Oct 22, 2018, 6:09 pm
Last edit by: drewguy
Hello – We would like to share some information that will help answer some of your questions. We're continuing to roll out our signature United Polaris® direct-aisle-access seating, adding at least one aircraft with United Polaris seating every 10 days on average from now through 2020.To support this effort, we performed a system update this past weekend to redefine some of our cabin booking classes, which includes no longer offering United Polaris first class. As a result, any United Polaris first class tickets will now be designated as United Polaris business class. We will be reaching out to all customers impacted by these changes.We’ve also re-aligned some of our booking codes. Notably, you’ll see that we aren’t using F, A classes anymore, and R and RN, which were upgrade classes before, is now PZ. PZ has the same availability as the booking codes it replaced.Premium cabin booking codes for United domestic and international flights are now as follows:
Thanks,
- UA Insider
- Revenue: J, C, D, Z, P
- Award: JN, ZN, IN, I
- Upgrade: PN, PZ
Thanks,
- UA Insider
- R/RN for upgrades has been replaced by PZ
- suggest: search for PZ space
- F, A fare classes have been removed
- suggest: no known workaround yet for 016- ticketing F or A on partners? (google flights may work?)
- O, ON fare classes have been removed
- suggest: --
- PN is still used for GS upgrades and 1K Instant Upgrades
Summary of Current Fare Codes (thanks jgreen1024)
Revenue buckets (PQM earnings)
J - Full Fare Business (300%)
C - Full Fare Business (200%)
D - Full Fare Business (200%)
Z - Discount Business (200%)
P - Deep Discount Business (150%)
Y - Full Fare Coach (150%)
B - Full Fare Coach (150%)
M - Discount Coach (100%)
E - Discount Coach (100%)
U - Discount Coach (100%)
H - Discount Coach (100%)
Q - Discount Coach (100%)
V - Discount Coach (100%)
W - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
S - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
T - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
L - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
K - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
G - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
N - Basic Economy (0%)
Saver Award Seats
IN - Elite Saver Business Award
I - Saver Business Award
XN - Elite Saver Coach Award
X - Saver Coach Award
Standard Award Seats
JN - Elite/CC Business Award
ZN - Business Award
YN - Elite/CC Coach Award
Upgrade Awards
PN - GS upgrade, Instant upgrade for 1K
PZ - Upgrade to Business/Domestic F
Changes to UA's Fare Classes (19-20 October 2018)
Oct 20, 2018, 9:55 am
#76
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: SJC / DPS
Programs: AS G75K, UA Silver
Posts: 1,757
Oct 20, 2018, 9:57 am
#77
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,370
I'd keep an eye on it over the next couple of days to see what happens. As you can see from the https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...e-classes.html and 2 Class Flights with 3 Class Planes --- Who gets to sit in the 3-class F seats? threads, there's been a pretty high rate of success reported.
Oct 20, 2018, 9:57 am
#78
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Aussie in ORD
Programs: Marriott Plat, Ua Gold, GE.. Sucker for punishment
Posts: 4,237
Oct 20, 2018, 9:58 am
#79
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Texas
Posts: 640
An upcoming flight IAD-MUC in which I already confirmed an upgrade with a GPU now lists as a schedule change using an airbus A320. It also lists me as being in coach. I will wait until Monday to call United if this remains unresolved.
Oct 20, 2018, 10:04 am
#80
Join Date: Mar 2014
Programs: Mileage Plus Global Services 2MM
Posts: 1,200
Oct 20, 2018, 10:09 am
#81
Join Date: Mar 2014
Programs: Mileage Plus Global Services 2MM
Posts: 1,200
Not seeing any "swelling" on the flight I have been monitoring closely. P9 PN0 for 2 weeks on SFO-SIN. After last night's changeover, those numbers are unchanged. I suspect the "swelling" might be independent of last night's change and more likely IM opening up more PN space.
Oct 20, 2018, 10:09 am
#82
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: WAS/ BOM
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Gold, HHonors Gold
Posts: 1,567
I wasn’t able to do it through the app. But going to the website did the trick. The seat reservations have stuck for now. Let’s see what Monday brings.
Oct 20, 2018, 11:07 am
#83
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: BOS<>NYC<>BKK
Programs: UA 4.3MM LT-GS; AA1MM; Amtrak SE; MAR LT TITAN; PC Plat; HIL DIA; HYA GLOB
Posts: 4,388
So one piece of good news from this change is that UA has now branded GF as BF and the orange boxes are seats now available for selection. Only problem is that it might be restricted to 1k or GSs for now. I tried changing my wife and mine, it would only confirm my seat and not hers. Wonder if it could be because of the lap infant
Oct 20, 2018, 11:28 am
#85
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1.6MM
Posts: 21
After last night's system upgrade, it looks like R and RN disappeared from expert mode. PZ seems to be the new upgrade class. I checked the couple of flights that I had confirmed upgrades with R, they are now showing PZ.
Oct 20, 2018, 11:31 am
#86
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist, Virtuoso Travel Agent, Commercial Pilot
Posts: 2,117
I'm kind of blown away that United has done pretty much no messaging on this change. Even to travel agencies the details were buried in the bottom of an email about the seat map outage, and there's nothing on Jetstream.
Oct 20, 2018, 12:11 pm
#87
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,395
Good morning,
This apparent change would make a big difference for pax flying United metal on a relatively cheap Lufthansa First Class Discount fare (Booking class A) ex Europe to - for example - Hawaii:
Until now, Lufthansa would credit to pax booked and ticketed in A 300 % of flown distance plus a 25% of flown distance Executive Bonus (HON, SEN, FTL) compared to a ticketed pax in booking class J who would only get 200% of flown distance plus the 25% of flown distance Executive Bonus. This means 33 % less status miles for Miles & More customers which can make status requalification impossible.
Did the UA bean counters find out, that UA paid too much to Miles & More for handing out relatively good credits for pax booked in A ?
Of course I am aware that booking class A had never secured a better seat - you always sit in the Domestic Business Class cabin. But availability last minute was way better in A than in booking classes J, C or D, specially on most popular routes.
Am I correct with this assumption - inputs are most welcome.
Cheers,
juan516.
This apparent change would make a big difference for pax flying United metal on a relatively cheap Lufthansa First Class Discount fare (Booking class A) ex Europe to - for example - Hawaii:
Until now, Lufthansa would credit to pax booked and ticketed in A 300 % of flown distance plus a 25% of flown distance Executive Bonus (HON, SEN, FTL) compared to a ticketed pax in booking class J who would only get 200% of flown distance plus the 25% of flown distance Executive Bonus. This means 33 % less status miles for Miles & More customers which can make status requalification impossible.
Did the UA bean counters find out, that UA paid too much to Miles & More for handing out relatively good credits for pax booked in A ?
Of course I am aware that booking class A had never secured a better seat - you always sit in the Domestic Business Class cabin. But availability last minute was way better in A than in booking classes J, C or D, specially on most popular routes.
Am I correct with this assumption - inputs are most welcome.
Cheers,
juan516.
Yes to all of the above, with the caveat that A class earning 300% was always effectively an error when applied to domestic flights, since it was intended to be the earn rate for 3-class First. The realignment of codes on United will close this loophole, but it's just an accidental side effect. Also note that United stopped selling A fares domestically about 6 weeks ago.. however, existing tickets in A have been rebooked into D.
Oct 20, 2018, 12:18 pm
#88
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,115
So no more instrument-supported upgrades to 3-cabin F?
Then I guess today is the official end of international first class. Even though it was nothing more than Business+ in the final days, the mere fact that one had to make a payment (in some form) to upgrade in specific RBD's, meant that it was still considered a separate class of service. It's not a separate class anymore if someone on a business ticket can just assign a seat there without additional payment without a change in ticketed RBD. Then it's just a business class with a better seat, aka Business+, but from now on also on paper and on your ticket.
Goodbye INTL F, you had a glamorous 92-year run, an excellent hard-product, and many satisfied pax. You got caught in the circle of devaluation and you didn't deserve to die. Let your demise be forever a word of warning for what can happen if an airline keeps removing perks to justify lowering prices.
Then I guess today is the official end of international first class. Even though it was nothing more than Business+ in the final days, the mere fact that one had to make a payment (in some form) to upgrade in specific RBD's, meant that it was still considered a separate class of service. It's not a separate class anymore if someone on a business ticket can just assign a seat there without additional payment without a change in ticketed RBD. Then it's just a business class with a better seat, aka Business+, but from now on also on paper and on your ticket.
Goodbye INTL F, you had a glamorous 92-year run, an excellent hard-product, and many satisfied pax. You got caught in the circle of devaluation and you didn't deserve to die. Let your demise be forever a word of warning for what can happen if an airline keeps removing perks to justify lowering prices.
Oct 20, 2018, 12:53 pm
#89
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K and MM
Posts: 174
R class seats no longer showing in expert mode
I’m using an iPhone and iPad and when I do flight searches, the details sections no longer list R class seats available. All the other draw classes are listed but not R#or RN# are showing. Is this a glitch or new UA policy. Or is this just an IPhone/iPad issue???
Oct 20, 2018, 12:54 pm
#90
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,395
R is replaced with PZ, which is currently listed at the end.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Oct 20, 2018 at 1:06 pm Reason: cleanup after merge