MHively

I have never had an issue doing more than a week out on my phone. But as others stated, must use web browser, not UA app.

gordita

Called United a few minutes ago (that was a long 58min call) and came across a few nuggets
1. The EWR - JNB flight may show open business seats but the agent claimed that no more seats are available, I'm on waitlist #3 and the chances of 3 seats being cancelled between now and Monday are very slim. After a few min, she said she could offer a business seat for that flight costing $3000+ as a spot upgrade. When I questioned her about seats magically available (to sell) but not available for upgrades, she didn't have a good answer.

2. EWR - JNB - I'm #4 for P+ upgrade and since there are 9 open seats, there's a good chance my upgrade will go through, wait and watch.

3. spent oodles of time to get a Lufthansa flight number for inbound so we could request plus points upgrade. after 30+ min, I found out that since my economy ticket is a codeshare ticket, we cannot apply for an upgrade. I would have to first buy a prime flight ticket and then submit an upgrade request.
4. Tried to assign a simple seat request on both Lufthansa flights but agent wasn't able to help and when I called Lufthansa call center, they referred me to their website, and no ability to speak to an agent.

after close to an hour, I've had enough and politely ended the call

Kacee

That's the point where you end the call. Why deal with a lying agent? It's not going to get any better.

Btw, UA188 on Nov. 13 is J9 P9 and showing booked 37/48 with 15 on the Polaris waitlist. There are 3 empty seats in PE with 13 on the waitlist.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

My guess is miscommunication (versus lying agent). No upgrade seats available, but buyups are. Not sure why agent would say “no business seats available”.

Kacee

Agents make stuff up all the time. It's certainly easier to say "no seats available" than to explain how upgrade inventory works to a customer who doesn't understand the system. It's like the hotel front desk saying "I'm sorry, there are no upgrades available." That's often shorthand for "we have better rooms, but we're not going to give you one of them." Guess which version is more likely to result in further discussion vs. ending the conversation.

SPN Lifer

This is not too dissimilar to any business telephone receptionist saying, "He's not available right now, may I take a message?"

The seats were not available to clear the upgrade waitlist.

jsloan

Huh? I’m not following.

Of course your flight is a codeshare, or you wouldn’t be trying to convert it to the prime booking code. I’m assuming LH is operating the flight, right?

If you have a UA-coded, LH-operated flight, it is eligible for PlusPoints iff it is first converted to an LH-coded flight. UA can do that without you having to purchase a new ticket, although if LH doesn’t have inventory in your fare class, it can be difficult / impossible. Note that LH requires an H fare or higher to use PlusPoints.

RobOnLI

This has been broken since June. United "fixed" this.

There is allegedly another loophole that somebody on this board has been able to exploit but has never posted how.

-RM

gordita

you are correct - the rub here is, they are charging me a fare difference of $400. Even if I were to go forward with this purchase, there are no guarantees that I'll get an automatic upgrade for one or both of my inbound flights. It's a little comical, when i call UA, they refer me to LH. When i call LH, they refer me to UA.

leftysauce

i've been consistently having this issue where the (offshore) phone agent is giving out different numbers of seats available in J than what the app shows. They will say a different number from JX and seats available on the seat map so EZR is probably showing a different number somehow than in the revenue management system or DCS.

SimplySanrio

Thanks for the advice!

gordita

This is what I see as of a few minutes ago - i'm #5 on the list. folks who've gone through this many times, do you think i have a good shot at making the cut?



upgrade list

gordita

I called LH again a few minutes ago and they told me that for the first inbound leg, JNB-FRA (11/27), there's 19 business seats available while for the next leg, FRA-SFO (11/28) there's 14 available. so the question of the day is, should i roll the dice and pay the united charge to bump up the ticket to H class/prime and then apply for upgrades for both legs?
folks who've been doing this for a while/experts, would love to hear your thoughts...and if there's any specific questions I should ask LH or UA.

Again, thank you so much for the help/education....this is getting addictive!

fumje

I'd be optimistic, cautiously. It's not guaranteed, but you'll hopefully clear at about 9a eastern tomorrow. If you were two to three places down I'd be a lot more nervous.

mswheeler

LHR-SFO
Took a confirmed Premium Plus upgrade a couple weeks ago. Called to see if we could also get on the Polaris waitlist with an MUA (because I now think I need the PQPs).
They said they’d have to rebook us into economy to apply the MUA to Premium and Polaris. So do I risk the Premium Plus upgrade for a chance at a Polaris upgrade?
2 days out. 10 People on Polaris List, 2 on Premium Plus List.
J9,P9 O2, A2, R1 (giving up our PP seats would add to the fare bucket I’d assume)