The GPU conversion for me could be huge as I virtually never "roll the dice" anymore. I use my GPUs as RPUs so from my read I can now get 2 RPUs for one GPU. For the last several years GPU/RPUs for me were basically one in the same.

I doubt many GS GPUs will be "stolen." I suspect that either the StW amounts will be high enough that you can only do it a few times before you run out, or that StW availability will be constrained enough that most GSes never notice.

I promise you this: if UA thought that this would have a markedly negative impact on GS members, in favor of 1Ks -- they wouldn't have introduced it.

Devaluation was already in play with doling out of fewer RPUs... so overall, this is transparent for time being with much greater flexibility.

Based on the video, PLus Points are not actually removed until used, where used = flight taken.
So you should not lose them in this scenario.

Still waiting to hear about 2020 reservations that already have GPU's applied but are waitlisted.... Will you take away domestic "points" now if the Polaris segment never clears??

Upgrades
 

What happens to your points if you have to cancel a flight for health reasons? Do you lose them now? You would get
upgrade certs back under the present program.

Lots of information on this thread and on the website. I appreciate it. I have a few thoughts right now:

1. Put me down as super unhappy about not being able to add domestic segments to a cleared upgrade on the long haul. I have no desire to "waste" 20 PPs just for the hope that the long haul clears The old system of getting the GPU (in this case PPs) back should remain.

2. I am still not convinced that SDC'ing a flight that has a confirmed PP upgrade will get the PPs back if you fly in your original coach class. The FAQ on the United site is very clear:

Can I cancel a confirmed upgrade request?

You will not be able to cancel PlusPoints requests that have received upgrades.

When you SDC your flight you are, in effect, cancelling your upgrade. Today you can get your RPU/GPU back but that won't be allowed with PP. But OK, let's assume United lets us SDC flights and get the PPs back. Remember: you can now waitlist upgrades within 24 hours. So after SDC'ing you can feel free to go back in and re-request a PP upgrade.

The more I think about this FAQ question, the more I wish it was clarified that they mean "...but you still fly on the flights you booked." It's sounding like upgrade requests can't be cancelled after confirmed but _can_ be refunded if you do not take the flight (e.g. SDC, refund the ticket, etc.).

3. Does anyone know how expiration will work with flights after January 31 of the expiring year? I've not tried in a long time but I think you can confirm a GPU flight if PZ is open and the flight is after Jan 31 but the cert expires on Jan 31. Maybe they closed this loophole already? How about with PPs? Can we confirm an upgrade with PPs expiring Jan 31 for flights after Jan 31?

4. Lots of people worried about Skip the Waitlist but I don't see this having a big effect at all for a few reasons:
a. I think most people book within 30 days. (BTW, I suspect this will be the first "enhancement" to the program. United will remove or shrink the 30 day requirement for Skip the Waitlist. I'm still baffled why the limited it to 30+ days in the first place as they should want people to burn their PPs).
b. People generally who book 30+ days out are booking the cheapest fare (G, K, etc.). But StW still requires W+ (the "old" GPU way). The StW pricing is going to be astronomical (my guess) to upgrade these fares so it's likely half or more of a 1Ks PP account will be blown on the upgrade. This leaves the number of requests for StW very small IMO.

5. FT wanted the ability to use "double GPUs" to upgrade the cheap fares. You got your wish. I think it's an enhancement and I like the change overall. Just remember, upgrades are still prioritized by status and fare class so the old school folks buying "W" fares will still beat the "S/T/L/K/G" fares. But at least the possibility of the upgrade is there. Just silly, again, that you can't waitlist just the international segment and then add the domestic later. I see a lot of 20 point PP redemptions being used on domestic flights where the international leg never clears on these lower fare classes.

6. I appreciate the change in upgrades from PremPlus to Polaris. I've been buying a lot of PP fares lately (price differential is really not that bad and the 150% PQM is nice). So if I do this four times (2 R/Ts) I basically save an entire GPU for a coach fare.

I will have lots of other questions and will keep an eye on the wiki. Appreciate the feedback from UA Insider as well.

-RM

It appears based on what UAInsider said in the other post that confirmed upgrades would still be refundable in the event that you end up making an itinerary change for the ticket, or canceling the ticket to reuse later. I got scared for a second because I misunderstood that!
It makes sense that the "skip the waitlist" upgrade points (I would assume just the "extra" points for skipping) would not be refundable -- just like you can't get the money back when you accept a cash offer for an upgrade at check-in or at booking. Everyone will need to make their own calculation whether it is a good "price" for the upgrade.

Do we know whether the way the waitlist works remains unchanged? (status, then as tie-breakers fare class, United Club card holders, time of request)
Any hope (or fear, depending on who you are - in my case, it's hope, since I've lost many upgrades to other people lower on the waitlist being sneaky), that the waitlist system has been fixed and upgrade sniping won't work anymore?

[MENTION=25295]RobOnLI[/MENTION] -- to your third point, you cannot currently upgrade with an instrument beyond its expiration date. Sometimes they'll extend GPUs if you requalified, but we don't know whether this will still happen now after the conversion to PlusPoints - the logic being that now it's easier to use up your points...
The plus points from converted existing GPUs and RPUs will have the exact same expiration date as those instruments.

My tentative first read of them is that they might be a good thing. Which means I'm missing something. :p

Seriously, though I know the "Skip the Waitlist" thing is always going to be an offer on a flight you'd have probably cleared anyway but will require double the points, for someone like me who often doesn't use all of his GPUs in a year (or has to have 2 extended), I'm kind of OK with that. Even my Wednesday flight GPUs waitlist anymore it seems; I haven't seen open inventory on routes I travel in ages, though I have also always cleared the international segments (if not the domestic ones, which I've missed many times, even on Wednesdays).

Finally, apologies if it's been considered earlier in the thread (I read the initial leak yesterday, then have been without internet much of today and just wrapped up a read-through of the program via the e-mail UA sent and the site), but will GPUs which are expiring on 1/31/20 convert to PointsPlus points that expire 1/31/20, or I wonder if UA will extend 80 of them (like they would extend 2 GPUs)? Guess it's a "wait and see" thing...

Agreed, although it depends on the route. Smaller outstation to hub, and yeah, you're going to get dinged those 20 point redemptions a lot. For hub-to-hub domestic segments (like IAD-SFO for a lot of the Asia routes), I routinely fail to ever clear the domestic segment on those.


Agreed again. I have explicitly sought out PremPlus routes as I know that (1) if I don't clear, I'm still in PremPlus; (2) I'm higher up the list to clear; and (3) I get 150% PQM for often not a lot more $$.

@RobOnLI For one of your points, I don't think you can't skip the waitlist from a cheap K, I think you still need W or above

No official word. GPU/RPU conversion to Points on 12/4 will still expire on January 31, 2020 assuming the cert also expired then. If you have already made it to Plat/1K based on qualification and you have some RPU/GPU expiring January 31, 2021 then an equivalent number of PPs for those certs will expire Jan 31, 2021.

As for the extension...UA Insider won't say and it doesn't sound like it's up to them (yet). Typically the availability of extension doesn't open until Nov/Dec. We'll have to wait and see. But my guess is this won't be announced/available until after Dec 4 when all of the points have been added to accounts.

-RM

Absolutely correct. I missed that. StW requires W+ (just how GPU's work today). I corrected my post. So 30+ days out you still have to book a more expensive coach fare than what is probably the cheapest available and you get to burn 2x or more PlusPoints).

-RM

The target for the StW feature is 1K leisure travel. They do not want people using them on business travel. Hence, the 30-day advance purchase requirement. It's unlikely to be adjusted away unless / until they make StW dynamic.

I would have really liked to have them do the upgrade from Premium Plus to Business be 20 instead of 30. It would follow more of a pattern and allow Platinum members two international upgrades a year from PP to Polaris.

Also then it would be United Economy to Premium Plus 20, Premium Plus to Polaris 20, and if you want to go form United Economy to Polaris it is 40 (as it is) which is the sum of the two.

Now as a Platinum if I do 1 upgrade from Premium Plus to Polaris Business I'll have 10 points left over, which I can't do anything with. So if I look for confirmable space I have no incentive to buy Premium Plus as I can just use 40 points to go from Economy to Polaris. However if they had made it 20 points then I'd have an incentive to buy a round trip Premium Plus ticket as I could upgrade the round-trip using Plus Points.