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How does PlusPoints / Mileage Upgrade waitlist for business work with PremiumPlus?

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Old Mar 29, 2019, 3:12 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
GPU Upgrades for aircraft with United® Premium Plus:
  • MileagePlus members seated in United Economy can use a single Global Premier Upgrade request to move to a United® Premium Plus seat or upgrade to the United Polaris® business class cabin.
  • If you’d like to be considered for a move to a United® Premium Plus seat or an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin, we’ll move you to the first available seat. If the first available seat is a United® Premium Plus seat, we’ll continue to look for space in the United Polaris business class cabin without requiring an additional Global Premier Upgrade.
  • Members who have purchased United® Premium Plus upgrade-eligible fares will also be able to request an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin using one Global Premier Upgrade.
  • United Polaris business class upgrade requests for members who have purchased United® Premium Plus seats will be processed in priority order first, followed by upgrade requests for members who have purchased United Economy seats. Learn more about upgrade priority order.
  • There will be no fare class restriction, other than for Basic Economy and Economy (first bag charge/no changes allowed) tickets, for members who have purchased a United Economy seat and request to move to a United® Premium Plus seat, and no fare class restriction for members who have purchased a United® Premium Plus seat and request an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin.
  • Members requesting to move to a United® Premium Plus seat only and who have domestic portions of their itinerary will not be automatically waitlisted for United First. To be waitlisted for United First on domestic portions of an international itinerary, use your Global Premier Upgrade to request an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin.
Mileage Upgrades For aircraft with United® Premium Plus:
  • System-wide, all MileagePlus members seated in United Economy can use a single MileagePlus Upgrade Award request to move to a United® Premium Plus seat or upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin.
  • If you'd like to be considered for a move to a United® Premium Plus seat or for an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin, we’ll move you to the first available seat. If the first available seat is a United® Premium Plus seat, we’ll continue to look for space in the United Polaris business class cabin.
  • If you requested an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin, and we moved you to a United® Premium Plus seat, we’ll refund the difference in co-pay and miles after departure.
  • Members requesting a MileagePlus Upgrade Award to a United® Premium Plus seat only will not be waitlisted for United First on portions of their itinerary that do not contain United® Premium Plus.
  • Members who have purchased United® Premium Plus upgrade-eligible fares will also be able to request an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin using a MileagePlus Upgrade Award.
  • United Polaris business class cabin upgrade requests for members who have purchased United® Premium Plus seats will be processed in priority order first, followed by upgrade requests for members who have purchased United Economy seats. Learn more about upgrade priority order.
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How does PlusPoints / Mileage Upgrade waitlist for business work with PremiumPlus?

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Old Apr 8, 2019, 8:50 am
  #46  
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Originally Posted by PTahCha
Read your bolded statement again, which states using the priority order listed above, which is what I referenced. The statement you have pointed out is technically correct, and that is in case of a tie breaker, a member in purchased Premium Economy fare would trump a member in economy. However, the order is still status first, then underlying purchase fare (not upgraded)..
Sorry, but that is not what it is saying.

"[W]e’ll first process United Polaris business class or United Business waitlists for all members who have purchased United® Premium Plus seats."

It couldn't be more clear. A P+ purchase is intended to trump status. It's hard to tell for sure whether or not that's happening, but I suspect that it is.

Here's today's SFO-TPE flight, which has several cleared upgrades in each cabin.

Y->P+:
GAW, T and HAN, Y have cleared; DAI, J, HAT L, CHE, C, and LIN, C are confirmed passengers still waiting to be upgraded.

P+->J
CHA, C, LIN, Y, LIU, X, PUT, B, TAN, P, and ZAH, B have all cleared. The list, in order, is GAW, T, HAN, Y, LIN, H, ROS, J, DAI, J, ROD, D, and PAR, B.

I interpret that as "first we cleared a bunch of people from P+ into J; then we cleared some people from Y into P+, who are still waiting for J upgrades."
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Old Apr 8, 2019, 9:15 am
  #47  
 
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Does anyone have experience at this point with Y->PP cash upgrades through the website? I'm wondering what fare code these place you in, and whether there's any chance that the upgraded ticket would then be eligible for a GPU to J.
A host has booked me on L fares for an upcoming trip to Asia, and although I wouldn't shell out the $ UA is requesting just to sit in PP I'd consider it if it allowed me to GPU to the front cabin. I'm guessing the intent is that this should not be possible, but these things often don't seem to work as intended when UA is involved! Has anyone tried this?
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 11:43 am
  #48  
 
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Is Premium Economy R class?

Hello everybody

I am trying to book a flight on mid-June from SIN to SFO in Economy. If I go in Advanced Search mode and put Fare Class B, then in the search results following option appears.

Do I understand correctly that R class is the PE cabin? If so, is it available on 777s going to Tokyo? I thought it was only on 787s.
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 11:45 am
  #49  
 
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Originally Posted by invisible
Hello everybody

I am trying to book a flight on mid-June from SIN to SFO in Economy. If I go in Advanced Search mode and put Fare Class B, then in the search results following option appears.

Do I understand correctly that R class is the PE cabin? If so, is it available on 777s going to Tokyo? I thought it was only on 787s.
Yes, R is PE. It is available on many (all?) of the 773s.
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 11:58 am
  #50  
 
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Thanks.

Next question - is above R class upgradable to business using miles and which fare bucket the upgrade will be using?
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 12:05 pm
  #51  
 
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Originally Posted by invisible
Thanks.

Next question - is above R class upgradable to business using miles and which fare bucket the upgrade will be using?
Yes. In fact, R will have higher priority on the waitlist than Y fares. However, PZ is still required for it to clear.
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 12:06 pm
  #52  
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Originally Posted by invisible
... Next question - is above R class upgradable to business using miles and which fare bucket the upgrade will be using?
Yes R is upgradeable by miles/copay or GPU to business and you need PZ (if GS then PN)
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 12:12 pm
  #53  
 
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Originally Posted by sannmann
Yes. In fact, R will have higher priority on the waitlist than Y fares. However, PZ is still required for it to clear.
Looking at the screenshot above, do I understand correctly that there are no upgrade slots available from PP to Business?

Related question - if a Gold member purchases B fare (which translates to R for PP) and then requests upgrade to Business using miles - what priority such request will get?
Will people with higher status but seated in Economy get ahead in the upgrade list when requesting upgrades via GPU or miles?
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 12:27 pm
  #54  
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Originally Posted by invisible
Looking at the screenshot above, do I understand correctly that there are no upgrade slots available from PP to Business? ...
PZ0 means no upgrades to business are presently available (from economy or PP). In generally you should look at PZ only one segment at a time.

Originally Posted by invisible
if a Gold member purchases B fare (which translates to R for PP) ...
No that is not correct. PP fares book as B on flights without PP. But booking a B fare does not give you PP on flights with PP seats.

Originally Posted by invisible
then requests upgrade to Business using miles - what priority such request will get?
Will people with higher status but seated in Economy get ahead in the upgrade list when requesting upgrades via GPU or miles?
UA PP purchased fares will have priority over economy purchased fares (with status, fare, time of request) being used in each cabin. See the thread;s wiki for the detailsIt is unclear if GS still have overriding priority.
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 1:24 pm
  #55  
 
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Interesting observation which may have been made already...

I purchased an R fare for a flight tomorrow and applied a GPU. Looking at the upgrade lists, I'm showing as "cleared" for PP, and waitlisted for Polaris. I was surprised to see myself on the cleared list for PP, given that I bought a PP fare.
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 1:26 pm
  #56  
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Originally Posted by GBadger
Interesting observation which may have been made already...

I purchased an R fare for a flight tomorrow and applied a GPU. Looking at the upgrade lists, I'm showing as "cleared" for PP, and waitlisted for Polaris. I was surprised to see myself on the cleared list for PP, given that I bought a PP fare.
That... makes sense, actually, because UA presumably never updated their software, and R used to be an upgrade class. I mean, it's wrong, but I understand it. Thank you for the data point. ^
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 3:18 pm
  #57  
 
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Originally Posted by GBadger
Interesting observation which may have been made already...

I purchased an R fare for a flight tomorrow and applied a GPU. Looking at the upgrade lists, I'm showing as "cleared" for PP, and waitlisted for Polaris. I was surprised to see myself on the cleared list for PP, given that I bought a PP fare.
Maybe the person who cleared into PP has the same NAM, E.
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 3:20 pm
  #58  
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Originally Posted by GBadger
I purchased an R fare for a flight tomorrow and applied a GPU. Looking at the upgrade lists, I'm showing as "cleared" for PP, and waitlisted for Polaris. I was surprised to see myself on the cleared list for PP, given that I bought a PP fare.
I expect that will be fixed eventually, as it's definitely an error.

Also, if this is the consistent way paid P+ pax display right now, that would alter jsloan's analysis above of the waitlists from the 4/8 SFO-TPE flight.
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 3:27 pm
  #59  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Also, if this is the consistent way paid P+ pax display right now, that would alter jsloan's analysis above of the waitlists from the 4/8 SFO-TPE flight.
Agreed.

It's probably only passengers in R that are displayed incorrectly, plus maybe ON. But it does mess up the analysis significantly.

And I wouldn't expect UA to fix this anytime soon. It took them years to update the incorrect display of JN as an upgrade class. (It used to be used for premier instant upgrades; then, it became premier standard awards).
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Old Apr 11, 2019, 4:14 pm
  #60  
 
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Originally Posted by SS255


Maybe the person who cleared into PP has the same NAM, E.
Not unless they also happen to be sitting in my seat...
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