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UA Upsell Offers to Business/First at Purchase and Day of Departure (TOD) [Archive]

Old Jul 20, 2013, 6:22 pm
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UA Upsell Offers to Business/First at Purchase and Day of Departure (TOD) [Archive]

Old Jul 12, 2019, 3:40 pm
  #4516  
 
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Originally Posted by Amart107
Hello, tomorrow I will be traveling from EWR to BRU on UA. I am currently booked in PP but the Polaris cabin has 15 open seats according to the seatmap (nobody waiting to upgrade). I am considering upgrading to Polaris, but curious as to whether anyone could suggest if I should do it at check-in or try to do it at the gate if there's still availability as I understand that within 3h prices can change at the discretion of the gate agent. I.e. what is a better bet?

Any thoughts? Thanks very much! Currently offer is $782 using reservations, will post check-in offer later.
Welcome to FlyerTalk and especially to the United threads!

I don't think the GA will give you a special price. It's the UA system that tells the GA what the offer is and you will find the same offer on the website or the App.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 3:50 pm
  #4517  
 
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Originally Posted by StuckinITH
Welcome to FlyerTalk and especially to the United threads!

I don't think the GA will give you a special price. It's the UA system that tells the GA what the offer is and you will find the same offer on the website or the App.
Thanks very much for the response. I had thought as much, then read something in an old thread yesterday about prices being subject to change by agents within 3h of departure. That may have been an ancient post though. If I don't end up buying an upgrade at check in I'll ask at the gate, see if I get a different answer and report back.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 4:07 pm
  #4518  
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Originally Posted by Amart107
Thanks very much for the response. I had thought as much, then read something in an old thread yesterday about prices being subject to change by agents within 3h of departure.
Prices are subject to change, and 3 hours prior to departure might have been a sweet spot in the past, because UA used to open up inventory in all fare buckets at that time, and the upgrade offers seem loosely based upon inventory. They no longer do that reliably; however, every inventory bucket is already wide open on your flight, so I wouldn't necessarily expect a cheaper offer.

Do you have status with United? UA is showing Premium Plus as full, but there are still four unclaimed seats on the seat map and they're willing to sell at least 9 more P+ seats (!). If they're successful, that would result in quite a few operational upgrades to Polaris (read: free) for people who are booked into P+. Those would be based upon status, then fare.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 4:54 pm
  #4519  
 
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Originally Posted by jsloan
Prices are subject to change, and 3 hours prior to departure might have been a sweet spot in the past, because UA used to open up inventory in all fare buckets at that time, and the upgrade offers seem loosely based upon inventory. They no longer do that reliably; however, every inventory bucket is already wide open on your flight, so I wouldn't necessarily expect a cheaper offer.

Do you have status with United? UA is showing Premium Plus as full, but there are still four unclaimed seats on the seat map and they're willing to sell at least 9 more P+ seats (!). If they're successful, that would result in quite a few operational upgrades to Polaris (read: free) for people who are booked into P+. Those would be based upon status, then fare.
Only silver unfortunately. Price is up to $829 after check-in opened. Looks like I'm giving PP a shot
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 5:17 pm
  #4520  
 
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Originally Posted by Amart107
Only silver unfortunately. Price is up to $829 after check-in opened. Looks like I'm giving PP a shot
Price might still fluctuate down (or up if there are many TOD takers) so it's worth checking that from time to time. From my own experience it's good to have in mind before check-in a price where you would take the TOD if one is offered as sometimes there is no further offer after check-in. There was a thread maintained by a nice FTer showing the TODs for different destinations but at the time I was reading it Premium Plus was not existing (and it still does not exist if you want a direct flight from ORD) so I have no idea if $782 was a good price.

I have to say that for my return from PVG yesterday that was supposed to be on a pmUA 772 with the 2-4-2 configuration, my wife informed me a week before the flight that if the TOD offer was good and there were still aisle seats available she would pay for it for herself. Even though we had GPUs waitlisted. She did not want to be upgraded to a middle seat in the middle section. Lucky for our wallets that the plane was switched to a reconfigured Polaris flight and her offer was $4,053. So, she could wait for the upgrade to clear which it did one hour later. If it had not cleared we would have experienced the Premium Plus seats for the first time.
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 10:11 am
  #4521  
 
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Originally Posted by StuckinITH
Price might still fluctuate down (or up if there are many TOD takers) so it's worth checking that from time to time. From my own experience it's good to have in mind before check-in a price where you would take the TOD if one is offered as sometimes there is no further offer after check-in. There was a thread maintained by a nice FTer showing the TODs for different destinations but at the time I was reading it Premium Plus was not existing (and it still does not exist if you want a direct flight from ORD) so I have no idea if $782 was a good price.

I have to say that for my return from PVG yesterday that was supposed to be on a pmUA 772 with the 2-4-2 configuration, my wife informed me a week before the flight that if the TOD offer was good and there were still aisle seats available she would pay for it for herself. Even though we had GPUs waitlisted. She did not want to be upgraded to a middle seat in the middle section. Lucky for our wallets that the plane was switched to a reconfigured Polaris flight and her offer was $4,053. So, she could wait for the upgrade to clear which it did one hour later. If it had not cleared we would have experienced the Premium Plus seats for the first time.
Still showed $829 so I called the premier line and the guy gave it to me for $443, and also upgraded me on my subsequent flight from BRU to Budapest! Never hurts to call I guess!
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 10:27 am
  #4522  
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Originally Posted by Amart107
Still showed $829 so I called the premier line and the guy gave it to me for $443, and also upgraded me on my subsequent flight from BRU to Budapest! Never hurts to call I guess!
$443 must have been the fare difference between what you already paid and the lowest available business class fare (otherwise, you wouldn't have been "upgraded" from BRU to BUD). Make sure to check that your return flight is unchanged.

"Never hurts to call," is accurate, I suppose, but what you saw was an anomaly, almost certainly because you were heading to BUD in particular (business class fares to BUD tend to be lower than to most other major European cities). For most people, calling would have been a waste of time.
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 10:57 am
  #4523  
 
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Originally Posted by jsloan
$443 must have been the fare difference between what you already paid and the lowest available business class fare (otherwise, you wouldn't have been "upgraded" from BRU to BUD). Make sure to check that your return flight is unchanged.

"Never hurts to call," is accurate, I suppose, but what you saw was an anomaly, almost certainly because you were heading to BUD in particular (business class fares to BUD tend to be lower than to most other major European cities). For most people, calling would have been a waste of time.
So, if I understand this correctly, this was an upfare not a TOD.
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 11:03 am
  #4524  
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Originally Posted by StuckinITH
So, if I understand this correctly, this was an upfare not a TOD.
Correct. A TOD wouldn't have touched the BRU-BUD flight.
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Old Jul 16, 2019, 4:18 pm
  #4525  
 
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MUA to PP, can there then later also be a cash upsell offer to J?

Has anyone used a MUA asking for both PP and J on a TATL, then received the u/g to PP but not J, and then while waiting at the airport for departure, received a cash buyup offer to J, rather than waiting for the remainder of the MUA to clear? If so, would the cash offer be less than the typical $829 floor for a TATL? One would think it should be, as in this situation one has already given up 20K miles for Y -> PP, as opposed to the folks who didn't invoke any award, but are offered $829 total for Y -> J.
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Old Jul 28, 2019, 2:44 pm
  #4526  
 
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On international basic economy fares (N), does UA still offer buy-up offers to J?
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Old Jul 28, 2019, 11:25 pm
  #4527  
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Originally Posted by CurbedEnthusiasm
On international basic economy fares (N), does UA still offer buy-up offers to J?
N is not used for TATL BE
BE fares are non-upgradeable.
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Old Jul 29, 2019, 4:48 pm
  #4528  
 
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Sorry for the very dumb question, but after check-in, where are buy-up offers displayed on .bomb? 12 empty seats tonight on IAH-SYD but can only find info on buying E+.
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Old Jul 29, 2019, 5:08 pm
  #4529  
 
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Originally Posted by linglingfool
Sorry for the very dumb question, but after check-in, where are buy-up offers displayed on .bomb? 12 empty seats tonight on IAH-SYD but can only find info on buying E+.
At least through the United app, click on your reservation and select "view reservation", and at the bottom it should display "upgrade options'.

On a separate note, tomorrow's SBA-SFO flight, $90. SFO-BOS, $1,968. Ouch!
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Old Jul 29, 2019, 5:09 pm
  #4530  
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Originally Posted by linglingfool
Sorry for the very dumb question, but after check-in, where are buy-up offers displayed on .bomb? 12 empty seats tonight on IAH-SYD but can only find info on buying E+.
Generally you will see them during the check-in process. If you've already checked-in, you can check in again to see if it triggers an offer. You'd also see them in the app, on the trip options panel.
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