competition for LAX-Europe on *A). Midweek you'd have an OK shot, but Sat/Sun departure - forget about it.

endrond

The difficulty of SFO-FRA depends in part on whether UA is still running 2 flights a day or just the early departure. If they're still on the 2-flights summer schedule when you travel in September then you may have a decent chance because they don't always fill both. Generally the evening flight is the easier one to upgrade. I'm 2/2 on upgrading on the evening flight in May & early June, including one that cleared at booking.

If United is running just 1 flight/day then I'd recommend the LH metal flights to FRA or MUC. You need to buy a slightly higher fare class but it's not a full Y fare. From my experience I'd predict ~$200 more.

Personally I wouldn't add a flight leg for an upgrade unless it was confirmable at booking. Actually as a Plat using GPUs that's what you should be looking for in general, at least on UA metal. (I'm not sure how LH upgrades using GPUs are prioritized now...all I know is that the two airlines' computer systems don't talk to each other very well).

kyee

Thanks, I just checked and the two United flights are indeed running thru at least the 3rd week of September. I'll look at options for the evening flight for R space.

000123UA

Also remember that Sept 19 is the start of Oktoberfest, and flights tend to be really packed during this period; upgrades IME are very difficult during those couple of weeks as there are paid J vacationers in addition to the biz traffic. I'd say anytime after the 16th of Sept, you'd be better off trying to route via another European city; AMS, BRU, CDG (though that's usually a tough UG also) or even LHR or ZRH. The downside is you may have to make alternate arrangements to get from those cities to PRG.