jsloan

You can certainly check. But you may not see anything. I'll reply to the rest of your question in the other thread in order to keep from getting things split.

JBravo1974

SNA-SFO-HKG or SNA-SFO-NRT (to experience both soft & hard products of Polaris Business class) for latter part of November

when searching round trip using "GPU Upgrade" option, don't see "R" availability but individually it does for SFO-NRT. From reading through some of the postings, should I go ahead and book the cheaper round trip in "W" fare class and this should clear the wait list for SFO-NRT and wait list SNA-SFO?

What are upgrade chances utilizing GPUs on these routes? Is it more difficult due to being the full Polaris? Should I book earlier than later with "W" fare class and wait list or keep looking until "R" becomes available? I sure would like to confirm at time of booking if at all possible.

Finally, any recommendations on choosing Hong Kong or Japan for a week long getaway?


Thanks for your input!!!

findark

If you book travel including this SFO-NRT segment, your chances of clearing are 100%. You will clear SFO-NRT at booking and waitlist SNA-SFO (at ~60m, IMO not a huge deal if it clears or not). From an upgrade perspective, you should book that.

Hong Kong and Japan are very different places to visit; depends on a lot on what sort of things you want out of a trip. But if you've never been to either, I would sit back and follow the R space

JBravo1974

@findark, thanks for the quick reply.
I am sort of in agreement with you, "follow the R space", but my wife is vacillating between these two places. I have been to Japan few times but not Hong Kong. Any experience on clearing the wait list for the SFO-HKG using GPUs? And also, is Polaris 777-300 really worth it vs say 787-9 Dreamliner?

Thanks!

findark

I think Kacee is the resident expert on HKG upgrades, but IIRC if the flight is PN9 it's worth rolling the dice.

I would take confirmed R on a 789 over the waitlist on a 77W any day of the week. The 77W is amazing, but the 789 is a solid hard product especially when with a partner (IME negates any "step over" issues). Asia has been pretty decent for upgrades these season, so definitely keep poking around!

jsloan

100% this. If your wife really wants to go to HK, I would personally go SNA-SFO-NRT-HKG, even with 4 hours in coach on the tight ANA 767s (affectionally known as the "knee crusher") before I would waitlist. Or, do both, and buy a separate ticket / use miles to get from Tokyo to HK and back.

The downside of having the waitlist not clear is 13 hours on a 10-across 777.

(I would also look to see if there were R space on LAX-NRT, although I can certainly understand not wanting to drive up from Orange County).

Kacee

I much prefer the 77W Polaris cabin to the 789, though note that the seat is a bit narrow at the shoulders so if you're big you may not like it as much as me.

SFO-HKG is not a difficult upgrade IF you either wait for open R or only waitlist very very carefully, i.e., on flights you've been watching a while where the indicators are strong that R will open (low percentage of business class seats booked, less than two months from departure, and a positive inventory progression P=>PN). You can check bookings here: cablepick

Also, I personally prefer HKG to TYO, but that is purely personal taste. They are really different places.

I wouldn't unless it was obvious that SFO-HKG's not going to open. You can pick the flights that will go R positive with a pretty high confidence level. I've never missed this upgrade.

JBravo1974

I am looking at outbound Nov 24th SNA-SFO-HKG and SFO-HKG shows P=9 PN=8. The return on Dec 2nd show 0 for both classes. It's about 2 mos out with plenty of business class seats available, so how are my odds looking? I really would like to make HKG work with confirming the upgrades...

jsloan

I'm not willing to waitlist if there's an alternative. I might wait until R opened on SFO-HKG if it looked like there were several R options available to NRT (or KIX) as a backup. Obviously, though, it depends upon your assessment of the risk.

I'd expect the 24th to be a fairly easy clear. There's unlikely to be a ton of westbound business travel the day after Thanksgiving, and any GSes currently on the waiting list will already have cleared (unless there are 9 people on the PNR). The 2nd could be a little tougher; Saturdays and Sundays are usually the toughest days to clear, and there could be GSes on the list. However, the fact that it's Z9 ZN9 is a good sign; it'd just be better if P and PN both rose also.

Here are permanent links to the flight status pages -- you may need to close and reload a few times before they'll work: Outbound (booked 5/60); Return (12/60).

Kacee

I would be reasonably comfortable waitlisting the 24th. I would generally not waitlist a Saturday or Sunday return from HKG, nor would I waitlist if the flight did not show at least P9.

JBravo1974, you might consider an open jaw, i.e., fly into HKG on the 24th, and fly out of another city. TPE, TYO, or ICN are all usually good candidates, though none show open R on that date right now. I've done this quite a few times, and typically book an award flight on CX using BA Avios to "close" the open jaw.

If you have flexibility to return on December 4, NRT and TPE both have open R, and HKG-SFO is PN9 and lightly booked, which suggests a better chance of clearing.

jerseykeebs

One more question for you @sfo789, since you are familiar with the 6am EWR-SFO.

I've been reading the comprehensive upgrade and splitting PNR threads, and just wondering how this upgrade will work with 2 (non-status) people on a PNR? I'd rather fly economy with my SO than J alone, so advice in the other thread seemed to be to check in late, not T-24, to avoid 1) splitting the PNR or 2) selecting to 'skip upgrade' to stay together and get kicked off the invisible upgrade list.

It looks like they clear the public upgrade list 1 at a time, but all the upcoming 1483's have R0, so I'm confused as to how it'll happen, and what it'll look like

Kacee

Your PNR is going to auto-split at check-in. You don't get a choice when you're waitlisted using an instrument.

And no, UA doesn't make this easy. I don't even try to upgrade the ps flights any more. It's too low odds, and too much of a hassle traveling on a multi-pax PNR.

sfo789

Don't check in at T-24. Your wait list position on the "gate list" will be slightly negatively impacted, but that's a price you'll have to pay to stay together. Typically, if you haven't cleared prior to T-24, UA releases R in "clumps" after OLCI. If they release 2 R seats (quite common at ~T-22), you'll both clear. If they only release one, the system will pass over you two and clear the next highest person on the WL. Checking in or not will not affect your priority for this system (which operates continually until T-3 or so).

TL;DR: Don't check in and you'll only clear as a pair; reduces slightly odds of being upgraded but preserves the two of you being together.

Hollandair

EWR-PTY on Saturday 7oct.. I applied a RPU being Plat.. any thought of about chances?
availability is this:C9 D9 Z9 P9 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 L9 K9 G7 N9 so still at least 9 open seats...

Can I expect this to clear, and if yes, then when? 1,5 week till flight..?
thanks for your thoughts..

WineCountryUA

The key inventory to watch is PN I/IN R