Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Airlines and Mileage Programs > United Airlines | MileagePlus
Reload this Page >

Have a Simple Question About United Airlines/MileagePlus? Ask Here [2019]

Old Jan 6, 2019, 12:17 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Welcome to this thread to ask your basic, simple questions about United Airlines, its operations, or the MileagePlus program. We know that the airline is complex and weve created this thread for new and veteran members to ask those basic questions about United Airlines that you think must have an easy answer but just cant find it or arent sure where to look.

UA Moderator Team
Ocn Vw 1K, l'etoile, J.Edward, goalie, Pat89339, WineCountryUA

These are the two rules for this thread:
  1. Use this thread for a simple, basic question. Moderators may move posts to a new / existing thread if appropriate.
  2. Any member who can post a constructive, patient answer is welcome to reply.

Generally, there are not long discussions of an issue in this thread. If it appears that is needed, the posts will be moved to an existing thread or used as the start of a new separate thread.

Additional tools for members seeking information about MileagePlus:

United MileagePlus Master Wiki

"New" United Airlines Forum Glossary

Here is a link to recent previous threads:
Have a Simple Question About United Airlines/MileagePlus? Ask Here [2018]

Have a Simple Question About United Airlines/MileagePlus? Ask Here [2017]

Have a Simple Question About United Airlines/MileagePlus? Ask Here [2016 Part II]

Have a Simple Question About United Airlines/MileagePlus? Ask Here [2016 Part I]

Have a Simple Question About United Airlines/MileagePlus? Ask Here [2015 -Part II]...

Have a Simple Question About United Airlines/MileagePlus? Ask Here [2015 Thread]...
Print Wikipost

Have a Simple Question About United Airlines/MileagePlus? Ask Here [2019]

Old Feb 5, 2019, 7:51 pm
  #181  
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,925
Originally Posted by beeasyed
Hm, if you click "View" of the specific itinerary from your Manage Reservations page, and click the e-mail icon on the right hand side--next to the printer and calendar icons--that will give you the option to share your itinerary to specific email addresses (w/o pricing).
Thats what I was looking for. Thank you.
FLYMSY is offline  
Old Feb 6, 2019, 9:13 pm
  #182  
J S
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 587
How often does UA switch one configuration of 777-200 for another? I am booked on TLV-EWR in J. The seat map shows Version 2 (2-2-2 in J). How likely is it that I could end up in a 2-4-2 configuration (and are the bad reports of that seat accurate)?
J S is offline  
Old Feb 6, 2019, 9:15 pm
  #183  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,300
Originally Posted by J S
How often does UA switch one configuration of 777-200 for another? I am booked on TLV-EWR in J. The seat map shows Version 2 (2-2-2 in J). How likely is it that I could end up in a 2-4-2 configuration (and are the bad reports of that seat accurate)?
Odds are close to zero for that particular swap.

You might see a swap to a 772 with Polaris seats, which would be an upgrade.

And yes, 2-4-2 is not good (though the seat itself is very comfortable, if very narrow).
Kacee is offline  
Old Feb 6, 2019, 9:26 pm
  #184  
J S
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 587
Thanks, @Kacee and thanjs for the amazingly fast reply! (As an AA refugee who has just started flying UA a bunch--this will be my third international J round trip in 2 months plus a fourth last summer, I really appreciate the openness of people on this board to entertain the simple questions.)
Kacee likes this.
J S is offline  
Old Feb 9, 2019, 10:36 am
  #185  
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 7
about to graduate college and I heard about a 10k bonus miles on united if you're part of their college plus program.
Is the program discontinued? I couldn't find any information on it apart from outdated forum posts and a handful of articles
whostolemycookie is offline  
Old Feb 9, 2019, 11:27 am
  #186  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: GVA (Greater Vancouver Area)
Programs: DREAD Gold; UA 1.035MM; Bonvoy Au-197; PCC Elite+; CCC Elite+; MSC C-12; CWC Au-197; WoH Dis
Posts: 52,110
Originally Posted by EmailKid
And of course fairly recent DPs by UA posters indicate that during Irrops co-terminals magically become available
All bets are off during irrops. You can even rebook to a completely different destination in many cases.
mahasamatman is offline  
Old Feb 9, 2019, 11:29 am
  #187  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: GVA (Greater Vancouver Area)
Programs: DREAD Gold; UA 1.035MM; Bonvoy Au-197; PCC Elite+; CCC Elite+; MSC C-12; CWC Au-197; WoH Dis
Posts: 52,110
Originally Posted by whostolemycookie
about to graduate college and I heard about a 10k bonus miles on united if you're part of their college plus program.
Is the program discontinued?
I think that went away long, long ago.
mahasamatman is offline  
Old Feb 9, 2019, 10:45 pm
  #188  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 76
I want to book travel for my family of 4 and upgrade to Polaris. I have 170K miles in my account (need 240K for the particular route we're looking at) and they have about 15-20K each. I know I have to transfer some Chase points in to make up the difference, but can I use some of their miles for free? Or do I have to pay to transfer their miles to my account to upgrade all 4 of us? I assume there's no way for me to avoid the fee by transferring some Chase points to each of their 3 accounts to pay for one outbound flight upgrade and then I use my miles to pay the other inbound flight upgrade.

Thanks!

P.S. I tried looking this up on the United website but the FAQ isn't very helpful. I see that it's a $15 fee per 1,000 miles, so transferring up to 60K miles from their 3 accounts into mine would cost me $900.
mkbug likes this.
smiles33 is offline  
Old Feb 10, 2019, 4:55 pm
  #189  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: WAS/TYO
Programs: AA PPro, TP Gold, UA Silver, Bonvoy/Hilton Gold, Global Entry
Posts: 296
What is the easiest way of booking a BULK fare? Since PQD doesn't matter, I'd rather earn more RDM if I'm paying the same price anyway. Assuming that they are coded as W or above, would they still be eligible to be upgraded with a GPU?
JMBResona is offline  
Old Feb 12, 2019, 7:00 pm
  #190  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,324
If flying SFO-NRT-SIN it is GPU eligible, but only for the UA segment. The ANA segment requires a separate GPU and sufficiently high fare class.
findark is offline  
Old Feb 13, 2019, 5:52 pm
  #191  
 
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 6
Could someone with an explorer card see if there's award availability on TK for JFK-IST in May? Follow up question: I don't suppose I can get around those sorts of availability roadblocks by having a friend with that card book for me?
xian01 is offline  
Old Feb 13, 2019, 5:54 pm
  #192  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,186
Originally Posted by xian01
Could someone with an explorer card see if there's award availability on TK for JFK-IST in May? Follow up question: I don't suppose I can get around those sorts of availability roadblocks by having a friend with that card book for me?
Expanded availability only applies to United-operated flights. All MileagePlus members have the same access to JFK-IST.

The restriction is based upon whose account is being used for the award, not the passenger.
jsloan is offline  
Old Feb 13, 2019, 6:58 pm
  #193  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: HND, NRT
Programs: UA Gold (1K 2016–2023 by miracle extensions; RIP 1K status), 1MM
Posts: 219
Originally Posted by smiles33
I want to book travel for my family of 4 and upgrade to Polaris. I have 170K miles in my account (need 240K for the particular route we're looking at) and they have about 15-20K each. I know I have to transfer some Chase points in to make up the difference, but can I use some of their miles for free? Or do I have to pay to transfer their miles to my account to upgrade all 4 of us? I assume there's no way for me to avoid the fee by transferring some Chase points to each of their 3 accounts to pay for one outbound flight upgrade and then I use my miles to pay the other inbound flight upgrade.

Thanks!

P.S. I tried looking this up on the United website but the FAQ isn't very helpful. I see that it's a $15 fee per 1,000 miles, so transferring up to 60K miles from their 3 accounts into mine would cost me $900.
Upgrading a family of four to Polaris may be pretty unrealistic to impossible depending on the route and your status with the airline. I'd do some serious investigation on the likelihood of upgrades clearing on your route of choice before spending money moving miles around.

You have to pay to transfer miles between accounts, family or not. Whether it's worth it is obviously yours to decide but I can't imagine it being worth it, unless you have a guaranteed upgrade that definitely won't go away between the time you apply to have the miles moved and the time they show up in the recipient's account.

Also, just FYI, you don't need the miles in their separate accounts. If you have the miles you need for an upgrade, even a one-way upgradelet's say it's 30,000 one wayin any specific account, those miles can be used to upgrade any ticket. You can use 30k from one account and 30k from another account to upgrade the out- and inbound legs of a flight. The individual flying doesn't need to have the miles in their account. And each member of your family absolutely doesn't need to have 60,000 miles in their account for the round trip.
jsloan likes this.
Kannai is offline  
Old Feb 13, 2019, 9:27 pm
  #194  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 76
Thanks, Kannai! You're the first to answer my question. I tried reaching out directly to United, but the customer service rep actually wrote back that "members are expected to read the rules" and included a link to the fine print of UA MP membership. Not helpful at all!

None of us have status--the miles are all transferred in from Chase or from the annual int'l flights we take (hence less than 20K miles per family member). I can transfer more Chase points in to meet the upgrade miles, but I'm hesitant to lock my Chase points into even more United miles.

I'd love feedback on 3 scenarios:

- I already confirmed that the upgrade to J for miles plus co-pay is available immediately at booking for SFO-NRT for 4 passengers (a Thursday morning flight). Unfortunately, going onto the waitlist is the only option for the miles+ co-pay upgrade for the return red-eye flight on a Saturday. That's the flight I want the lie-flat seats for! It would be about $1900/person for a round-trip economy ticket + $3600 and 240K miles ($450/person each way + 30K miles/person each way). This is the option I assume I'm going to do.

- Pay cash. Economy is $1900/person round-trip, Premium Economy is $2300/trip, and Business is $5400/person. I absolutely do not think it's worth $20K for Business. If I pay cash, it's likely I do Economy or Premium Economy, but I have up to 670K UA miles I could use so I'd rather save some cash.

- I see Saver awards are available for the outbound flight for only 35K plus $5/person. The return flight is 80K miles plus $50 for economy or 122K plus $50 for Premium Economy (versus $2300). I could get the guaranteed Premium Economy at this award level. I just don't know if it's worth it. I could go with Economy (and pay $200/person for Economy Plus) for the outbound flight as we'll just watch TV/movies/read anyway. But I really prefer lie-flat seats for the red-eye flight home. If that's impossible, than Premium Economy sounds better than Economy Plus.

What would you do? Is it nearly impossible for 4 non-status passengers to get upgraded to J on a Saturday HND-SFO flight?
Kannai likes this.

Last edited by smiles33; Feb 13, 2019 at 9:37 pm
smiles33 is offline  
Old Feb 13, 2019, 10:08 pm
  #195  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,186
Originally Posted by smiles33
- I already confirmed that the upgrade to J for miles plus co-pay is available immediately at booking for SFO-NRT for 4 passengers (a Thursday morning flight). Unfortunately, going onto the waitlist is the only option for the miles+ co-pay upgrade for the return red-eye flight on a Saturday. That's the flight I want the lie-flat seats for! It would be about $1900/person for a round-trip economy ticket + $3600 and 240K miles ($450/person each way + 30K miles/person each way). This is the option I assume I'm going to do.
$1900 per person for economy? SFO-TYO RT? I notice you mention that you want to return from Haneda. Do you have any flexibility? Dates? Adding a connection? How far away is travel? Are you traveling at a peak period?

Originally Posted by smiles33
What would you do? Is it nearly impossible for 4 non-status passengers to get upgraded to J on a Saturday HND-SFO flight?
I'd wait while checking alternatives. Saturday flights are difficult to upgrade, yes.

You mentioned Premium Plus (PE / "P+"), but now you're mentioning HND. I don't believe UA is selling P+ on HND-SFO. That's currently operated by a 787-9, and those are the last planes that are scheduled to have P+ added. The reason that I ask is that UA has stated that people upgrading from P+ to J will have priority over people upgrading from Y to J. So, if you fly a P+ route and purchase P+ instead of Y, while you'd still be last among P+ customers, you'd be ahead of anybody in Y -- and you'd have a more comfortable seat as a fallback if your upgrade didn't clear.
jsloan is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.