PV_Premier

+1, in fact this is the well known cheapest way to get award miles if one needs them.

lensman

Today I ticketed a coach fare with the intention of upfaring to F via the "Upgrade to First" option on my reservation. My original fare was $458 - S on the outbound and L on the return. I found a round trip first class fare at $710 booking into C and A fare classes. This is inclusive of taxes and combines a WAA07AZN fare basis with an LAA14AXS fare.

However, in trying to "upgrade" my original fare, I'm only offered an upgrade for a bit over $1000 each way or $2146 for a round trip upgrade.

I would gladly pay the $250 for the upgrade to the $710 that I could have booked. In fact, I imagine that I could change my ticket and pay the change fee and still make out better than the $2146 that the website is offering for the upgrade.

Does anyone know what is up or if my best option is to call in a flight change and reticket?

RobOnLI

Cancel under the 24 hour rule and just book the F fare for $710.

-RM

lensman

I'm one of the folks being talked about upthread. I'm only allowed coach fares for domestic travel and I have to book via the corporate Concur employee travel platform.

As also recommended upthread, I called in and changed to F. At first the agent was going to charge me the change fee but waived it after I quoted the "United waives the change fee when changing to a higher cabin" rule.

nigos

I also need to book economy fares with my corporate credit card but after booking I use the web to change flights immediately after the confirmation arrives. I always do my homework regarding the fare basis of front cabin seating before making the original booking. On rare occasions when I have not been abler to rebook/up-fare at the anticipated price, I call in with the information and the agent will find the proper fare. I always use my personal credit card to pay the differential.

bldr1k

This is the case on almost every ticket I buy. As stated above, most companies require business travelers to buy coach so they can't buy the F. A lot of the people who buy discounted first are vacation people (have you noticed how many families and kids are in first this summer?).

The sad thing is that there are so many fliers in coach with tickets more expensive then most of the first cabin. I've been in coach with a $1400 one way fare and GS people are in first on $300 fares.

lensman

When you change your flights online immediately after the confirmation arrives, how do you make that change? Do you use the "upgrade my flights" button? Or do you use the "Change Flights" link? If the latter, how do you avoid the change fee?

I'd prefer to make my changes online and avoid talking to anyone.

bocastephen

Always use an online source to check the lowest available F cabin fare for your flight before accepting the online offer - the system has attempted to screw me multiple times to the tune of hundreds of dollars every time, so I need to call an agent and have them manually rebook me into the correct class and collect only the proper fare difference.

cruisr

So I am making reservations from EWR-PBI. The N fare is $109.00. I go thru the process to purchase and I am offered to purchase F for 325.00 more. I pass. I am ticketed now and looking at the record and I am offered a Buy Up to F for $469.00. OK I am still passing. So I am looking at the record now and for laughs I look at the upgrade offer and the laugh is good, I can now upgrade for 729.00

Some context. This has all happened in the last 6 hours for a flight in Sept. and F is still available via expert mode and shows the ability to book 9 seats so it's wide open and no seats are booked.

Does UA have some grand plan that I am too dumb to figure out? I have heard of dynamic pricing but seriously?

JBord

What's the price to buy F outright on the flight? Cheaper than your fare + upgrade offer?

worldwidedreamer

It really bothers me that UA offers buy-ups to elites. I understand their desire to maximize transactional revenue, but this really undermines loyalty.

From my perspective upgrades should be processed by status and within that fare class: Paid>GS>1k>Plat>Gold>Silver>BuyUps>NonRev.

The only exception should be when a UA employee must be on a flight; in that case bump an elite up front and give the employee the E+ seat.

cruisr

Yes. That's the I sad part. My bad I forgot to mention I can buy F outright now for $351.00

JBord

If that were the case, I suspect they'd either reduce or eliminate F on most routes. I don't have a problem with them trying to sell it. But there are two scenarios reported on this forum that bother me:

1. Trying to sell the upgrade for more than the lowest available F price -- that's just a sneaky way to fleece your customers, hoping they won't check.

2. Non-elites on the same PNR as an elite being offered an upgrade for less than the elite member

BasedinCLE

If you scan the TOD and upgrade offer threads here, you'll see numerous tales of nonsensical/laughable/questionable/(insert whatever adjective you'd like) offers to F that do not follow any rule of logic.

Bonehead

I bet the price to buy FC outright nets you a P-up. In my experience the after-purchase upgrades can't/don't offer P fares.