jsloan

CloudsBelow

Any experiences booking a first class fare on a trip involving a sector on an all-Y aircraft (eg, CR2) that gets upgauged to an RJ w/ first class seating after booking?

Would the segment that's booked to "Y", or whatever economy fare basis, be automatically upgraded if the equipment changes on an upcoming schedule update. I am NOT talking of a 1-off equip sub.

for example, I book first class YUL-ORD-LAX. YULORD on CR2 today so the system defaults to an economy fare. Just wondering if they change equipment (likely IMO) will I/can I call to be seated in the cabin I paid for?

jsloan

No.


Recent reports suggest that it's possible, but you may need to call a couple of times. If P space is available on YUL-ORD, it should be a no-brainer to be seated there. If not, you can ask to waitlist for P -- if you can find an agent who knows how to do that -- or you can try to argue that you should be given an F seat based upon the through fare.

Keep in mind, though, that if there were a two-cabin plane on there in the first place, and P wasn't available on YUL-ORD, your overall YUL-LAX fare would have been much higher than what you paid. IMO, it's not unreasonable for UA to insist that you waitlist if P isn't available when you call.

fumje

Technically I believe you need P fare bucket availability on the up-gauged flight to get yourself moved to first class seating. If you just call and ask an agent to move you up, the agent may do so anyway, even if it is P0. But you aren't entitled to that service, so if the agent declines, no point in pressing.

50Kthehardway

i had this happen to me. Multiple flight options, but due to timing I picked the one that had an RJ instead of 737. The RJ segment got upgauged a few weeks later. Had to call and be persistent as initial response was that they could not do this but to "not worry as I'd probably be upgraded." (was only Gold at the time).

docbert

All of the comments above about changing/waitlisting/etc are based on your ticketing being purchased as a "through-fare". ie, one far covering the entire YUL-LAX trip in P.

It's possible that your trip will instead have been priced as 2 fares (albeit still on a single ticket) - one fare YUL-ORD in economy (likely not Y, but something lower like K), and a second fare ORD-LAX in P. In that case you've explicitly paid for economy on the YUL-ORD flight, so even if an F cabin is introduced you do not have any right to be moved to it.

Unfortunately after the ticket has been purchased it's normally a little difficult to tell the fare construction. If you check your receipt it might show it, but it depends on where the ticket was purchased from.

CloudsBelow

Thanks all. Wanted to note a couple things (might be relevant)

> There are flights on the same route YUL-ORD-LAX that have front-cabin on both sectors that are the SAME PRICE. Schedule is dictating my CRJ issue.
> YULORD = seated in a CRJ for close to 3 hours which is never fun

These 50-seaters can't be retired soon enough.
No biggie, I'll just book DL

Thanks to soxfanndc for pointing me to their post. My thread is a duplicate it seems.

jsloan

This is extremely unlikely due to the way UA publishes its fares, but it's possible.

Your receipt on United.com would show the booking class. If it's Y on the regional jet flight, you can reasonably infer that it's a through fare. If it's anything else, you can pretty definitely conclude that it's not.

fumje

>1 This is a pretty good indication that it's through-fare P.
>2 Yes, I will connect in EWR to avoid the CR2 when that's all they load for YUL-ORD. Or, as you say, you can choose another airline! Perhaps you can do us all a favour and send UA your DL receipt with a note about the CR2.

physioprof

I booked a connecting domestic itinerary with the first leg in business and second leg in economy, because on a one-cabin regional jet. Later, they changed the regional jet to a CRJ700 with a business cabin. United's system automatically put me in an economy seat on the regional leg. When I called to get moved to business, the agent told me that they had to reprice the ticket to move me to business. Does this make sense?

findark

No. Unless there is a fare break at the gateway (unlikely) you should be entitled to the premium cabin on the domestic sector.

physioprof

Entire itinerary is domestic. As it turned out, I thanked the agent for information & said I'd think about it. When I pulled up the reservation online, I realized that the second leg was an M fare, and I was offered the instant complimentary upgrade & took it.

EDIT: It was originally booked online as a mixed refundable itinerary, with the first leg in D and the second leg (as I found out later) in M.

findark

Ah, in that case you probably did have a fare break at your connection point and the agent was correct. A domestic First fare is going to delegate to its secondary Economy rbd, which would be lower than M for a D fare (M would be C). All's well that ends well though

physioprof

OK, you know your stuff cold! I just checked, and it was indeed a C fare.

jsloan

In that case, there's a good chance that the agent was wrong. If there is C space available on the flight (likely, if PN/PZ was), you should be eligible to be seated there. That may be difficult to explain to an agent now that you've used an instant upgrade, though.

The only reasons to really worry about it would be if you intended to be able to SDC or if you care about the extra PQM.