findark

Yeah, IME offers are $20-40 more than several years ago, and are generally the same for most pax. There are sporadic reports of lower status pax getting better offers, but it seems like thread would have an extreme sampling bias in favor of that.

Kacee

UA seems to have standardized buy-ups quite a bit compared to years past, at least on the domestic routes. Used to be much more variable, not just in amount but in how the buy-up would be treated.

There have been some recent reports though of some uncommonly low international offers ($599 for a TATL).

zeer0

Exactly what I've noticed. Prices going down on international routes (especially at check-in) and going up on domestic routes.

Flyz

Hope this question is not too elementary. I have an Economy seat on a domestic flight in a few days. I want to upgrade to a seat in First by paying, not with miles. At the moment the price to upgrade is $157 per segment. At the moment there's still a good supply of seats available, or at least unassigned, in First. Will the price go down if I wait and try to buy it from the machine at the airport, the morning of the flight? Or will people have been upgraded into those seats by then?

StuckinITH

Since you don't say your origin and destination it's hard to assess or even tell you if that's a good price and you should jump on it. Remember that other passengers may see that offer and take it. The usual metrics that I read here on FT, $60 per hour of travel is good.

Flyz

I'm not asking so much whether that's a good price — more whether, if seats are still available the morning of the flight (flight leaves at 6:30 am), the price will go down in the last few hours before takeoff. Or are people automatically upgraded that morning, so no seats will be left when I arrive at the airport?

StuckinITH

You never know. Sometimes they leave two First Class seats that they only upgrade at the gate. Those might go to passengers that SDC into that flight or that purchase the TOD or to upgrades. Sometimes, there are no First Class seats left at all. If I even think that I would like to take a TOD, I do prefer to take it at the earliest time to get a better seat and not the last ones. There is no assurance that price will go down, sometimes they do go up. That's why I gave you the metrics.

If your flight is less than 3 days from now you can check the flight status on the United website to see how many First Class seats are sold. If the flight is further away you can check the number of First Class seats sold on the future flight status on www.cablepick.net/United.

Flyz

Interesting. Well, a few hours ago there were only two seats left in First, and all of a sudden there are five. Same upgrade price. I'll keep my eye on things and see what happens. Thanks.

jsloan

Understand that the price may go up as well as down.

Upgrade prices appear to be based roughly on inventory, which you can see if you activate Expert Mode and search for the flight in question. (There's a thread on Expert Mode on the board). United's domestic first fare classes are, in order from most to least expensive, J JN C D Z ZN P PN PZ IN I. The further down the list that you see the last non-zero value, the lower the upgrade offer is likely to be. (There are no guarantees). So, if you see J5 JN5 C5 D4 Z2 ZN2 P1 PN1 PZ1 IN1 I1, your upgrade offer probably won't get any lower. If it's J5 JN5 C5 D4 Z2 ZN0 P0 PN0 PZ0 IN0 I0, it might.

Calliopetcat

IAD - PDX, $260 to upgrade from S fare at T-24 check-in. I took it. No option to upgrade before that, and I'd been eyeing that 4B seat for days. Was 16/20 yesterday but 18/20 when I checked in.

I'm not usually a premium fare type, and I haven't had status for yearsb. My recent back issues can make sitting excruciating, and my last two flights were night and day between Y and J.

Still curious. Did I get an okay deal or pay out the ear?

findark

I'd call it par for the course. That's a very reasonable price for the upsell, but not a steal. I would do it every time, but your wallet may vary

FlyerTalker70

Hello again,

Just thought I'd let everyone know that the UpSell Offers Spreadsheet has been updated to this point. Simply click the ToD Offers tab to see all offers up to this point. Also note that this spreadsheet has more than just UpSell offers, it also has GPU, RPU offers and the like which may also inform your decision on whether to roll the dice with a GPU or take the ToD offer.

Sadly, I'll be away from FT for the next couple of weeks/months as I continue my studies in the UK. If anyone is interested in carrying the mantle of UA spreadsheets/tools, feel free to PM me. Otherwise, expect these tools to be updated around Fall of this year.

Safe Travels,

James

Boraxo

Was pleasantly surprised to find online offers for an upcoming itin with DCA-IAH offered for $168 and IAH-SFO for $208. These prices are still a bit above my over/under but seem reasonable. Alas RPUs are waitlisted

ExplorerWannabe

Some of my reports may have been lost all the other posts but for travel in May, I've seen the following buy-up offers since first purchasing my tickets (i.e., buy-up offer hasn't changed since Jan 30th when I bought my tickets):

IAH-BOS, $208
BOS-DEN, $216

On Nov 25 2018, I paid $153.69 to upgrade my next-day HNL-SFO flight from Q class (waitlisted for CPU) to Z class (confirmed domestic F). At the time I found the offer and confirmed the purchase with CS, even she remarked "that's a great fare!"

I was getting upgrade offers for my DEN-FRA flight in June ranging from a couple thousand to about 8000 until I applied a GPU. Haven't received a cash buy-up offer since a couple days after applying a GPU (which still hasn't cleared).

jimaras08

For my last 4 intercontinental flights between Europe and USA the "offer" was always above 1000 USD. No, thank you.