Upgrading to Economy Plus on United Flights booked with Singapore Miles
 

I am interested in a flight from EWR-MSY in December. I have the Ritz card and would use the $300 from it to upgrade 2 seats, but I would be booking it with Singapore miles (expiring so need to use them up). Does anyone know if you can book a flight with Singapore miles, then login to your reservation on United and still be given the option to upgrade to economy plus. I know AA lets you do this if using other miles, while Delta does not, but have never flown United booked on Singapore before so wasn't sure how it worked or the approximate cost. Thank you.

Yes

Selected E+ seat with corporate portal booking, not sure how to pay
 

I booked a UA Intl flight through Concur//Amex (required for company travel), and while booking selected E+ seats (no status this year). A Concur message said something about going to the airline site after booking to pay if necessary, which I am willing to do as we are allowed to fly Premium Economy/E+ for this distance. Now the flights are ticketed, and at UA.com I see those E+ seat selections with no note or way to pay that I can see. If I hover over *other* E+ seats it shows a price.

1) If I don’t take proactive action to pay I assume I will be booted from the E+ seats at some point? I don’t want to risk the possibility that by the time I notice there may be no aisle E- or E+ seats available.

2) If I change to one of the other E+ seats that are the same price and pay the fee, will I then be able to re-change back to the original seat online without paying again? Or is it best to call in to get this taken care of?

I believe your TA will be billed for the seats, but it would be worth calling UA and seeing what the status of the payment is. In the future, easier to not select a seat via the TA and do it instead on the United website.

Thanks, I think you're both right, and I should have selected E- or no seats when booking. Looks like I have 3 options now -- try to change the current reservation's seats to E- then back to E+, cancel and rebook (still within 24 hours), or get on the phone to either/both of UA and the TA tomorrow. I think that's the order I'll try them.

To follow up, I ended up changing the seats to E-, saving, then going back and selecting my original E+ seats and paying for them, all on united.com. That seems to have worked.

And to answer another question -- now that I've paid, when I go in to seat selection, it looks like I could switch among seats at the same price without paying again. Here's the message that appears:

• If your new seat costs less than your original seat choice, you won’t receive a refund for the price difference.
• If your new seat costs more than your original seat choice, you’ll receive a refund for your original seat purchase and will begin a new transaction.

Upgrade from economy to economy+ for $128 (Newark to Tokyo, one way) worth it?
 

United is offering an upgrade from economy to economy plus, one way, from Newark to Tokyo. Is it worth it? The aircraft is a 777-300 ER and the only difference I see on SeatGuru.com is that there are 3 inches more in economy plus (34" seat pitch), versus 31" seat pitch in economy. the seat width appears to be the same and could actually be identical in economy and economy plus.

Thank you for your feedback.

Only you can really determine that but I know for me, anything long haul is economy plus. I wouldn’t think twice about $130for extra space on a flight like that.

Economy Plus is not an upgrade. It's just a bit more legroom in the Economy cabin. Based on your needs, only you can decide if those extra inches are worth it. If you're shorter than 5'6", maybe not. Over 6', probably yes.

The flight is for someone who is 5 feet 3 inches. The more I think about it, the extra 3 inches, doesn't seem to be worth it especially since it is not Premium Economy, which would have been a totally different experience. I will continue to seek feedback.

Separately, if United doesn't sell all the Economy plus seats (whether newly ticketed, or existing tickets for which a seat upgrade is sought, will they let anyone choose the economy plus seats for free, 24 hours from the travel date, or would they actually let the seat remain empty as a wasted empty space?

They will remain empty unless E- is overbooked, in which case some people will get free E+. The space is not wasted, as people who have earned E+ through status or paid up will have some nice extra room.

At 24 hours from the travel date they will only let you choose the Economy + seat for free if you are United MileagePlus Silver (Higher level members would have chosen those seats at booking). If Economy is fully booked, they will put the Economy passengers who have not yet chosen seats into Economy + seats but then they may end up in middle seats which are not very comfortable. If Economy is not fully booked, they will let the Economy + seats remain empty. It's not a wasted empty seat. The Economy + passenger will get to enjoy some extra space. And don't think that it's OK to move from Economy to Economy + seats after boarding if you see empty seats in Economy +. That's poaching.

FWIW, I much prefer traveling in Economy + than in Economy. Those few inches is not only for the legs but also for when the passenger in front of you reclines his/her seat into your face.

Thanks for the clarity.

Many thanks for your response in this thread. Much appreciated.

Thank you all, that responded on this thread.

Check out the seat map. It is hard to predict since you never know how many Premier silver members will move up to E+ when check in. However, you will get the general idea how your flight would be.
Sometimes E- seats are almost full and E+ are less than half empty like my last trip IAD-NRT. I took three seats by myself.
In those cases some FAs let E- passengers move to E+ seats after the cabin door is closed - but those cases do not happen a lot. Based on my experience, in most cases FAs do not allow.