jsloan

Flight status

J8 does normally mean that only 8 seats are available in business class, and, as you can see from the flight status link, that's true in this case also.

With a week and a half to sell 8 seats, and PN0 (meaning there could be waitlisted GS instruments), I wouldn't that think you have a great chance to clear. (I'd say your chances were zero on any other date, but I'd expect that the holiday will depress last-minute business class purchases a bit).

hudsonlaluna

Well as of now there are 6 seats left with 8 days to go. Separately 2 weeks ago, I was on EWR-BRU flight using a GPU and at T-48 there were 3 then 5 then 4 seats open all within 24 hours. I figured my GPU wouldn't clear but it did by the time I checked in online at T-24. Is there something special/specific about ZRH that makes it more likely for last minute business class bookings?

jsloan

Zurich is a world banking center.

Most business travel is planned at the last minute, in general -- but Zurich, like London, is a particularly business-heavy destination.

hudsonlaluna

I just thought, well based on personal experience my colleagues in Zurich (within finance sector) have much less contact with Americans than historically so thought NYC/ZRH flights were in less demand than rest of global reach. Certainly agree still the dominance of Swiss banking globally.

Anyhow this is in the context of my own petty need of GPU clearing into Polaris. Can't bear the thought of flying to Europe in E+ despite the deterioration of Polaris experience on-board.

catahoulafriend

VWang1111

jsloan

Sure, which is why UA has less lift to ZRH than to LHR, and why there's less competition overall. However, they generally do a pretty good job of selling what they fly. In fact, EWR-GVA and EWR-ZRH, along with EWR-LHR, were some of the markets rumored to be in line for regular high-J 763 service, as the premium demand often outstrips the economy demand.

I'm not saying that you won't clear -- you certainly might, and traveling on the holiday should help. (In fact, I was able to book a last-minute Business Saver award on ZRH-EWR last November, so it's not like they always sell every seat. But with a week to go, and only 6 seats, and the possibility of people buying upgrades at check-in, realistically you may be hoping for some misconnects.

Agree with #2 . However, I'd add to that: you will need to call and cancel the mileage upgrade more than 24 hours before departure if you want to avoid the possibility of being split and having one clear and the other not. At T-24, the system will automatically split your reservation if the upgrade request is still applied; once that happens, you would clear separately.

StuckinITH

Yes, that's why when I had to fly to GVA in March, I routed myself through FRA. ORD-EWR-GVA-EWR-ORD in Polaris Business was $8,000. ORD-IAD-GVA-IAD-ORD in Polaris Business was $3,800 but the connections were too short for comfort. I booked through FRA in Economy and upgrades were available at booking.

Kacee

Not just banking, insurance as well.

cur

What are the best days to speculate for a GPU on this flight? First week of December as well. Sunday sfo-sin then Saturday sin-sfo return? I know odds are low but I imagine Sunday ex sfo and Saturday ex sin would see least amount of paid business class travel comparative?

jsloan

The correct answer is "whichever opens PZ space first." If you have to speculate, mid-week, not weekends. Tuesday and Wednesday are probably your best bets.

However, it's a long time between now and December. If you have the flexibility, I'd just keep watching to see if any upgrade space opens.

stmvanc

I cash booked YVR-SFO-FRA-TXL on Monday 23 September for me and my wife, with SFO-FRA in PP (R), and applied a GPU. I'm 1K, my wife is Gold, and UA 58 SFO-FRA is currently showing J9 JN9 C4 D0 Z0 ZN0 P0 PN0 PZ0. We'd really like to get upgraded to Polaris for SFO-FRA.
1. Chances the GPU will clear?
2. If at T-24 the GPU hasn't cleared, should I then look at SDC such as YVR-ORD-FRA-TXL to see if it has upgrade space instead? ORD-FRA does not have PP/real Polaris, would we be better off sticking with PP SFO-FRA, or biz on ORD-FRA?
3. Semi-unrelated: If we stick with YVR-SFO-FRA-TXL, the YVR-SFO leg is the 6am UA 618 flight with a > 5hr layover in SFO; I noticed that there's a later 8:45am AC Jazz flight (code-shared UA 8255) that would cut down the SFO layover to more like 2.5 hrs and get us more sleep. Would United allow me to make this change?

fumje

Are you two on the same reservation? If so you both get 1K priority.

1. C4 D0 means UA thinks they'll sell almost all of the seats. However, it's very early. End of August will give a clearer picture.
2. Yes, may as well look, but you should only switch if PZ space is available. It will be complicated and take agent intervention.
3. I think no chance without money changing hands (yours to theirs). Without IRROPS you can't go from UA metal to other metal.

Kacee

1. The odds of clearing SFO-FRA in September are not great, but not hopeless. 1K on an R at least has some chance.
2. You may have a hard time SDC'ing because there's a partner segment on that itinerary (FRA-TXL).
3. September is relatively low risk for weather-related ATC at SFO, so one of the two months (along with October) that I'd say it's probably okay to go with the shorter connection. You'd have to pay a change fee to make that change though, and it will likely cause the entire ticket to reprice.

stmvanc

Yes, we are on the same PNR, so it's nice to hear that we'll both get 1K priority. My experience with CPUs is that United (without asking or notifying us) tends to split our PNR in the last day or two so they can consider our upgrades separately. Will they do the same for a GPU? Do we get a choice?

In looking more closely at the alternatives in case we don't get upgraded to real Polaris on our outbound SFO-FRA flight, I see that there is a second, later SFO-FRA flight which also has real Polaris on 23 September, so I could try to SDC to that flight if the earlier SFO-FRA flight's Polaris is full, though there would still be the hurdle that that would involve also changing the non-UA FRA-TXL LH flight at the end, as Kacee helpfully pointed out.

Also, our return routing is CDG-EWR-DEN-YVR (we'll do TXL-CDG separately; EWR-DEN in PP). Our eastbound flights YVR-SFO-FRA-TXL (SFO-DEN in PP) are listed on the website as "Upgrade requested", whereas our westbound flights are listed as "Waitlisted"; United has decremented the two GPUs from my account for both directions. Should I be concerned about this difference, and, if so, is it better to be in the "Upgrade requested" or "Waitlisted" state? (FWIW, this reservation was quite complicated to do - more than an hour on the phone with a 1K agent, as it took many tries to get it to price out.)