It's possible that this has already been discussed somewhere in the last 24 pages, but what I'm wondering is this:
- If I waitlist for an upgrade to a Polaris cabin on an itinerary that is, say, DEN-SFO-FRA, can I apply that waitlist only to the SFO-FRA flight?
- If the answer to above is "yes", then can I add a waitlist for PZ to the DEN-SFO segment as soon as the SFO-FRA leg clears, without having any additional points deducted?

This would be similar to the current situation with award travel, where often you find a mixed itinerary with the domestic leg in Y and the international leg in J, and you can add a waitlisted segment for domestic F.

Yes.
No.

Bummer... Wonder why not? Certainly the capability is there, and you're not asking for anything that you wouldn't have otherwise been given (other than a slight amount less risk).

Not if I beat you to it ; )

jsloan you are having a very busy morning! And thank you.

GS was an afterthought in this process and GS will be squeezed as there is more competition for Upgrades

Because they've decided to pass the risk factor to the customer. Previously, they didn't have a way to dock you a partial GPU. Now they do.

I promise you, GS is never an afterthought in any UA process.

The only published guidance suggests that the new rules will apply, but I'd hope that UA grandfathers existing requests under the current rule. If they do, this would likely have to be on an individual exception basis, much as they did with crediting previously-booked P fares at 200% PQM.

This is a situation where, if I had this fact pattern, I would write in asking nicely if there could be a grandfathering exception. All rules are subject to change but asking nicely if there could be an exception since you applied a GPU before the notification yesterday could not hurt. The worst they could do is say no.

He has the patience of a saint. All these questions and I just want to scream READ THE WIKI!

I am confused, are you referring to BEFORE or AFTER the upgrade clears? or both?
You said "the request is dropped" and using the word "request" sounds like BEFORE. However, then you say "PlusPoints would be refunded". If I understand correctly, points are only deducted once the upgrade clears. If the request hasn't cleared yet, then points are never deducted so there is no refund. Therefore, I assume you are referring to AFTER the request clears. So if and upgrade CLEARS and THEN I decide to do a SDC, regular change, or cancel, I still get points refunded? What about IRROPS?

Same question, do you refer to BEFORE or AFTER the upgrade clears or both? Now, I can call in and cancel and upgrade request BEFORE it clears. I can also call in and cancel and upgrade AFTER it clears (assuming my original booking class is still available). AFAIK, we could never self-service cancel an upgrade before or after clearing online, this has always required a call. Is this changing?

Is it still not refundable if I SDC, do a regular change, or cancel? What about IRROPS?

Allowing SkipWait on PS would be nice but I guess that upgrade will remain impossible. Or any non CPU flight (ie EWR-HNL) :)

Speaking of Skip Waitlist, can you tell us which inventory bucket this falls into?


Yes, UA Insider said UA is not implementing changes to upgrade availability as a result of PlusPoints which means less to go around on GPU flights since Plats can now upgrade where they previously could not. Yes GS/1K can now convert GPUs to RPUs but I would imagine they would only do this if they weren't going to use up the GPU's in the first place. Although I've still been trying to gauge the affect of PP on PZ. Too many changing variables. But with PZ ~= 0 anyways, the actual effect if plat (or any of the changes) is probably minimal.

The value is dependent on the usage and individual. If the most you would ever pay for J is 200-400 over the Y W+ price you are paying, then that is your value. If you would otherwise pay full price for J, then your GPU could be worth $2000+. What it costs UA is another story. I remember a post from years ago where someone had dinner with someone who works at UA corp and that individual valued the GPU that high. However, if the seat would otherwise fly empty, the cost is essentially $0 or negative (loyalty).

Ok, ok, earned and noted. Having said that, I will say that I did just that yesterday and didn't remember seeing anything pertaining to the question that I posted. Perhaps I missed it, perhaps the Wiki was updated since I last read it. My apologies...

Somewhere in my 7000+ posts, I probably said the same exact thing you did, so no hard feelings.

I'm missing something.
Wouldn't you be better off waiting to for PZ>0 til a certain point? Even if you know all your travel dates for the next year and they are set in stone, you still may have routing flexibility. Once you book, you can't cancel if PZ>0 shows up on another routing/day, etc. Then you also save the skip-wait fee

IMO the valuation should take into account the need to be extremely flexible to confirm the upgrade in advance (or the risk factor of not clearing if you waitlist), plus the inability to change flights and keep the upgraded seat. So, for example, calculating based on the price of a purchased business class seat significantly overvalues the instrument (IMO).

I really don't think that Platinums now having in theory 1 GPU to spend is really "sky is falling" grounds with respect to UGs. I do agree we have a lot more Platinums now with PQD in place, but then again, some have shrunk to Gold and split alliances. Most remaining plats have already used at least 1 RPU and so the remaining 20 points can only be another RPU or a Premplus upgrade.

So the sole concern post December 4 is upgrade availability past January 2020 (between December and January, everyone is throwing their upgrades at anything that will stick) , and a Platinum sniping a GPU that a 1K/GS could have grabbed. Count me unconcerned (as I'm going to burn every upgrade on getting to PremPlus 16x a year).