ANA metal: upgrade with Star Alliance award, or ANA miles?
 

Hi, I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth flying from Tokyo (HND) to HNL on ANA, NH184 on 02 Jan. If I book it through UA, I should be able to use a GPU for a Star Alliance upgrade award (to biz), right? Or I could transfer AmEx points into my ANA Mileage Bank and use miles to upgrade. Question: which of these methods will produce favourable results?
Is there a way I can check in advance whether there is upgrade space? The old link to the ANA award search tool no longer works. I ended up going to this page: Flight Awards, and clicking on "Award Reservation" at the bottom of the page. That let me search for the flight I was after, which showed up as "Waitlisted" in business. Does that mean neither method would work, at least not until more upgrade space might be released?

The alternative would be flying UA902 from NRT. It's just a 777 though (ANA flies a 787), and looks to not even have lie-flat seats!

Those are two separate things. Both are available only on very high fare classes (Y, B, E).

Were you checking SeatGuru or something similarly unreliable? UA international long-haul is 100% lie flat.

Yes, but if I have access to both, which will provide me with more upgrade leverage?

Yes it was SeatGuru actually, But when I looked at the seat map on UA's website I was able to confirm that these were actually lie-flat seats, like you say.

They access the same inventory (I).

There appears to be some confusion in this thread.

OP: You listed "a GPU for a Star Alliance Upgrade Award," to which Kacee replied that they have the same priority. I think "for" was read as "or" here. You cannot use a GPU "for" a Star Alliance Upgrade Award (*AUA); you can use a GPU for travel on UA, LH, or NH, or you can use MileagePlus miles for a *AUA. Either of these options will access the same inventory (I class), which is the same inventory used for a business class award. If there is business class award space available on United.com for the flight you want, and you have a coach seat with a qualifying fare class, you can use either a GPU or miles to upgrade it. (Note that the coach seat may be more expensive than a discount business class ticket).

Questions about transferring points to NH for their upgrade award program should be asked in the NH forum. I don't have any idea what inventory they use for those; it may be the same as the I bucket, or it might be something else.

Actually, I pointed out that . . . .
The comment about same inventory was made after OP indicated he understood they are different upgrade tools.

How easy is it to clear the waitlist on ANA metal?
 

I just spoke to UA and they confirmed that upgrades on the codeshare Tokyo-HNL flight (ANA metal) were currently waitlisted. Also said that it was currently still quite open.
Now, if I book a Y-class ticket, what are my chances of it clearing? The same as on a regular UA flight, or worse (since I'm assuming ANA's own flyers would take priority over me, even if I'm a 1K and in Y)?

Does anyone have any first-hand experience of this? Only time I ever upgraded on another *A flight was LH, the upgrade cleared less than a week before departure.

Also, what about ANA premium economy?

There is no waitlist for upgrade on ANA flights using GPU, I assume that's what you're doing. I believe you have to check preiodically if upgrade space opens up.

I am currently in similar situation for NRT-IAD D->F. ANA website is selling 3 F seats with 2 assignable seats in F cabin. GPU upgrade is not available. I'll check periodically and hopefully something might open up starting at T-14 to T-7 like LH.

It's tough for NH members to see waitlists clear unless they are an diamond member.

If you're not NH Diamond than forget it.

I have a related question, and figured I'd post in this thread instead of starting a new one.

I currently have a ticket for TPE to SFO, which I purchased from United (016 ticket) but is on ANA. The ticket is Q class. The flights are showing I availability. I just tried the Star Alliance Upgrade Request form online and calling M+ -- online I got error 129, the agent told me that my ticket is marked by ANA as not eligible for upgrade.

I was hoping to use my miles to upgrade. I also have enough Amex miles to get an upgrade thru ANA if I transfer. But not sure if an upgrade with miles is even possible.

I don't believe Q class is eligible for a *A upgrade request on NH.

For using UA miles see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-carriers.html

As mentioned Q fare is not eligible
Additionally if a UA codeshare, needs to be native ANA flight numbers, codeshares are not eligible.

Thanks FT!
 

That's what I thought, but the M+ agent told me that it wasn't because of the fare. Sadly, I'm not surprised.

Due to a weather rebooking I can rebook my IAD->NRT->BKK flight to Y. I have a friend with a spare GPU and I also have tons of UA miles (but dont want to pay additional $$ plus miles) for an upgrade. Ticket is 016 stock but looking at a flight on all NH metal. Any advice on best way to upgrade, I've been googling but it's unclear

if the spare GPU is free ... use the GPU! Is I-class available? Remember, unlike LH, with NH you need the UG to be available ... no waitlisting