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This is a route notorious for last minute purchases, and redeyes can be a tough upgrade.
As mentioned, open seat maps are not always an accurate indication of available seats. Lots of third party purchases do not have seats auto-assigned. Eastbound flights are generally pretty quick with the aid of tailwind (4 hrs+ of flying time). If you are flexible, take the morning flight ex-SFO, with the assumption your upgrade will not clear. On redeyes, you are going to feel like crap upon arrival anyway, even with a lie-flat seat (given the limited amount of available sleep hours). You can also buy a premium economy seat, which can improve your upgrade position. |
Hello! Looking for your expert opinions, please. Bucket list item to fly Polaris SFO to SYD. Flying on 3/21. Currently in PP (R class) on waitlist for Polaris spots 5,6,7. It says 34 out of 50 booked. This is what it looks like: Available fare classes
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When I looked up our SFO directly to SYD and skipped our originating flight, the inventory changed…. Here is what it says: Available fare classes
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Originally Posted by Iboy80
(Post 36059260)
Hello! Looking for your expert opinions, please. Bucket list item to fly Polaris SFO to SYD. Flying on 3/21. Currently in PP (R class) on waitlist for Polaris spots 5,6,7. It says 34 out of 50 booked. This is what it looks like: Available fare classes
When you look up inventory in Expert Mode, you have to search for just the flight you're interested in, without any connections. Since you're saying 34/50, you must be on the earlier flight, which is on a 777-200 (50 J seats). The actual inventory there is J9 ... P9 PN0 PZ0, which means UA is willing to sell cash fares at its deepest discount but there's no upgrade space available yet. If you could change to the later flight without a fare increase, you'd find that it's J9 ... P9 PN9 PZ0, which means that they've cleared all Global Services customers, which would be good news for a non-GS member in PE. 5, 6, 7 on the waitlist, I'd be nervous about clearing that flight, but your chances would be excellent on the later flight. |
Wow. Thank you so much. So helpful. Is there anything else I could do to boost my status?
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Originally Posted by Iboy80
(Post 36059298)
Wow. Thank you so much. So helpful. Is there anything else I could do to boost my status?
If you can change to the later flight for free, you will markedly increase your upgrade chances, as there are about the same number of J seats booked but there are 10 more Polaris seats on the plane to be able to clear into. About the only way you wouldn't clear that would be if they have to cancel another Australia flight and move all the passengers there. It's certainly not hopeless on the earlier flight, but most business class seats are sold within ~2-3 weeks of departure, so the fact that they're down to 16 seats in inventory, and you need them to sell at most 9 of those, is why I'd be nervous. Good luck though. :) |
To add to this, I'd agree that you'd be MUCH better of changing from 829 to 863 if you can -- there are 13 more seats available in J (32 vs 19) and you'd be first on the waitlist -- the only people on it are nonrevs.
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Thank you so much to all of you! You are incredibly helpful. I just spent an hour on the phone with our cruise line to see if we can change just that one flight and they said we can’t just change one leg of the flight 😭. I’ve read a couple of things while scouring all the posts that I am trying to figure out. 1. I read something about applying some points to boost us. Does that work? Where do I get these points? I apologize for my ignorance! 2. I read that there is actually another waitlist that we can’t see. Is that true? Could we be in a different order there? I can also get a United Credit Card, but not sure it would make much difference. Thank you for all your guidance!
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Originally Posted by Iboy80
(Post 36060443)
Thank you so much to all of you! You are incredibly helpful. I just spent an hour on the phone with our cruise line to see if we can change just that one flight and they said we can’t just change one leg of the flight 😭. I’ve read a couple of things while scouring all the posts that I am trying to figure out. 1. I read something about applying some points to boost us. Does that work? Where do I get these points? I apologize for my ignorance! 2. I read that there is actually another waitlist that we can’t see. Is that true? Could we be in a different order there? I can also get a United Credit Card, but not sure it would make much difference. Thank you for all your guidance!
As for your questions: 1 - You'd get PlusPoints from high United status, but they wouldn't boost you above where you are now unless you reached Global Services status, which is the invitation-only top tier. 2 - UA does appear to have a hidden waitlist, but it's not likely you'd be in a different place on it. With no UA status, you'll be behind everyone in the Premium Economy cabin who does have status, as well as anyone in the Economy cabin using an instrument from a Global Services customer. Neither of those things will be different on the hidden waitlist. (Since it's hidden, none of us are exactly sure why / how it differs, but I can confidently say, not in those ways). 2a - Getting a UA credit card is unlikely to make any practical difference. The only way it would help you is if you got the expensive Club credit card and there was someone else with no status, in Premium Economy on an R fare, on the upgrade list ahead of you. There probably aren't. |
Hey there flyertalk,
1K Flying DEN-FRA and MUC-DEN later in May on H tickets with my wife and lap child. I've been watching seats.aero for the last couple months to try and understand trends with availability for PZ or RN space and watching the availability of space so I know to pull the trigger on a cash upgrade or not to at least premium plus. On our outbound leg we're the only ones on the upgrade list for Polaris 32/48 and at the top for Premium plus 10/21 booked. Inbound there are a lot more people on the list and we're middle pack 30/48 Polaris and 14/21 booked for Premium Plus. I'm probably going to take the cash upgrade to R on this leg given the lower availability and higher competition to get us higher on the Polaris list and at minimum we already have Premium plus if the upgrades don't clear. All the flights that seats.aero show on these routes with availability in the coming month usually have no one on either polaris or premium plus waitlists. Is that traditionally the only time United releases PZ or RN availability/would you expect the flights we're on to not have that availability (until after they clear out the entire waitlist)? Thanks all |
Originally Posted by klif01
(Post 36061258)
]All the flights that seats.aero show on these routes with availability in the coming month usually have no one on either polaris or premium plus waitlists. Is that traditionally the only time United releases PZ or RN availability/would you expect the flights we're on to not have that availability (until after they clear out the entire waitlist)?
Your original message said “later in May.” If that wasn’t a typo, and your flight is really that heavily loaded two months in advance, you have virtually no shot to clear an upgrade. If you meant later in March, I still wouldn’t necessarily be optimistic. |
Originally Posted by jsloan
(Post 36061554)
I mean, that’s what’s supposed to happen: they should clear the people from the waitlist before opening inventory to people who were not already on the waitlist.
Your original message said “later in May.” If that wasn’t a typo, and your flight is really that heavily loaded two months in advance, you have virtually no shot to clear an upgrade. If you meant later in March, I still wouldn’t necessarily be optimistic. Guess I worded the statement about seats.aero poorly. I am trying to figure out if they open PZ/RN space without automatically clearing people first. And yes our trip is later in May, guess I'm going to pay up! Oftentimes on domestic routes, I get upgraded to First 2-3 days out from a flight and it doesn't show me on the list of people receiving an upgrade. Does that ever happen on the Polaris side too? I've seen success stories of people getting upgrades clearing a month or two out so still holding some hope. |
Originally Posted by klif01
(Post 36061585)
Guess I worded the statement about seats.aero poorly. I am trying to figure out if they open PZ/RN space without automatically clearing people first.
Originally Posted by klif01
(Post 36061585)
And yes our trip is later in May, guess I'm going to pay up!
Originally Posted by klif01
(Post 36061585)
Oftentimes on domestic routes, I get upgraded to First 2-3 days out from a flight and it doesn't show me on the list of people receiving an upgrade. Does that ever happen on the Polaris side too? I've seen success stories of people getting upgrades clearing a month or two out so still holding some hope.
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Originally Posted by jsloan
(Post 36060904)
In general, you can certainly change just one leg of a flight; it's just that the fare difference might not be what you expect. The way it looks in their system is that you're changing your entire itinerary; it's just that your flight(s) to SFO are not changing. The problem would be that the fare might be higher because whenever you make a voluntary change to the first leg of your itinerary (in this case, the 'leg' is everything from your origin to Sydney), the entire ticket will get repriced using current fares. That said -- if you got a cruise line discount, then there may be more restrictions that you wouldn't face if you'd bought from the airline directly, and it's entirely possible that they don't have any contracted inventory on the later flight. :(
As for your questions: 1 - You'd get PlusPoints from high United status, but they wouldn't boost you above where you are now unless you reached Global Services status, which is the invitation-only top tier. 2 - UA does appear to have a hidden waitlist, but it's not likely you'd be in a different place on it. With no UA status, you'll be behind everyone in the Premium Economy cabin who does have status, as well as anyone in the Economy cabin using an instrument from a Global Services customer. Neither of those things will be different on the hidden waitlist. (Since it's hidden, none of us are exactly sure why / how it differs, but I can confidently say, not in those ways). 2a - Getting a UA credit card is unlikely to make any practical difference. The only way it would help you is if you got the expensive Club credit card and there was someone else with no status, in Premium Economy on an R fare, on the upgrade list ahead of you. There probably aren't. You are so incredibly helpful! Thank you! I just checked again and the new availability is this:
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PN space is for upgrade of passengers to Polaris cabin using an instrument from a Global Services customer (eg, PlusPoints). If the number after PN remains at 2, it means that those eligible passengers have already been upgraded (if three passengers on the same reservation; they will be skipped; but they will be upgraded when PN3 appears).
OP, you will have a good chance. Just relax and do nothing. |
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