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Premium Plus (Premium Economy) seats and Experience

Premium Plus (Premium Economy) seats and Experience

Old Apr 14, 2019, 7:36 am
  #481  
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: PHL
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Originally Posted by Kacee
I'm seeing UA really tighten up on the R inventory compared to a month ago. And the O/A fares are ridiculous. Might as well just buy business class. Which usually means I'm not buying UA.
Hopefully UA and AA figure out how to competitively price premium economy. Last year from PHL, AA was $200-300 more per segment. Thats a good price, but this year the prices are too close to business. Thats the strategy Im seeing from EWR too.

Its just not not that much better for those prices. Especially when BA or VS provide some options and usually they have it priced right IMO.
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Old Apr 14, 2019, 8:02 am
  #482  
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Programs: Mileage Plus Global Services 2MM
Posts: 1,198
Originally Posted by Kacee
I'm seeing UA really tighten up on the R inventory compared to a month ago. And the O/A fares are ridiculous. Might as well just buy business class. Which usually means I'm not buying UA.
I was afraid this was going to happen. PE is allowed by our company for international travel. We utilized some reasonably priced PE fares and got "hooked". Now the fares are closer to J than Y, but our people are still booking PE based on policy. I can almost find J on other carriers for the PE price on UA for my TPAC flights but I am not allowed to book J. Very frustrating.
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Old Apr 14, 2019, 9:21 am
  #483  
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Originally Posted by bluedemon211
I was afraid this was going to happen. PE is allowed by our company for international travel. We utilized some reasonably priced PE fares and got "hooked". Now the fares are closer to J than Y, but our people are still booking PE based on policy. I can almost find J on other carriers for the PE price on UA for my TPAC flights but I am not allowed to book J. Very frustrating.
Yes, the O/A fares TPAC are over $4k. Not seeing any R 6-10 weeks out. Just crazy.

I'm not looking to buy P+ to sit in but for upgrade priority. I'm concerned that waitlisting a W, V, or even a Q is now much riskier, since they'll put me behind anyone who purchased a P+ fare. Net result is that I'll buy CX J for my next TPAC (for $1k less than a UA O fare). Well done United.
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Old Apr 15, 2019, 12:25 am
  #484  
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Programs: UA 1K, Hilton ♦ , Hyatt Carbonado, Wyndham ♦, Marriott PE, "Stinking Bum" elsewhere.
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Originally Posted by bluedemon211
I was afraid this was going to happen. PE is allowed by our company for international travel. We utilized some reasonably priced PE fares and got "hooked". Now the fares are closer to J than Y, but our people are still booking PE based on policy. I can almost find J on other carriers for the PE price on UA for my TPAC flights but I am not allowed to book J. Very frustrating.
I predicted this behavior by corporations a couple of months ago and am truly sad to see it starting to come to pass.



Originally Posted by Kacee
Yes, the O/A fares TPAC are over $4k. Not seeing any R 6-10 weeks out. Just crazy.

I'm not looking to buy P+ to sit in but for upgrade priority. I'm concerned that waitlisting a W, V, or even a Q is now much riskier, since they'll put me behind anyone who purchased a P+ fare. Net result is that I'll buy CX J for my next TPAC (for $1k less than a UA O fare). Well done United.
I am starting to look for other strategies to buy biz class should UA make PZ much harder to find and P+ and P/Z fares are kept at very high prices to Asia. Since I mainly fly to Japan, it may be difficult, but I hope things don't turn out as bad as I predicted.
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Old Apr 15, 2019, 2:32 am
  #485  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Yes, the O/A fares TPAC are over $4k. Not seeing any R 6-10 weeks out. Just crazy.

I'm not looking to buy P+ to sit in but for upgrade priority. I'm concerned that waitlisting a W, V, or even a Q is now much riskier, since they'll put me behind anyone who purchased a P+ fare. Net result is that I'll buy CX J for my next TPAC (for $1k less than a UA O fare). Well done United.
UAs J pricing is strange. Want to fly Europe to SFO? On the dates Im looking at, J class nonstop on UA is $5400. A connection through CPH on SK is $3290. Guess which flight Im taking?
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Old Apr 15, 2019, 3:41 pm
  #486  
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Originally Posted by halls120
UAs J pricing is strange. Want to fly Europe to SFO? On the dates Im looking at, J class nonstop on UA is $5400. A connection through CPH on SK is $3290. ....
Not uncommon for non-stops to get a premium.
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Old Apr 15, 2019, 3:45 pm
  #487  
 
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Originally Posted by halls120


UAs J pricing is strange. Want to fly Europe to SFO? On the dates Im looking at, J class nonstop on UA is $5400. A connection through CPH on SK is $3290. Guess which flight Im taking?
although if you want 200% pqm and $5000 calculated redeemable miles, then UA is it (since SK accrued at only 100% pqm even in J)

the sweet spot with Prem Plus is the 150% pqm but needs a lot of advance purchase to make the fare reasonable.
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Old Apr 15, 2019, 4:17 pm
  #488  
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Originally Posted by halls120
UAs J pricing is strange. Want to fly Europe to SFO? On the dates Im looking at, J class nonstop on UA is $5400. A connection through CPH on SK is $3290. Guess which flight Im taking?
Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Not uncommon for non-stops to get a premium.
It's not a nonstop premium, it's a deep discounted SK fare that can only be sold on SK stock. You can't get that fare from UA no matter how stops you're willing to make
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Old Apr 19, 2019, 3:08 am
  #489  
 
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Originally Posted by SFHokie
I just noticed that the GPU I applied to my "R" fare (purchased Premium Plus seat) to move from PP to J was never returned to my account after the upgrade failed. Anyone else notice this?

I sent an email to United and am waiting to hear back from what they have to say.

Also of interest, I remember my itinerary saying "(PZ) class requested" (I think that was the message) up until I checked-in for the flight instead of "Upgrade requested". It looked like a lot of people were getting upgraded into business class the week leading up to the flight -- or they were buying last minute business fares in droves at $4000 a piece -- yet I never made it higher on the upgrade list than #4 (on an "R" fare, which is higher than all Y fares but less than "O" and "A" fares). Sad times.

Hopefully 1K Voice can fix this for me easily.
This happened to me as well. Just called the 1K line to try to get it back, but was told by the agent that it looks like my upgrade "cleared" (most likely because I was booked into R to begin with. They told me to call MP service center tomorrow when they're open...
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Old Apr 19, 2019, 9:43 am
  #490  
 
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Originally Posted by GBadger
This happened to me as well. Just called the 1K line to try to get it back, but was told by the agent that it looks like my upgrade "cleared" (most likely because I was booked into R to begin with. They told me to call MP service center tomorrow when they're open...
This jives w/ the recent report on the upgrade process thread that R bookings are showing up on the PP upgrade status list. Seems like someone at IT forgot to separate the R bucket from the lines of code that deal w/ upgrade processing...hopefully they will fix this soon, or I see a lot of phone calls in my future.
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Old Apr 20, 2019, 12:43 am
  #491  
 
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Originally Posted by GBadger
This happened to me as well. Just called the 1K line to try to get it back, but was told by the agent that it looks like my upgrade "cleared" (most likely because I was booked into R to begin with. They told me to call MP service center tomorrow when they're open...
Update on this -- called MP service center and they had no problems redepositing the GPU.
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Old Apr 20, 2019, 11:42 am
  #492  
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Can someone who has flown both UA and LH premium economy comment on which product is better? In particular, which seats are more comfortable and have more recline? In particular for SFO-FRA (I can fly UA or a UA codeshare on LH.. I want to know which is better)
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Old Apr 20, 2019, 3:20 pm
  #493  
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Wayne, NJ USA
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Originally Posted by VegasGambler
Can someone who has flown both UA and LH premium economy comment on which product is better? In particular, which seats are more comfortable and have more recline? In particular for SFO-FRA (I can fly UA or a UA codeshare on LH.. I want to know which is better)
I've flown both but the LH was over a year ago so memory fades. I don't think the seats are much different, nor the space. UA has the better meal; LH is the exact meal that Y is served. So they have this advantage. But LH PE is way cheaper than most UA options. As is SQ if you can connect JFK-FRA to your EU city of choice. I will be doing that for Berlin in a few weeks. First time on SQ PE so I am excited to compare. Including "Book the Cook". I know for certainty that the staff will be WAY nicer.
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Old Apr 20, 2019, 4:04 pm
  #494  
 
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I prefer UA. The time that I flew PE on LH, I was in the bulkhead row, and felt as though I had zero leg room (my legs actually hurt afterwards from being bent from FRA-SFO).
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Old Apr 20, 2019, 4:15 pm
  #495  
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Originally Posted by elitefreak
LH PE is way cheaper than most UA options.
LH and UA fares are the same TATL. They have a JV.
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