ani90

Upgraded passengers also pay for their J seats either directly or indirectly. It would be shortsighted, I think, to look at the mode of payment, upgrade status, or fare class for the J seat as reflective of cost or value from either passenger or airline perspective.

Indeed as OP states they buy Polaris tickets multiple times a year and that is their 'payment' (as are the miles they are using up); and from a business perspective he is likely more valuable and has 'paid' more for the seat than the occasional J flyer who 'paid' in cash. There is a reason why high status elites are ranked above paid J flyers by many airlines.

Should note also that part of the reason why non- US J cabins are not packed with upgraded passengers is a relative paucity of high level elites and (?blindly) loyal customers. I have been surprised to get operational upgrades on Star Alliance carriers a few times just for being Star Gold and wondered how come the Star airline did not have elites of their own to upgrade. I suspect it would be rare, if not unknown, for a non-UA elite to get an operational upgrade on United.
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simonmason

Thanks, I hadn't actually thought about the idea of booking the tickets and then cancelling to free the upgrades at the last minute. I can see why that would annoy them. I did check the PN/S inventory when I booked and everything was zeroed out months ago. So I think I may just redeposit the miles and pay for the tickets.

escapefromphl

Yeah which airlines are those? Most of the European and ME airlines offer upgrades these days, there may be a few state sponsored airlines not doing so but the number is shrinking...

MatthewLAX

To repeat. Don't do this. Accounts have been closed and miles garnished for lesser offenses.

rkaradi

How would rev management look at the OP buying Polaris on a different flight same day. How bad would that be if one of the two sets of flights were cancelled?

WineCountryUA

Yes, UA can / has detected reservations on different flights and canceled one if it would be "impossible" to actual take both -- see the referenced thread for examples.

uanj

Do you mind changing planes in BOS? I was playing around wiht flights to LHR last week and EWR had no upgrade space but BOS did.

Poorly. The COC specifically prohibits booking flights which you do not intend to or cannot take. Booking duplicate flights with different departure times run the risk of one of them being canceled, at best. It has happened to me, as a GS, when our corporate travel agent thought she was doing a good thing by trying to protect me. At worst, the account may be in jeopardy for reasons already well covered.

cfischer

I would wait. LHR flights are not that busy right now. Worse come to worse you can SDC to another flight that has PN available. I would risk it.

VegasGambler

If you really want the backup just book it on another airline.

ani90

Not sure where you get that impression from. All the six flights from EWR to LHR tonight are fully sold in Economy; two are fully sold in all cabins, others have availability in J of 1 or 2. My experience the last month on EWR-LHR has been aircraft going without a single empty seat...

benewr

Which doesn’t mean upgrades aren’t processed.

cfischer

Looks like pretty much everyone has cleared already for tonight, except NRSAs. Monday night has a ton of I (!) available, let alone PN. It is really not that hard to clear to/from LHR right now to be honest ... and that is for a 1K. Should be a piece of cake for a GS.

RASEWR

why not cancel the mileage award tickets, buy revenue J tickets, and watch for PN space? If PN shows up, then rebook award tickets, upgrade, and cancel revenue ticket?

fumje

If you book revenue J you'll make PN less likely to open.

txaggiemiles

I don’t really understand why everyone jumped down your throat. It was obvious what you were saying from the get go.