cheltenhamflyer

Until a few days ago it was for me but following the receipt of my gpu certs for 2017/18 it has gone away. Trying to find upgradeable fares results in "mileage plus upgrades only" !!! Strangely if I try to find upgrade fares for domestic rather than international flights both RPU/ GPU upgrades are shown. . United IT at its best?

transportprof

I think you should do two separate searches. The first (in Expert mode) is to hunt for R space. Use segment specific searches for the gateways and destinations you're interested in e.g., SFO-ICN; SFO-NRT; SFO-TPE, etc. Then once you've found R space in this search, do a booking restricting your fares to "Q,V, W". Once your ticket is issued in one of these fares, log in and click "Redeem Upgrade" and apply your GPUs pronto.

WineCountryUA

And others are stilling clearing the waitlist GPU upgrade SUCCESS 2016
But others are not GPU Failure Report 2014-2016 and "Upgrade certificates are useless nowadays" - Hah!
Finding W fare should be easy for any RT booked at least 2 - 3 weeks prior to travel. The reason for putting W or W, V in the flight search is to make sure sure you get at least a W fare and not something lower.

If you are not finding W, V for RTs with some advance purchase, something else is wrong.

That is not surprizing. BTW you can not search for R as a fare in the flight search. You can search for upgrades with miles or GPU or use Expert Mode to manually search.

tomwhom

Thank you very much! I did find a few flights either via TYO Q with R5 or ICN V R6 for March flight and price is reasonable. If I buy the fare and apply GPU, can it be cleared immediately or I have to call UA to clear? I don't want to call since I'm on Thanksgiving vacation in SE Asia now. I may have to get back to US to buy the ticket. I think I can try and if not I may just cancel?

WineCountryUA

Yes for segments with R>0

Cancel with in 24 hours for free / full refund

Are you booking a OW or RT?

tomwhom

RT

Kacee

For TPACs it's a very good idea to include Q in the search parameters, especially if there's a Japan segment and/or an OJ . . . it's not uncommon to bump into fare combinability issues if you restrict to V and W. (I run the full string - Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W - because that's most likely to generate a result.)

tomwhom

Thanks and hopefully H/Q sometimes doesn't command a big premium vs V/W.

weero

Q often prices within the vicinity of V for travel to Asia but H quite consistently commands a steep premium for my travels.
But it also offers a lot of flexibility and can be readily combined .. something I often miss with B fares which often do not even have better availability than H.

Historically also, Q,H,M, and B (and of course Y) have dramatically increased your chances to clear a waitlisted upgrade. That advantage has been eroded nearly entirely.

Windchill 1k

Tried to use GPU's for last week of March. Stress tried, I entered 45 different city combinations and all waitlisted. Empty seating charts and 9's near every fare code except P in expert mode. it could be timing or perception but it seems that ever since Polaris was loaded into the website, the certificates are waitlisted and no inventory of Saver B-Class anywhere internationally on UA metal coming out of ORD. The domestic connections are all mixed cabin. Frustrating - I even spent half a day looking in June and July.

arisaa

I got a question. Shouldn't a GPU trump a battlefield upgrade? I had a friend wait listed for an upgrade via GPU that did not clear but a bunch of people cleared by CPU. Is that right?

laxmillenial

How do you know they cleared by CPU? They could've been using instruments such as RPU/GPU as well, no?

WineCountryUA

Any waitlisted GS (including CPU) will clear over a non GS on a GPU.
Any 1K with a Y or B will clear over a non GS on a GPU if this is a CPU route.
Any person on GPU/RPU/miles with higher status will clear first or same status but higher fare will clear first or same status, same fare but checked in earlier will clear first.

PPM

I started a post a week ago about 1Ks and the inability to use GPUs and RDUs. I have come to realize these instruments are no longer worth anything unless you really want to gamble at the gate. As recently as 5 years ago, if I had flexibility of a day or two, I could always use a GPU internationally, and the RPUs were widely available. I find the most frustration with the RPUs. I have never had one clear on a flight that I really want to use it for. I'm like Stubidoo in that they have no value anymore. They should just get ride of them because all they are is a waitlist at the gate. I just tried again to use one between RDU and ORD and no upgrades were available even though the first cabins for the entire days were unbooked. It is really disingenuous, and I no longer fly united internationally in order to accrue miles and these perks because they aren't perks.

selo

It really depends on the routes. I have been 1K for a few years now and have been close to 100% successful on my RPUs/GPUs.

For example, LAX-GIG in July (before Olympics) all four legs, LAX-HNL three RTs, LAX-FLL RT, LAX-LHR RT.

Most, if not all, of these were pre-Polaris announcement and this may change in the future.

On a side note, I flew UA1158 on Nov 15 LAX-HNL and back on UA534 on Nov 21, and both 777-200 had the new lie-flats, although 8-across. No complaints; my RPUs cleared on ticketing. :-)