yep $299 seems to be typical for PS - surprisingly low.

What would the buy up from E to E+ be, like $150 or something? I wish that if UA were going to do these that they credited FF with something towards the UG.

As a 1K that is going to go 0/4 CPU and 0/2RPU for the year so far, paid upgrades are the only way I'm getting seated in front of the curtain.

You could try either Delta or AA who don't play these stupid upgrade games.... ;)

I just find the entire thing to be annoying. Its like United is trying to rip me off all of the time. Buy F, pay more than Joe smo who buys Y and gets a cheap post purchase upgrade? Protect myself by always booking Y, seeing if any upgrade is offered, cancel if it does not?

I am too busy from this crud, it is all such a turn off. Any airline that treats its best passengers as marks is not going to do well long term.

I recently booked ABQ-FRA, VIE-ABQ. I booked W fare, got the upsell offer after ticketing, and declined it. It was a very high amount, and I didn't like the possibility of forfeiting it.

I then went and booked again, same itierary, but this time the outbound in Z, return in W. This was hundreds of dollars less than what I could have had with an identical passage using the upsell (biz outbound, coach return).

I canceled the first ticket.

As others have said, YMMV, so it is useful to try & buy, and cancel and re-book as needed.

So in the past, I avoided these because I generally fly refundable/flexible tickets for work. These upsells, while attractive have generally made these tickets non-refundable. Is that still the case?

I often need the flexibility as I've had trips change last minute and one time changed a trip 6 times within a 3 day period ...

It does not make the ticket non-refundable, but the value of the upsell is not added to the coupon (and the ticket is not reissued). If you make a change, per policy the upgrade fee is forfeit and you end up back in Y.

In my personal experience though, as long as your flight change is an even exchange and the new flight has both your Y and F booking codes available, you can keep the upgrade.

Good to know. Thanks! ^

Upgrade vs. Paid Difference to First
 

I have now had 3 flights were I was booked into economy per company policy by our travel department. In all 3 cases, when I checked on upgrades, none were confirmable by RPU/Miles but there was consistently the option for immediate upgrade with the cash offer on the upgrade screen. In all cases, the difference between paid first and my current fare was nearly half the cost of the "upgrade" offer. In call cases, I was able to upgrade for cash at half the "upgrade offer" price by calling and asking for a manual upgrade. This seems a little shady but yet another work around to the inability to be upgraded with the tools United offers us for our loyalty.

I've noticed this as well. I book my own travel for work and notice the published fare differences are usually about half as much as the upgrade offer. I, too, book economy per company policy.

I have a question - do you get the higher PQM/PQS is you call and buy-up? I know that you don't if you go the TOD route.

Do you have status? If so, I believe the online buyup wants to put you in B for an instant upgrade instead of an upfare to P.

Yes, this. The logic assumes that a B fare (or an M fare if you're a 1K) is cheaper than lowest available First. It's pretty much always wrong, but they haven't fixed this despite it being true for years.

fishing strategy?
 

Can someone describe their "fishing"strategy? Do you use advanced search and laboriously run through with different fare codes?

I just had a ridiculous one worthy of digging up this week-old thread...

I've been paying mostly for F outright these days, as the delta is usually $100-150 more each way. However, one of my frequent midcon routes is showing lowest coach as $204 one-way....Normally P is $330-$400, but despite F9Z9P9 three months ahead, this day the difference is over $500, with that P fare being $724 the day I need it, certainly not worth it to me on a 3.5 hour flight.

On a whim, I figured I'd book coach and see if I was offered a buyup...So I paid the $204 for the coach ticket, and was delighted (for a second) to see the upgrade window pop up. Then I saw the "Upgrade to first class for only $699" ($25 less than, and what would be a $200+ premium versus buying F outright). I laughed and laughed and canceled the ticket as I'll watch the flight to see what happens in the coming weeks.

I know there have been reports of this in other threads, but this is the first time I've experienced on of these completely ludicrous buyup offers.

Route/date? Is it domestic?

We do EWR to LAS and back a lot. The fares are just crazy all the time. Sometimes we see great F fares and grab them, other times we settle for the back and wait and see what the upsell is. Booked a one way last night, EWR to LAS for $152 in coach, the upsell was $249. The F fare listed was over $500. I was tempted to take the $249 but with TALT and TPAC in J and some extra EWR/LAS trips for a new grandchild arriving I passed. Bottom line, look at the seating chart, if it looks empty in F you will likely see a nice upsell offer...