I have never heard of that "published" XN->O->PZ scheme.....

Maybe it's something new to learn?

Thanks. Seems reasonable to me. Appreciate your thoughts!

Points Plus change flight
 

Have some PP to burn, plan to transfer to my son. He can see PZ > 0 on SFO-LHR route but the date is not ideal. My question is if PZ space becomes available on a more desirable day, can he simply initiate the change and the PP/upgrade will clear, automatically or will the PP come back to me and I have to go through the process again?

That is the normal process

Fascinating discussion re this "back door" to what I understand is a "less PP; more likely" Polaris UG. Have I got that right?

So, I ran a couple of test bookings and found HUGE variation in the $$ price for a paid UG from YN > PE (did not see fare class). For example, LAX-MEL: only ~ $800 vs. BNE-SFO ~$3,600. But I had to do fake bookings and then cancel (inside 24 h of course) to see these. Obviously, it would be nice not to have to do that and choose the transpac leg based on what the ultimate PE UG will cost.

Is there any way to find out what the PE UG will price at PRIOR to purchasing?

Thanks as always for the FT wisdom.

Lurker :)

Cheapest flights should have R space available, and I am fairly sure the offer price depends only on the specific segment you are upgrading and its inventory (i.e. if LAX-MEL is $800, it will be $800 whether flying nonstop or part of DEN-LAX-MEL).

However, I believe you have to buy a ticket to see - which you can refund of course.

Thanks Findark, I dug a bit deeper based on your proposal.

Both the MEL-LAX leg for $800 and the SFO-BNE for $3600 have similar space in PE (R9; A9; O9; ON9; RN0).
They are also very similar prices if bought outright (2k) so we're going to need another way to try to sort out the likely price of an XN/YN to R UG

(And I'm looking only at the TransPac legs in each case)

??

Lurker :)

If SFO-BNE is $3,600 to PE even with R9, my guess is that you will never see a good offer on that route. It's fairly new and it's possible they haven't put in a reasonable table yet. Just guesswork though.

Something odd is going on.

Applied PP. My iPhone UA app shows "waitlist" but laptop united.com shows nothing.

I tried to remove PP request online, and got an error message.

Am I waitlisted?

United is making it easier than I expected to get over my grief of dropping from 1K to Gold next February. The problem: They've devalued PlusPoints far below mileage awards.

I have 180 PP to burn. Last month, I booked BNE-LAX, one way, in January in L class. PZ, miraculously, was open, so I confirmed the upgrade for 80 PP.

I had planned to burn AA miles to get from the U.S. to Sydney this December. However, PZ just opened up on SFO-SYD.

If I book LAX-SFO-SYD/BNE-LAX, it's only a $150 add-collect. But if I change my existing booking to add the outbound without disturbing the upgrades return, United wants an extra $1100.

The problem is that, today, PZ on BNE-LAX disappeared. It's still PN9 and IN9, but PZ went from 7 to 0 within an hour, after being PZ7 for a week.

So, if I make a new open-jaw booking, I'll confirm the outbound upgrade but lose the return. And I just don't feel like taking the risk of a standby upgrade, and losing my bulkhead Polaris window seat, on a 14-hour flight.

What gets me is that IN is wide-open, but PZ is 0. Until about a year ago, PZ always had at least as much inventory as IN. Now, United seems to have switched the two, treating PP as an afterthought. (I wonder if PP have to be accounted for as a liability, like miles?)

It seems odd to devalue a core perk of higher-tier status like that. But, as someone with a lot of miles and soon to be no PlusPoints, United has helped me feel better about not chasing higher status.

“IN = PN while PZ=0” has been going on for long while, see this thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...than-i-12.html

PN=9 is a good indicator for PZ even though there is a small risk that you lose your preferred Polaris seat.

I bit the bullet, canceled my existing BNE-LAX one way, and immediately rebooked the open-jaw, LAX-SFO-SYD/BNE-LAX. I checked that SFO-SYD was still PZ3 before doing so.

I had trouble rebooking because united.com was still mispricing the ticket when I tried to rebook using my credit. After a few minutes, I gave up on the credit and booked the ticket separately.

BNE-LAX confirmed in Polaris. SFO-SYD did not. In the five minutes that I struggled to rebook with my existing flight credit, the PZ disappeared.

I called UA to ask for help. A 1K agent assured me I could get an instant confirmation as soon as I booked into W. She was, of course, wrong.

I'll have to figure out what I do next, but it's not going to be aiming for 1K.

IN/PN=9 … I’d wait a few days, these tend to clear.

Unfortunately, it went to P9, PN0..., so I'm not in that position.

PP timing question
 

(Mods please move this to the right thread if this is misplaced)

I have 120 points that expire at the end of January ‘24 and 40 points that expire at the end of January ‘25.

I have trips/upgrade requests in December and January that will consume all 120 points that expire at the end of Jan ‘24. I want to apply the “January ‘25 expiration” 40 PP I have against two trips I have in February ‘24. Each of these trips would require 40 PP (80 total) so I know I won’t get both.

My question: as long as I haven’t “over-requested” PP that expire Jan ‘24, I’m not at risk of messing up the Dec ‘23/Jan ‘24 requests, right? (These are much higher priority for me). Since those PP expire in Jan ‘24, they couldn’t be used to fulfill the 80 PP request for the February flights if space opens on those first, correct?



Thanks!