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

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

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.
Print Wikipost

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

Old Jun 15, 2019, 10:13 am
  #151  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,179
Originally Posted by Kacee
UA is offering you a one-way W SFO-NRT?
The cheapest one-way fare I see filed for SFO-NRT is a Q; perhaps OP has a transfer at Narita.

NRT-SFO, OTOH — I don’t see anything lower than Y.
jsloan is online now  
Old Jun 15, 2019, 11:55 am
  #152  
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SBA
Programs: UA & AA 1 million miler
Posts: 1,134
Originally Posted by Kacee
UA is offering you a one-way W SFO-NRT?
I will be connecting at SFO.
MrJBoy is offline  
Old Jun 15, 2019, 6:28 pm
  #153  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 37
I have a W fare for NRT - SFO. PZ = 0, I can get confirmed upgrade to PP immediately if I use GPU and get waitlisted for Polaris.

My preference based on scenarios:
1. PZ>0 -> Use GPU to upgrade to Polaris
2. PZ=0 -> Use MUA to upgrade to PP

I don't want to end up using GPU to upgrade to PP.

If I use miles today to upgrade to PP, and keep monitoring PZ space, can I later on cancel/refund my miles back to W fare if I see PZ>0, and apply GPU to get to Polaris?
echelone is offline  
Old Jun 15, 2019, 8:00 pm
  #154  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,299
Originally Posted by echelone
If I use miles today to upgrade to PP, and keep monitoring PZ space, can I later on cancel/refund my miles back to W fare if I see PZ>0, and apply GPU to get to Polaris?
Yes, but only if W is still available.

Most people would place the value of a GPU well below the cost of the MUA.
Kacee is online now  
Old Jun 15, 2019, 8:41 pm
  #155  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Silicon wasteland
Programs: UA 1KMM
Posts: 1,379
Originally Posted by Kacee
Yes, but only if W is still available.

Most people would place the value of a GPU well below the cost of the MUA.
How do you come to this conclusion?

A MUA for PP is what, 30k miles?
A MUA for J is 30k miles + ~+$400 or so, depending on fare class.

A GPU upgrade for either PP or J is, well, 1 GPU. Therefore, the GPU is "worth more" by ~+$400 is cash in this case, since it can be used to get you into J that more "cheaply"

At 1c/mile, a GPU upgrade is worth $300 (or more), even for PP upgrades. $700+ to get into J. For an A fare, the cost differential to get into PP seems to hover around $300 extra per leg (it's less for R) TPAC, but seems to be less TATL. So, again, about a $300 or so value for a GPU to get into PP. Business is a lot more now that PP is arrived, so it's worth more to get into J.

Since I use GPU effectively, I value them about the same as a MUA, without the hard cash outlay. While a MUA usually a *horrible* deal for Y->J if P is available, it is not always, especially out of SFO (my home base).

Over on CC, they seem to be valued at 25k miles a pop... so, the swap of a MUA to PP as per the OP for a GPU "isn't too bad", and a strategy I would follow: upgrade with miles for PP, GPU for J.
ryman554 is offline  
Old Jun 15, 2019, 8:45 pm
  #156  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Silicon wasteland
Programs: UA 1KMM
Posts: 1,379
Originally Posted by echelone
I have a W fare for NRT - SFO. PZ = 0, I can get confirmed upgrade to PP immediately if I use GPU and get waitlisted for Polaris.

My preference based on scenarios:
1. PZ>0 -> Use GPU to upgrade to Polaris
2. PZ=0 -> Use MUA to upgrade to PP

I don't want to end up using GPU to upgrade to PP.

If I use miles today to upgrade to PP, and keep monitoring PZ space, can I later on cancel/refund my miles back to W fare if I see PZ>0, and apply GPU to get to Polaris?
Has anybody successfully called MPSC to "swap" the GPU out "after the fact" for miles if only the PP leg clears?

I have done so back in the pmUA days to swap out a SWU for a CR-1 when the domestic leg clears and the international did not....
ryman554 is offline  
Old Jun 16, 2019, 3:57 am
  #157  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 10,904
I paid for PP and tried to apply a mileage upgrade. Barring some changes / cancellations / no-shows, it's not going to clear. So I'm in PP.

It slows me on the PP upgrade list with a green checkmark, as though I had been upgraded to PP (I wasn't; I bought a PP fare). Is this normal? I'm hoping it's just a display bug (they see me in the upgrade list; they see me in a PP seat; they assume I was upgraded) and won't affect my ability to get my miles + copay refunded?

I'm also curious about how the upgrade waitlist works when it goes to the gate. Paid PP is supposed to be ahead of all economy pax. For pre-gate-control upgrades this doesn't really hurt GS because they clear into different space, so even though I'm "ahead" of them, they are going to clear before I do. But at the gate there's no concept of upgrade space. Would I (lowly gold status in PP) really clear ahead of a GS on an economy fare?
VegasGambler is offline  
Old Jun 16, 2019, 6:35 am
  #158  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,299
Originally Posted by ryman554
How do you come to this conclusion?

A MUA for PP is what, 30k miles?
A MUA for J is 30k miles + ~+$400 or so, depending on fare class.
It's not rocket science. OP is talking about a W fare and upgrading to business class on SFO-NRT. That's a $550 co-pay plus 30k miles. Conservatively valuing miles at 1.5 cpm, that's $1000. The cash value of a GPU is around $400 (just check ebay).

The valuation differential holds particularly for those of us who can't use all our GPUs (which is likely the large majority of 1Ks). I would never burn cash for an upgrade when I could use a GPU.

IMO the only time to use an MUA over a GPU is when you have the option of buying a cheaper fare at a substantial discount to a W.
Aussienarelle likes this.

Last edited by Kacee; Jun 16, 2019 at 6:48 am
Kacee is online now  
Old Jun 16, 2019, 8:33 am
  #159  
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
Originally Posted by VegasGambler
It slows me on the PP upgrade list with a green checkmark, as though I had been upgraded to PP (I wasn't; I bought a PP fare). Is this normal? I'm hoping it's just a display bug (they see me in the upgrade list; they see me in a PP seat; they assume I was upgraded) and won't affect my ability to get my miles + copay refunded?
Assuming your fare class is R, yes this is normal, and yes this is a bug. You should be fine on the refund; if any issues point out that R is formerly the Business upgrade class.

Originally Posted by VegasGambler
I'm also curious about how the upgrade waitlist works when it goes to the gate. Paid PP is supposed to be ahead of all economy pax. For pre-gate-control upgrades this doesn't really hurt GS because they clear into different space, so even though I'm "ahead" of them, they are going to clear before I do. But at the gate there's no concept of upgrade space. Would I (lowly gold status in PP) really clear ahead of a GS on an economy fare?
We don't know for sure, but yes you would probably be ahead of GS in Economy. Unlike some, I don't see the problem with this - you voluntarily purchased a higher class of service, and the GS in Y did not. You could just as easily wonder why a lowly Silver on a P fare gets to sit in Polaris when a GS on a full O fare doesn't clear out of PE.

Originally Posted by Kacee
The valuation differential holds particularly for those of us who can't use all our GPUs (which is likely the large majority of 1Ks). I would never burn cash for an upgrade when I could use a GPU.
For me, this is the most obvious issue. Backing out the times I need to buy J outright, I just don't fly overwater often enough to confidently burn all of my GPUs and then some, so the fact that they spoil makes them the obvious choice. Your miles might be good for something another day; you GPUs are never going to be better than an upgrade this year.
findark is offline  
Old Jun 16, 2019, 10:59 am
  #160  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,179
Originally Posted by Kacee
OP is talking about a W fare and upgrading to business class on SFO-NRT. That's a $550 co-pay plus 30k miles. Conservatively valuing miles at 1.5 cpm, that's $1000. The cash value of a GPU is around $400 (just check ebay).
Not quite. The OP was asking about using miles (no co-pay) to upgrade to PP, then monitoring for PZ space and switching to use the GPU if PZ opened. The rationale was that using a GPU to go to PP was a waste, but OP was willing to use the miles for PP.

So, while the GPU might still be less valuable than the miles, it’s not as much of a slam dunk.
jsloan is online now  
Old Jun 16, 2019, 12:24 pm
  #161  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Silicon wasteland
Programs: UA 1KMM
Posts: 1,379
Originally Posted by jsloan

Not quite. The OP was asking about using miles (no co-pay) to upgrade to PP, then monitoring for PZ space and switching to use the GPU if PZ opened. The rationale was that using a GPU to go to PP was a waste, but OP was willing to use the miles for PP.

So, while the GPU might still be less valuable than the miles, it’s not as much of a slam dunk.
That was exactly my analysis. In fact, in this case it's exactly worth more by the $$ copay, since the mileage spent for PP and J are the same.

I would always use miles to get into PP versus a GPU, but I'm lucky in that I am consistently using all of my gpus -- so far. Were that calculus to change, my behavior may change, too.
ryman554 is offline  
Old Jun 16, 2019, 1:20 pm
  #162  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,299
Originally Posted by jsloan
The rationale was that using a GPU to go to PP was a waste, but OP was willing to use the miles for PP.
Yeah I don't agree with that. The GPU has a much shorter shelf-life.

As to the more generic question of using a GPU vs. MUA to upgrade to J (which I understood ryman554 to be asking about), that's not even close.
Kacee is online now  
Old Jun 16, 2019, 2:35 pm
  #163  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 10,904
Originally Posted by findark
Assuming your fare class is R, yes this is normal, and yes this is a bug. You should be fine on the refund; if any issues point out that R is formerly the Business upgrade class.
Actually, I was booked into A.
VegasGambler is offline  
Old Jun 16, 2019, 3:47 pm
  #164  
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SBA
Programs: UA & AA 1 million miler
Posts: 1,134
Originally Posted by jsloan

Yes.


No. Buy whichever is cheaper. In this case, it sounds like that’s the W.
Yes, it's W fare.
When I check PZ availability for the all segments at the same time (A-SFO-NRT-B), SFO-NRT segment shows PZ=0.
However, when I check PZ availability just for SFO-NRT, it shows PZ=9.
So, is the SFO-NRT segment upgradeable by GPU immediately???
MrJBoy is offline  
Old Jun 16, 2019, 4:01 pm
  #165  
Moderator: United Airlines
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.99MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,576
Originally Posted by MrJBoy
However, when I check PZ availability just for SFO-NRT, it shows PZ=9.
So, is the SFO-NRT segment upgradeable by GPU immediately???
yes
R / PZ Avail changes depending on how you search flights
MrJBoy likes this.
WineCountryUA 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.