WineCountryUA

That is the lowest PremPlus/PremEcon fare class for UA. It appears UA does not allow R fares to be upgraded as *A Upgrade Which is similiar to LH wheich does not allow *A upgrades on it lowest PremEcon fareclass, N.

Can not answer if UA miles can be used to upgrade a cash upgrade to R, it is new thing. But it should be easy to determine, go to your itin and see if a mileage+copay option is offered. UA does offer mileage+copay upgrade for purchased R to Polaris.

DeltaEchoYankee

Thank you! I am sure I�ll be enjoying the flight regardless of where I end up sitting. I am super happy I was able to snag a window seat 😅

Its gonna be interesting to see if and when that list of eligible customers fills.

Years ago, United have upgraded me after an IRROPS that wasn�t even their fault and it was such a cool experience. I am glad they�re being this transparent about the list, whether you�re on it or not etc. I feel like that�s under appreciated.

Lux Flyer

"Double upgrade" is only found in reference to a star alliance upgrade award terms in conditions and specifically refers to going to Economy -> Business -> First which isn't allowed on a SAUA. Can do either Economy -> Business OR Business -> First. For multiple reasons it doesn't apply on UA. First, UA doesn't have an international first class cabin so it is a moot point (no additional cabin to "double" upgrade into). Second, do not believe you can use a SAUA to go towards premium plus. Third, UA doesn't consider premium plus a separate cabin in that regards - UPP is officially considered a premium experience within the economy cabin. Fourth, don't believe you can use UA miles to apply a SAUA on a UA flight, if you're using UA miles you need to use MUA's. SAUA is for using your miles from a SA carrier different than the operating carrier.

Specifically with regards to UA upgrade currencies and I think the sense you are using "double upgrade" phraseology to mean going from Y->UPP-> J, that is most certainly allowed, as evidenced by the fact UA offers this ability outright when they will waitlist for both cabins and still keep you on waitlist for J if UPP clears.

Just putting my understanding of the situation before my answer - this was a purchased K fare, then a PCU purchase which put in R booking code, and now wants to list a MUA for J. In which case, yes a MUA can absolutely be requested, based on the cost for being in an R fare. The system only looks at the current booking code on the PNR* when determining the award upgrade cost not at the original ticketed code or even current booking code on the ticket (which is partly why UA makes such a point to convert booking codes back to original booking codes in a schedule change). Since a PCU changes the booking code and R is a valid booking code for requesting MUA's, then it would be able to be listed for a MUA (in this specific case for 20k miles and $425 copay).

*Fun bit of trivia even though in practice this will rarely ever matter. It is based on what the confirmed booking code reflects on the PNR, not the face of the ticket. Ie. if you have an out of sync ticket for whatever reason, say your ticket still shows in K class because it wasn't revalidated/reissued properly, but your confirmed segments were left in M class, the system will still show the upgrade cost based on you being in an M booking code.

DeltaEchoYankee

You understood the situation perfectly, thank you for this helpful reply!

I�ll weigh my remaining options :-)

👍

VRFast

Bolded what I'm asking about. So if you achieved an RN fare due to an upgrade from a T fare using a MUA (assuming this is the case), you would not be eligible for MUA to Polaris? Or am I misunderstanding this process?

jsloan

You can waitlist a mileage+copay upgrade simultaneously for Premium Plus and Polaris. If you decided to put in an upgrade for Premium Plus only, and then wanted to go back and put in a separate request for Polaris, you might potentially run into an issue, although I suspect a good customer service agent could make it work.

The bigger problem would come if you did a cash buyup into Premium Plus and happened to end up in RN. At that point, it's unclear whether or not you'd be able to apply a miles+copay upgrade.

VRFast

Oooff, that's expensive. My ORD-FRA buy-up in a week is $1331 from R fare, but I broke down and applied a MUA.
There is a trick to see the waitlist, but I won't discuss it here , however it's discussed somewhere on here.

Lux Flyer

No, I think you are understanding it correctly. RN is not a valid booking code to apply a new MUA or plus points towards, and so your example would not be able to apply a MUA to Polaris.

As jsloan mentioned, you can pay the MUA upgrade cost to go to Polaris and waitlist for both Polaris and Premium Plus from your economy fare, and then you would receive the refund back after the fact if you only clear to premium plus. This would "allow" you to be upgraded from RN, but it has nothing to do with you being in RN, it is the fact your MUA to Polaris was already paid for based on what was due from being on a T fare. You could have gone to PZ from RN or from T (had you never cleared to RN), because you already paid for a MUA to go all the way to PZ.

The situation that runs into the problem is if you initially paid for a MUA to go to only RN from T. In that case, you could not later apply a new MUA to go from RN to PZ. What would need to happen is the existing MUA would need to be cancelled/refunded, placing you back in your original T fare, and then a MUA to Polaris would need to be requested (with Premium Plus also waitlisted if desired). A good agent should be able to save you the RN space you had previously secured, but technically there is no policy that suggests they are supposed to do that, and would probably relying on the agent knowing how to do it and to grant an exception to override the automated process which they are instructed to let handle all this. Moral of the story: There is a risk of losing your RN space if you initlaly only MUA'd to RN but later decide you want to list all the way to Polaris, if you ever think you want your going to want the MUA for Polaris, just apply it to go to Polaris from the get go. Or if you're going to decide to do it later, make sure PZ is already available when you go to update the MUA so it doesn't matter if they lose the RN space.

jqm

I got extremely lucky on my last SFO-LHR flight.

I am United Gold Premier (thru a status challenge), flying on economy (V class fare.) On this leg, I had splurged $250 for a premium plus seat upgrade fee. It did not change my class, I do not believe. (edit, it did, see below)

As I was sitting in the SFO lounge (which I had access to by being Star Alliance gold thru the challenge), literally two minutes before boarding started, I received a text saying I got upgraded to Polaris business class. I was not really paying attention to the upgrade list since hoping before has really burned me out, but I think there was only one business class seat available that was unclaimed. And I have no idea where I ranked.

Just a data point, but I am happy to learn that upgrade surprises still happen.

I thanked the gate agents who were calling my name as I walked up to the counter, as I assume it was one of them who saw me on that list. That seat upgrade made driving the next day after 22 hours of flying possible.

jsloan

Premium Plus, unlike Economy Plus, is a separate cabin, and buying an upgrade to Premium Plus does change your fare class. They must have needed one more seat in Premium Plus -- it's been quite popular and is pretty regularly oversold -- and you were next on the list by virtue of your Gold status. Congratulations!

Just, don't count on it happening again.

jqm

I looked at my activity log. Yep. My Premium Plus upgrade is listed as "R class" which per PointsGuy is "Premium Plus Deep-discounted fare". I stand corrected.

I never counted on upgrade luck in the first place, hence I bought myself a nicer seat in the premium cabin. Never dreamed it would get me in the front. And I won't count on it again, since I think I used my lifetime of karma there.

pullpaidair

Just update:
sept 2
del to Ord
waiting list 10,
37 out of 48 booked
any chance for Polaris upgrade

drewguy

Not really surprising - likely two passengers cancelled or got upgraded, and UA inventory management as a result opened up space in a less expensive PP fare class. That also meant the automated buy up offer dropped in price to reflect the lower-priced fare class.

RobOnLI

Chance? Yes. A good chance? No. I assume by "waiting list 10" you mean you're #10 on the list. I don't like your chances much at all but at least there's still a chance. I'd say 5-10% chance.

-RM

OuttaBerkeley

Hello folks. Couple questions:

1) I just booked myself on SFO-LHR. PremPlus on the SFO-LHR outbound, UA 930 on 10/8. PremPlus back on LHR-SFO UA 900 on 10/13. The instant upgrade after purchasing was a whopping $5600 for the SFO-LHR leg but only $1205 for LHR-SFO. I paid for the $1205 for LHR-SFO. Is that a good price? Relative to the $5600 it sure seemed like it. But I haven't really bought cabin upgrades in more than a decade, so don't have good perspective on the $1205 upgrade to Polaris fee.
2) I subsequently put in for a PlusPoints upgrade for the SFO-LHR outbound UA930. I see that some are able to see where they are on that waitlist. How does one do that? I'm 1K. On a PremPlus O fare. 26 Polaris seats still available. 39 days to go before the flight. How good are my chances?

Thanks!
OB