DELee

Yup. If you apply an instrument to a segment or a leg, the upgrade offers now stop.

As shown in my previous post, I applied instruments to my wife's (LAX-ORD/ORD-LAX) flights and now her flights only show "Not available" for pricing upgrades. However, with no instruments, my flights show the offers above.

Additionally, if you try to price an upgrade by selecting a United First seat in a "Change Seats" view on a seat map, I see initially the "Purchase Upgrade" tab as blank. Clicking to "Redeem Awards to Upgrade" and then back to the other tab shows "Not available" for any offers.

David

Kacee

Yes, in fact I would say it commonly inhibits them. But they often disappear on their own as well. This was usually due to lack of inventory in the past but now the whole thing seems even more random. Like, "we gave you a chance, and you didn't take it."

77Pat

EWR-AUS one way, 737-900, earlyish morning departure (taking Southwest back)

Purchased K fare for $152, chose aisle seat (at the time First Class was selling for $410(P))

Current upsell for $200(P) ...would definitely pull the trigger at $150 (E+ fluctuates between $62, $90, and $115)

Somewhat tempted, being only 5'7" even bulkhead would be fine for me. I care more about width of seat vs extra leg room (and seeing thepointsguy poll, vote with your wallet). Looking at the route on united over the current 4 day period, some have F completely booked with some E+ rows only having one person. Some days it is revers with F half full and E+ full.

Have never flown first class before, so would be going in with no expectations. Reading mixed reviews saying Econ is very tight, but others saying they are fine with a free upgrade to first, but wouldn't pay/not impressed.

jsloan

You can't tell much from seat maps on United until departure. There are plenty of people who don't -- or can't -- select seats in advance. Your best guide is likely to be to keep an eye on the same flight, same day of the week -- so, if you're flying Monday morning, you should be looking at Monday morning loads.

Personally, I wouldn't pay $200 for F on this route, unless I needed to check two bags. The E+ seats are the same width as regular economy, so there's no need to pay for E+ if you don't care about extra legroom. OTOH, some people definitely would.

First class will be full, as United will upgrade premier travelers to fill those seats if necessary. So, the real question is whether or not you'd be able to snag an empty middle seat in economy. That's always hit or miss.

Hope this helps.

77Pat

Yea, this is Friday morning after Thanksgiving. Usually don't travel for Thanksgiving and not sure how many people do quick turnarounds vs staying the weekend. Part of the reason I chose Southwest for an afternoon return flight on Monday (most others had morning only)

jsloan

That's both good news and bad. The good news is that I think your intuition is correct; the load is likely to be light. The bad news is that there's a good chance that you'll have more Basic Economy seats than average on that flight. BE customers can't get a free seat assignment (even in regular economy), so they don't appear on the seat map in advance.

Your best chance is going to be a window or aisle toward the rear of the plane, as they tend to fill front-to-back.

pnsnkr

The 737-900s have some of the worst FC seats in the fleet.

Spent_All_My_Miles

This week, LAX-EWR, $139 at online check in. No-brainer for a lie-flat seat, on a red eye, for a lowly silver.
The guy seated next to me also got and accepted the $139 offer. He was gold or platinum.

zeer0

Wow, that's crazy! $139 for a lieflat transcon is an absolute no brainier. I'm wondering if that was meant to be $319, which is a more usual price for that route.

Kacee

If not a mistake, it's also moderately depressing.

And helps to explain why the product keeps degrading.

StuckinITH

Today, I purchased an Economy ticket to DCA on a Q fare where the cost for purchasing the ticket outright in First Class was $278 more. The offer that appeared immediately after purchase to upgrade the ORD-DCA segment: $1,209.

Spent_All_My_Miles

No typo. $139. I fly UA very rarely - got Silver last year through my Marriott Platinum status and have flown a handful of times since.
I thought this was so low because UA was doing some sort of trial to get me to fly more, but that could be ruled out because the guy next to me got the same offer and is gold or platinum. Or perhaps it is doing testing more generally on offer acceptance rates. I would assume at $139, there would be 100% acceptance among lower elites and a fairly high rate among higher elites.

My regular airline is DL (Platinum and LT 1 MM) - I would have my pitchfork out if DL was doing this.

chrisl137

Yes, it would sell fast. They commonly charge that much for E+ as you get closer to the day of the flight.

findark

There's been an uptick in offers going all over the map, and being more strongly dependent on premium inventory. I'm guessing it was likely that the front cabin was quite empty at the time -- or did a bunch of elites die on the upgrade list?

jsloan

Trust me -- DL does this. You just haven't run into it.

Also, there are no complimentary upgrades on LAX-EWR, so lower elite vs higher elite doesn't really come into play. Nobody was going to go up front without using an instrument (or miles + copay, which is a particularly awful deal on that route).