emcampbe

I don't believe this is correct, or at least SOP, outside of the upgrade offers. Anytime you change, there is supposed to be a fee, as the ticket gets re-issued.

Now, maybe an you get lucky with an agent who makes an exception (and I think I've seen reports on this, on occasion). Or, perhaps its done as part of the 24 hour flexible re-booking policy. But >24 hours after purchase, don't believe there is a mechanism within the rules that allows for this.

sbm12

UA has a published policy whereby if you are upgrading cabins the change fee is waived.

JerryFF

My daughter-in-law was just offered an upgrade from SFO to PDX for $79. Since there were no assignable seats in coach, she jumped at the chance. I looked at availability - coach was very heavily booked and not a single 1st class seat had been sold.

exerda

Yes--though you will most likely have to remind the agents of that policy (or seek a refund later). If you try to change to a F ticket online, IME it will still charge you a change fee (the only place it doesn't is if you buy up via one of their offers on the itin), an IME phone agents will also try to charge it.

RNE

Had to do that very reminding myself on an upgrade to TLV.

TravelinSperry

Today I had the opposite occur (and the way I'd expect it). I booked BWI-LAX and the offer for First buying initially was $623. So I bought economy at $182 knowing full well I'm highly likely to get Premier Economy for free via my Silver status. Right after purchase saw an upgrade offer for $249 to First class pop up. I took it Now that's a nice offer (especially for a 5h 45m flight at 6am!) Maybe their system "learned" me and didn't bother trying to offer a pop up for more than the initial option of $623 knowing I wouldn't accept.

Howard

I think the problem is that except immediately after ticketing on united.com, all subsequent upgrade offers are based on the fare difference between the purchased fare and an UP-type fare, but excluding UPDI-type fares. I have seen this pricing anomaly repeatedly. The exclusion of UPDI-type fares results in much higher upgrade prices than could have been obtained at initial ticketing. What I don't know is whether this software logic is by design or a bug. I'd like to think it's a bug, but if so, they are sure taking a long time to fix it.

Often1

It makes sense. People who want F and book F have certainty. People who want F, but book Y don't get certainty so they may get stuck in steerage. UA has no reason to cannibalize its paid F market.

While there are many people who are not permitted to book FC seats even at Y-ish prices, there are also many who are permitted FC.

Kacee

Actually, the anomaly is due to elites being offered buy-up to an instant upgrade fare (B or M) and nonelites being offered buy-up to a much cheaper UP/UPDI.

UA Insider described this anomaly approx two years ago as unintended. But when they leave it unfixed for so long . . . .

UA-NYC

Of course, you ignore that this is exactly what they're currently doing with TODs to GMs on cheap economy fares. :-:

TommyC80

Yeah the other day my "TOD" offer from ATL-EWR was a hefty $489 at checkin. I fired up United.com and selected the change flights link on my reservation. Manually changing to a P fare day of was .... $82.

Great revenue management.

Howard

At least for me, what's happening routinely is that united.com is offering me the chance to pay the difference to an UP fare but not to a UPDI fare. For example, I just booked a SFOSAN VAA10AKN fare for $164. There is a published H2UPY3 fare for $462. The upgrade offer is precisely $298. There is a also a VAA10AKN/UPDI fare for $273. UA should offer me the chance to buy up to this UPDI fare for $109, but instead, they are only offering the $298 buy-up to the more expensive UP fare.

entropy

its great if someone isn't paying attention and pays the $500.

On the other hand, sometimes they do really weird things, and I've even taken a ToD upgrade when it made overwhelmingly good sense for me..

Kacee

Interesting. Thanks for posting that. It's good to have further clarification why the buy-up offers are so messed up.

I wonder if their systems just haven't been coded to price off the relatively newer UPDIs. That was basically the explanation UA Insider gave way back when as to why elites were getting Y/B/M pricing rather than the cheap offers nonelites were receiving.

Howard

I don't think there's any question that their software hasn't been coded to price based on UPDI fares. Clearly it's not using these fares. I think the only question is whether or not UA is deliberately excluding these fares. As you pointed out, the UPDI fares are newer, so perhaps the software still needs to be enhanced to consider these fares. But, UPDI fares aren't that new, so I wonder when UA will get around to making this change. I think revenue would be optimized by considering UPDI pricing in buy-up offers, but perhaps UA thinks people will pay the higher amounts. I'm certainly not one of those people - I'll pay the price difference to the lowest available UPDI fare, but not a penny more. Therefore, at least with me, UA is routinely leaving money on the table.