jsloan

Weekend upgrades can be very difficult to secure.

You have lots of time until your trip. Search regularly, and book if you see PZ space. Remember to check just the overwater leg (e.g., check LAX-NRT then SFO-NRT then.. etc.)

flyingrohit

hehe yep! That was copy-paste from the message they sent me no changes

paperwastage

what's the priority again?

does a nonmember with a sponsored PlusPoints from GS get higher priority than a 1K using PlusPoints from his own account?

jsloan

Yes, because all GS instruments clear into PN. 1K instruments clear into PZ.

flyingrohit

If it's worth anything, my dad and I are gold and plat respectively, so if there's anyone with a GS upgrade and silver/no status, then probably they'd be below us I suppose. Praying no one with Plat + GS upgrades comes in to squeeze between my dad and I on the upgrade list.

nomad420

FWIW, they will clear below a GS pax using there own instruments. Depending on where you are flying out of this can be significant.

deathbysegments

I'm guessing there is no real way to monitor PZ availability changes other than constant checking of the route in Expert?

jsloan

Yes, agreed. All passengers with GS instruments are ordered by status, and then all passengers with non-GS instruments are ordered by status.

Correct, unfortunately.

flyingrohit

jsloan For that UA upgrade list that they publish *officially* at T-48 for each flight, will it only show people upgraded T-48 and under, or will it also show anyone who cleared prior to T-48?

jsloan

I suspect that people will continue to be removed from the waitlist if they clear prior to departure, so I doubt you will see any checkmarks.

flyingrohit

Ok gotcha so it's entirely possible that people cleared the waitlist before the official list becomes public at T-48. In that case they wouldn't show up on the "upgraded to Polaris Business" section if they cleared more than 48 hours out.

This whole waitlisting thing is a ride for me for sure. Any other flight where I've gotten upgraded has been on the Asia flights where there's basically no waitlist whenever I fly to PVG or NRT and a decent spread of domestic flights. On UA48 I've always been in economy so I never bothered with upgrades/tried to waitlist until now.

shaman_x

New FTer looking for some wisdom from the community: I'm planning to take my parents on an Southeast Asia + Japan trip for all of our first times and hoping to use some PlusPoints. We can be flexible on dates (likely departing 2/15-18 and returning around 3/12), origin (based in DTW but can re-position) and destination (NRT, HND, TPE, PEK and PVG all seem convenient enough); flying into and out of different cities is ok; I'm 1K. I checked various route combinations on both near-term dates and in February, but didn't see any PZ availability, which sounds like that's the norm based on the above convo. Does anyone have suggestions on which route would give us the best odds for an upgrade?

If upgrade chances are generally under 50%, I might just book economy tickets for 75k miles per head or cash on AC for under $600...Thanks in advance! Let me know if any more info is needed.

mauld

I currently am Waitlisted for Premium Plus EWR-CDG in late Jan, using 20,000 miles. If my upgrade clears on or close to departure, BUT there are only middle seats available in PP, will I be able to unrequest the upgrade and have the miles redeposited and and go back to an aisle seat in PE (assuming availability). HATE middle seats !

findark

This is uncertain. I assume you mean "back to an aisle seat in E+", not PE.

If you have not cleared yet, yes easy to cancel the request now. If you have cleared, you formerly required original fare class availability in Y and you could do this. I'm not sure if this option is still available since the Plus Points conversion. You may be charged a mileage redeposit fee for a voluntary change/cancel to the upgrade. Also, for what it's worth, I'm sure almost anyone would happily trade onboard - a middle seat in PE is still in a higher cabin and for most of us is much more desirable than any seat in Y.

jsloan

There's no definition of "Southeast Asia" I've ever seen that would include PEK or PVG.

I'd add HKG, ICN, KIX, and SIN to your list, and I'd just keep looking, being sure to search only the overwater flight legs, and concentrate on weekdays. I suspect you'll be able to find something. How many PlusPoints do you have? Are you looking to use 40-point or 80-point awards? (Availability is the same, but the resulting strategy can be different). If you end up going to China, keep in mind that you will need a Chinese visa unless you meet the requirements of the Transit Without Visa program. Keep in mind that even if you don't intend to travel to, e.g., ICN, you can often book a fare through that city to wherever you actually want to go.

If you absolutely have to book the flights now and waitlist, rather than continue to search, I would book the flight with the most available seats and the highest number of PN seats, since (a) that means that there aren't likely any GS currently waitlisted and (b) UA opens PN before they open PZ. If you change the date on your phone / tablet, you can use the UA mobile app to check the flight status of future flights.

According to their program documentation, this is no longer possible. This is UA's response to people who would remove an RPU when it became obvious that a CPU would clear. UA is saying now that if an upgrade clears, it can't be removed. (Whether or not this is true in practice, who knows?)