2016 Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU) Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)
 

Figure we need a 2016 version of this thread, I'll start.

RDU-EWR-PWM
K-Fare
$79 Upgrade after Purchase for RDU-EWR only (EWR-PWM is single class)
Declined

$127 for the K Fare or $227 for the A fare when purchasing.

UA804 SIN-NRT
K fare
$1349 at OLCI (T-24)
checked on the app again (T-14) and price fell to $499

5 seats open in BF but they're all middles so probably not going to bite

UA895 HKG-SIN
P fare
$249 to upgrade to GF at T-4
Declined

2 seats open in GF, 14 seats still open in BF. Didn't want to pay for such a short trip.

IAD-MCO, at purchase, offered $129 per person (N=3) per leg for first.

It's during Spring Break, so I'll hold out for the CPUs.

BOS-ORD 1/9

I was on a later flight, upgraded with an RPU.

Weather was looming at ORD so I called and changed to an earlier flight -agent made the change but said "first was fully booked."

Went online to check in, and I was offered an upgrade for $179, which I declined.

Where are we discussing the purchasing of Y fares and then paying the delta to a cheap F seat. Company only pays for Y, but the delta to a P/low-F can be cheap as an example.

I have a multistop (DEN-EWR-BOM-ERW-FLL-DEN) next week and few F seats left, and I know with a GPU that won't clear on the DEN-EWR so just to look for inventory for that leg I see I can buy an F seat for $600. When I called in the operator said it wouldn't price the delta and had to check with the fare desk. They came back with over $600. I said it is kind of odd that is higher than a one way fare all by itself. She agreed and went back to the fare desk and they said that due to my multistop itin, that is the offer.

I understand fare structures and itins effect on things, but that is crazy. I don't think I've had a GPU clear on any of my DEN-IAH/EWR legs in about 10 flights. Truly awful.

Any strategies for trying to get a lower fare delta offer?

What segments were you trying to buy up? If you are ticketed on a DEN-BOM through fare (which is likely), then it isn't a simple matter to re-fare to a higher class on only one of your connecting segments. Sounds like the rate desk was forcing a fare break in EWR, which would add more to the ticket than just the DEN-EWR differential.

Yep, DEN-EWR-BOM, BOM-EWR-FLL, FLL-DEN. $600 bucks all the way to BOM I could live with ;) Good to know that the legs on a stop aren't always (Sometimes?) separable. Actually was booked thru a TA, so I don't know exact breakdowns.

T-23 EWR-HKG tomorrow. I'm already in J. My 18 year old Son is in 17D with the middle still open. Offered just now while checking him in, $2,379 to confirm. There are still 2 R's available with nobody on the list so far. Does this come down as we get closer?

SMF-LAX

Cheapest Y (K) Fare: $89
Cheapest F (A) Fare: $138

I purchased the K fare on my corporate CC, went back into the reservation to find that UNITED wanted $199 to upgrade to F.

I called UNITED and paid the $49 difference.

Why oh why does UNITED still suck so hard.

Based on the upsell difference being greater than outright purchasing an F ticket, I went back and looked at an LAX-SLC flight booked a few weeks ago.

LAX-SLC

Cheapest Y (G) Fare: $84.10 (Currently, and what I paid a few weeks back)
Cheapest F (A) Fare: $163.11
My Reservation: G->P PCU $115

I called to ask if they would charge the difference ($79.01), and the first agent said no. In addition to the $115 I could get off the website, I would have to pay a $200 change fee. I transferred to web support and after a little haggling the agent threw in the towel and only charged the difference.

I find Delta to have a much better user experience design in this respect.

It is interesting. CPUs are dead, so people (or caused by people) buy the upgrades at check in. Now people are beating the day of buy ups by buying Y and paying the difference to F near booking. Interestingly, that is not a set up system in United with lots of variation. Considering the Time-Value of Money of getting the upgrade fares difference earlier and the reality that a lot of business people can't buy F, but will pay the delta our of their own pocket- United really should streamline this process.

I flew USA-Europe on 1/1. C had only 6 people booked on 767. Y was "full" and I was told at check-in that Y was actually overbooked. No offers to buy-up online, nothing at check-in, nothing on the app. The agent at check-in looked for me, too - nothing. Looked again after my first connection - no offers. I called, and they wanted about $1,600, presumably the fare difference. Finally, I asked at the gate, and they initially offered the miles + money option, then offered just $500. I took the $500.

We went out with a nearly empty C cabin. I don't know if anyone else bought-up at the gate.

CUN-IAD on 1/10/2016. SO is Premier Silver and was #2 on the UG list. Was offered $129 PCU. Didn't bite for a 2.5 hour flight. Someone else did - only 1 additional CPU cleared, the rest 3 available seats were buyups.

$829 for EWR-BCN (Barcelona) from K class for a 1K member on 14 January at check-in. This is approximately $100 per hour in terms of flight time. The offer was declined. The standard buy-up offer before check-in was $2029. So, there is a $1200 deduction. :)