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

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Old Jan 10, 2016, 10:56 pm
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Previous threads: 2015 Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU) Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)
2014 Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU) Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)
2013 "Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU)" Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)

PCU (Premium Cabin Upsell) Nets extra PQM's and can be done at purchase or anytime before checkin if prompted. This will book into a business/first bucket.
UFC (Upgrade For Cash) is done at checkin (online, counter, lounge, gate) and will not earn extra PQM's.
TOD (Tens of Dollars); please post at another thread Post your TOD buy-up experiences here [2016 Edition]
From #198 of the TOD thread by thejaredhuang: "I think there's still a distinction (from upsell thread). This thread is more about offers at check-in, I always read TOD as Time of Departure anyways."
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2016 Upsell Offers to Business/First (UFC/PCU) Questions/Discussion (Paid Upgrades)

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Old Jan 2, 2016, 10:50 am
  #1  
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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.
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Old Jan 10, 2016, 2:13 am
  #2  
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: BOS/SIN
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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
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Old Jan 10, 2016, 4:41 am
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
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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.

Last edited by Rowyourboat; Jan 10, 2016 at 5:00 am
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Old Jan 10, 2016, 11:30 am
  #4  
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
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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.
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Old Jan 10, 2016, 11:56 am
  #5  
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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.
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Old Jan 11, 2016, 12:38 am
  #6  
 
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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?
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Old Jan 11, 2016, 2:16 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by PushingTin
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.
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Old Jan 11, 2016, 1:52 pm
  #8  
 
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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.
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Old Jan 11, 2016, 2:41 pm
  #9  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: NYS
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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?
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Old Jan 11, 2016, 3:33 pm
  #10  
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
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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.
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Old Jan 11, 2016, 4:17 pm
  #11  
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: LAX
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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.

Last edited by anc-ord772; Jan 11, 2016 at 4:25 pm
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Old Jan 12, 2016, 1:08 am
  #12  
 
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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.
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Old Jan 12, 2016, 7:34 am
  #13  
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: COS and PIT
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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.
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Old Jan 12, 2016, 7:57 am
  #14  
 
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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.
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Old Jan 13, 2016, 11:30 am
  #15  
 
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$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.
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