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Best day of the week to score business upgrade

Best day of the week to score business upgrade

Old Jul 13, 2019, 3:51 am
  #16  
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Originally Posted by UAL250
Definitely Tue/Wed. There's plenty of PZ space (for us lowly platinums and below :P) out of IAD and ORD (and even SFO and EWR on some routes) for most flights to Europe on those two days.
I rarely see any PZ space in advance, whatever day of the week. PN space is possible if you are willing to take literally any route from the West Coast to Europe - ti shows up about once a week, but nowadays PZ available weeks or months in advance is not happening (summer season apart).
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 6:04 am
  #17  
 
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Tuesday and Wednesday are definitely best, but you can get lucky and find it on other days if you are willing to burn some time searching various flights on the UA website. I found ORD-BRU with PZ9 on a summer Friday, as an example.
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 10:04 am
  #18  
 
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And then there are the outliers. NRT-ORD yesterday went out with about 10 free seats in C. I was shocked.
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 11:28 am
  #19  
Ari
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Generally the way it works is as follows:

Monday: International flights for business travelers and consultant commute day-- increased demand
Tuesday: Normal day
Wednesday: Normal day
Thursday: International flights for business travelers and majority consultant commute day and begin weekend travel-- increased demand
Friday: International flights for business travelers and straggler consultant commute day and weekend travel-- increased demand
Saturday: Weekend travel and international flights for business travelers-- increased demand
Sunday: Weekend travel and international flights for business travelers-- increased demand

That applies to US domestic flights and many international routes as well. Accordingly, Tue and Wed are the best days to fly when it comes to availability of any space, be it revenue, upgrade or award. There are always exceptions based on events or possibly specific routes, but I think virtually everyone in the travel industry and most experienced posters here will tell you that Tue/Wed is the rule of thumb unless there is something else to go by.
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 11:49 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by Ari
but I think virtually everyone in the travel industry and most experienced posters here will tell you that Tue/Wed is the rule of thumb unless there is something else to go by.
Agreed. The only thing that I would add is that Saturday -- especially Saturday evening -- is often good for domestic upgrades, since most business travelers will have the option to fly either Friday night (returning home) or Sunday/Monday morning (heading out).
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 2:33 pm
  #21  
Ari
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Originally Posted by jsloan
Agreed. The only thing that I would add is that Saturday -- especially Saturday evening -- is often good for domestic upgrades, since most business travelers will have the option to fly either Friday night (returning home) or Sunday/Monday morning (heading out).
Yeah, that too. Premium domestic space at less of a premium on weekends, especially Sat.
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 3:38 pm
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by jsloan
Agreed. The only thing that I would add is that Saturday -- especially Saturday evening -- is often good for domestic upgrades, since most business travelers will have the option to fly either Friday night (returning home) or Sunday/Monday morning (heading out).
X 2 , the problem is at this time of year with storms and re routes predictability goes out of the window, same per a major mechanical
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