Originally Posted by nycflyer222 (Post 35410943)

I am booked on DEN-SFO-SIN in ~2 weeks. I booked end of May and requested upgrade (UA Plat, UA CC holder, S class). The J cabin has been filling up quickly the past few days. My DEN-SFO segment cleared a few days ago and 80 PP subtracted... at what point would you give up and book a different trip? I don't want to fly to Asia in Y, and I don't want to wait until the last minute to see if the upgrade clears. What would you do? It's a shame that PlusPoints are basically useless.

Originally Posted by cfischer (Post 35411022)

If not cleared at T-24 I would look for SDC ops with available PZ ...

Originally Posted by nycflyer222 (Post 35410943)

I am booked on DEN-SFO-SIN in ~2 weeks. I booked end of May and requested upgrade (UA Plat, UA CC holder, S class). The J cabin has been filling up quickly the past few days. My DEN-SFO segment cleared a few days ago and 80 PP subtracted... at what point would you give up and book a different trip? I don't want to fly to Asia in Y, and I don't want to wait until the last minute to see if the upgrade clears. What would you do? It's a shame that PlusPoints are basically useless.

Originally Posted by DELee (Post 35411152)

Agree with jsloan and cfisher - PPs are not useless but have to be applied properly.

Putting down 80 PPs for DEN-SFO-SIN is a bad idea. You lose 80 PPs on DEN-SFO and get nothing for SFO-SIN. Applying 80 PPs for SFO-SIN is better but making the jump from Y-to-J is very very unlikely.

As noted over in the upgrade thread(s), buying or using award miles to start in Y, looking for a decent buyup (cash or miles) to PremierPlus (premier economy) and then applying PPs to your PremierPlus leg/seats to be waitlisted for J is a much better approach - if you're flying UA longhaul metal.

David

Originally Posted by nycflyer222 (Post 35411162)

If I cancel the rez, will the 80PP be refunded even though the domestic segment has cleared?

Originally Posted by DELee (Post 35411152)

Putting down 80 PPs for DEN-SFO-SIN is a bad idea. You lose 80 PPs on DEN-SFO and get nothing for SFO-SIN. Applying 80 PPs for SFO-SIN is better but making the jump from Y-to-J is very very unlikely.

Originally Posted by jsloan (Post 35411196)

Well, to be clear, if DEN-SFO clears but SFO-SIN does not, 60 of the 80 will be returned anyway. UA deducts the maximum necessary number of PlusPoints when any one segment clears, so that you don’t end up running out, and then refunds any that are necessary if the higher-valued upgrades don’t clear.

But I still agree that 20 PlusPoints for DEN-SFO isn’t a great use of them unless they’re about to expire.

Originally Posted by nycflyer222 (Post 35411590)

I have 220 PP expiring on 7/31 so hoping to use them for something good. Any ideas for int'l spots with cheap UA fares end of July? Can originate anywhere in US.

Originally Posted by simonoaks (Post 35375067)

Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice/ help.

Update: Looking to use up my 280 PP by 31st July, so only interested in open PZ EWR- ANY European airport. Searching 2 hrs a day every day for last 4 weeks ( and getting session time out blocks all the freaking time). Booked Flight for wife and Daughter PBI-EWR-MUC-ATH for early July PZ open EWR-MUC. Paid $100 each to upgrade them on LH MUC-ATH. They are doing 10 night cruise ATH-NAP.

I need to meet them in NAP as we are all going on a 7 night cruise NAP-NAP,
There was never any EWR to Italy PZ open on 18th,19th or 20TH July (cruise sails 22nd July)
So, originally booked flight PBI-EWR-MUC-FCO
Then 4 days later, found a better schedule of PBI-EWR-ZRH-NAP, except it had a 7 hr layover ZHR to NAP.
Yesterday PZ2 opened EWR-NAP on 18th July, so changed booking again to PBI-EWR-NAP , RESULT !
So, after literally over 700 manual searches over 4 weeks, I have most of the puzzle solved.
Only thing left to fix is that have booked J class on 1st Aug using 155k miles for FCO-EWR-PBI as there was no PZ space open on 31st July for ANY European city (27 of them) to EWR.
I will now search daily for 31st July for PZ on any euro airport - EWR and if I find something, cancel the miles trip.

It is exhausting lol

Originally Posted by nycflyer222 (Post 35411590)

I have 220 PP expiring on 7/31 so hoping to use them for something good. Any ideas for int'l spots with cheap UA fares end of July? Can originate anywhere in US.

Originally Posted by Kmxu (Post 35411719)

Also look for flights with PN9 such as IAD-HND-IAD. PZ may be open after you request for PP upgrade. Good luck!

Add: July 17-19 (many other days in late July) have PZ spaces on IAD-HND.

Originally Posted by cbirch18 (Post 35420515)

Quick question - I might face a misconnect on my USA-Germany leg connecting onward to another locale in Europe.

If I misconnect on an LH ticket with cleared business upgrade, how can I ensure I'll be rebooked into another ititnerary also in J?

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA (Post 35421262)

Not sure I understand the request.
Which leg is upgraded? Which leg are you concerned about? Who are the flight operators of the legs? Who created the irrop situation?