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did united ever offer complimentary upgrades on international routes?

did united ever offer complimentary upgrades on international routes?

Old Jul 26, 2019, 7:52 am
  #61  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: PHL
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, Marriott Gold, IHG Platinum, Raddison Platinum, Avis Presidents Club
Posts: 5,259
The only Intl CPU I ever got was back when I was only gold on NRT-GUM and was the only one in the entire F cabin. Pilot (in a tropical shirt) actually came out and shook my hand and thanked me. FA was very friendly and spent a long time describing the meal options and her recommendations and even asked when during the flight I'd like my meal.. That was before Jeff's reign. (Didn't get a CPU on the return)

After that, I rose to 1K and only flew intl routs with R/PZ availability.

It is not clear to me if you refer to CPU or OPups.
My parents are Gold and non status. They've gotten upgrades on HKG-SIN and LHR-ORD. My mom alone (gold) has gotten upgraded on ORD-PEK more than once but I can't say that is too surprising. One upgrade was in the past year on a polaris seat.
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Old Jul 26, 2019, 9:12 am
  #62  
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: BWI
Programs: AA Gold, HH Diamond, National Emerald Executive, TSA Disparager Gold
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Originally Posted by spin88
The old model was to charge for upgrades via certs and give you 4 500 mile certs for every 10,000 miles you flew. I recall this on UA in the mid-90s. In the mid-90s a few airlines which were in distress started programs of doing upgrades if you were on a top fare grade; i.e. a "Y-up" or "B-Up" fare (I think TWA was the first, and that had a lot to do with the weirdo deal left over from Carl Ikon's take over of them).

CO, shortly followed by NW, after this started offering " unlimited elite upgrades" to domestic first. The difference was the "unlimited" part. In CO's case it was because of financial distress, and NW then followed them. HP was close to CO/NW at the time, and I think they adopted their policies in an effort to get traffic from their elites. I am trying to recall when Alaska started giving upgrades, and as I recall it was in this very early time frame, as I recall getting an upgrade to Mexico in the late 90s. I think Delta was the last airline to offer them, and then it was a response when they went into BKR in the 2001-2 period.

UA and AA kept using certs, until the bottom fell out of the travel market c2008. However,by the mid-2000s both had started doing "Y-up" fares. But it was only the 2008 crash that finally caused them to give up on certs and go with "elite upgrades" They were losing too much high value Y traffic to airlines who would then put you into First.
I remember reading on here years ago that someone had a crazy itinerary . The total distance between origin and destination was under 500 miles, but the routing was really crazy and involved 2 TPAC segments between to NRT or ICN. UA's system was dumb at the time and it calculated e500s needed between OD. Long story short, the person ended up using 1 e500 to upgrade a whole trip since all flights had availability, and got into F on the TPAC segments.

Probably the greatest exploitation of e500s I've ever seen on any airline.
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