Paid upgrade segment fare coding
 

If one purchases a pre-departure upgrade on a segment of a UA ticket, how is the fare class of that segment coded? E.g., if I upgrade my A-B segment from T (coach) to R (premium plus), does that segment now, for all means and purposes, have the R fare class?

The reason I’m asking this is to understand whether one could, after this paid upgrade, apply for a PlusPoint upgrade from R to PZ, i.e., business class cabin.

Unless the ticket has been refared (which requires a reissue), it has an R booking code but the underlying fare remains the same. The upgrade system uses the current booking code in the PNR to determine upgrade priority and the cost of the upgrade (so buying a "sticker upgrade"/premium cabin upsell (PCU) to premium plus in R would then require 30 plus points to upgrade that segment further).

Thank you for confirming.

Indeed, that’s how it ended up working; the PCU made it possible to use 30 PPs to (waitlist) for J upgrade.

Now, I hope that clears. My last three flights (EWR-FRA, among them) were absolutely packed and only one upgrade request (to any premium cabin) cleared.