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Best day of the week to score business upgrade

Best day of the week to score business upgrade

Old Jul 11, 2019, 12:22 am
  #1  
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Best day of the week to score business upgrade

I frequent SFO - FRA and always apply a GPU; my chances of upgrade have been hit or miss as a premier1k. I'm curious to hear about the experiences of other flyers on this route or other long haul routes when it comes to specific days of the week with a higher chance of getting upgraded - all things being equal. Friday and Sunday seem very steep and I'm now leaning twords flying Saturdays (I only fly weekends.) Thoughts anyone?
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Old Jul 11, 2019, 12:54 am
  #2  
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SFO-FRA? midweek is best,
stay away from Thursday, Friday (those returning to FRA / Europe), some return on Saturday
stay away from Saturday, Sunday (those going to FRA / Europe), Monday still a problem,
Tuesday / Wednesday avoids the bulk of business travel

What is your UA status level?

Originally Posted by jjay
...(I only fly weekends.) ...
tought upgrade for 1Ks, impossible for lower

August and holidays can be easier weeks

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jul 11, 2019 at 1:00 am Reason: formatting
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Old Jul 11, 2019, 2:15 am
  #3  
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Tuesday / Wednesday avoids the bulk of business travel
This, on UA and *A partners. We try to start all of our vacations midweek because of this.
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Old Jul 11, 2019, 7:19 am
  #4  
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The Saturday of US holiday weekends (where Monday is not a workday) is passable for TATL upgrades.
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Old Jul 11, 2019, 8:08 am
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Tuesday for long haul to Australia, I actually run out of GPU’s by June on this route
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Old Jul 11, 2019, 8:37 am
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I think Tue/Wed is the answer for every route.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 12:39 pm
  #7  
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Thanks guys
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 12:50 pm
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Tue/Wed departing US.

6 for 6 GPU success when booking 6-8 months in advance. Not everyone can do this, but if you can, great.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 1:22 pm
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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.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 1:24 pm
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I've had very good success on Mon/Tue.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 1:36 pm
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Originally Posted by UAL250
Definitely Tue/Wed. There's plenty of PZ space (for us lowly platinums and below :P)
1Ks also book into PZ.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 2:01 pm
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To go back to the OPs question, Saturday is probably the worst day for SFO-FRA, as if you want to be in the office on Monday in Europe, whether going there or returning there, you need to leave Saturday or earlier. the value of lie-flat seat is to address the time zone shift issue and allow people to leave SFO on Saturday, arrive mid-day Sunday and go to work on Monday.

Those going Sunday will, at a minimum, miss part of the Monday workday and have an even more challenging time-zone shift, so do that but many people the local nights sleep that Saturday departure allows in SFO-FRA. Saturday departure for SFO-FRA/MUC was always my choice with driven by work requirements.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 2:16 pm
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
To go back to the OPs question, Saturday is probably the worst day for SFO-FRA, as if you want to be in the office on Monday in Europe, whether going there or returning there, you need to leave Saturday or earlier. the value of lie-flat seat is to address the time zone shift issue and allow people to leave SFO on Saturday, arrive mid-day Sunday and go to work on Monday.

Those going Sunday will, at a minimum, miss part of the Monday workday and have an even more challenging time-zone shift, so do that but many people the local nights sleep that Saturday departure allows in SFO-FRA. Saturday departure for SFO-FRA/MUC was always my choice with driven by work requirements.
Flying these routes regularly I totally agree. SFO-FRA/MUC on a Saturday or even Sunday my clearance of instruments is dismal at best. I was often having to work and didn't have the ability to fly mid week but as others have stated above it seem like Wed is probably best. I suspect UA may even have published stats on this but I have not looked them up.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 4:02 pm
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Those going Sunday will, at a minimum, miss part of the Monday workday and have an even more challenging time-zone shift, so do that but many people the local nights sleep that Saturday departure allows in SFO-FRA. Saturday departure for SFO-FRA/MUC was always my choice with driven by work requirements.
Sunday is also a popular day for going to Europe; if your office or client site is served nonstop from the US then you can usually arrive in the morning and make a slightly later (10am or so) morning meeting, and then have more than half the weekend at home. It was an easy choice for me when aligning with colleagues flying in first thing Monday morning from nearby in Europe.
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Old Jul 12, 2019, 8:28 pm
  #15  
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