Upgrading one segment of flight?
 

Hi - I have paid premium eco flights (MEL -> SFO -> BOS). For my wife and I and 3 teenagers.

Two award saver business seats have opened up on the MEL->SFO leg.

When I go to the upgrade section of the flight, it lists the upgrade as being 30k miles + $450, but both segments are waitlisted.

I don't have any status with United.

Do you think it's likely that my upgrade request from MEL->SFO will clear right away?

I guess my other option is to try to cancel the tickets for my wife and I, and book the award saver seats directly, althought the price for the SFO->BOS leg is now expensive.

Thoughts? Thanks.

If it says it will waitlist, no. Award and upgrade inventory are separate. The presence of one does not indicate the existence of the other.


If you go this route, book the new tickets before you cancel the old ones just in case something doesn't go through. What happens if you try to book an award MEL-SFO-BOS? If it comes up as a mixed-cabin itinerary, you can waitlist for the front cabin on the SFO-BOS segment for no extra charge.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer me a mixed-cabin itinerary if I try to book MEL-SFO-BOS. Probably because there are not any saver economy award flights for the SFO-BOS leg.

call it in. An agent might be able to leave the X you have for SFO-BOS and add the MEL-SFO in I while waitlisting SFO-BOS.

Will be YMMV situation. But I'd try it for sure.

Just to close the loop on this one:

I called in and the agent offered to cancel the first segment (which is the long pacific flight). She had to reprice the ticket, and after consulting with the pricing desk, said that I would not get any form of refund if I cancelled the first segment!!

Since there was a schedule change I went ahead and requested the full cash refund of the whole flight. Then I booked with miles the pacific flight. And I will book with cash the domestic flight.

So assuming I actually get the cash refund it will work out ok.