jquagga

Thank you all for the comments! This flight being the AC booked but in United app after that instantly says no upgrades. I have a Mileage plus flight in June that does offer upgrades but it’s international on a 757 and not the “honeymoon we never took” so I don’t care about that.

Fingers crossed on the 787-8 staying. I wouldn’t mind an 11th hour 787-9 swap in for the SFO-PPT leg to vastly increase the Polaris seats.

mahasamatman

It could happen, but it's not economically viable for United to fly the 787-9 on that route.

blind hog

I am usually a Delta flyer, but booked a family vacation with United in order to use up a bunch of Sapphire points in hopes of an upgrade. Flight legs are LIT-IAH-SJO and SJO-IAH-LIT . We are booked using the Mileage Plus upgrade option and are currently waitlisted. Travel dates are March 16-23. When do these waitlists clear?

We are 60 days out and I guess I am trying to decide whether I should go for the sure-thing Economy Plus or continue to roll the dice that we will get our upgrade (flights are currently eligible for free one time change or refund).

Any advice from experience United flyers is appreciated.

findark

If you purchase Economy Plus, and subsequently clear a mileage upgrade to a higher cabin, your seat fees will be refunded.

getagb

I’m interested in booking MEX-ORD tomorrow, 1/17, flight UA474. The flight is very empty according to flight status (9/12 booked in business, both business and economy available and nobody on standby). However there are no seats for sale in any fare class.

The flight is still on time as is the flight earlier that day, the flights on 1/18, etc., so it doesn’t look like they’re expecting IRROPS as far as I can tell.

Why might sales be blocked off? What are the odds they open up again in the next 24 hours or so?

mariol

That flight is overbooked by 3 passengers after taking into account 9 "held" seats, which could happen due to weight restrictions or a host of other reasons. Seat maps are not reliable at all...

getagb

I’m not looking at the seat maps and I understand those are basically meaningless. I’m looking at the “standby” tab’s availability labels and the “upgrades” tab’s capacity vs booked numbers on the flight status screen. Out of curiosity, where do you see 9 “held” seats?

JimInOhio

Flight status claims both Business and Economy are "Available" yet the flight doesn't show up in the search for purchase. UA IT up to their old tricks again?

mahasamatman

Welcome to FT, blind hog!

With no status, the odds of even one of your upgrades clearing are extremely low.

jsloan

Eh, that’s not true, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

IAH-LIT on a Saturday is quite likely to clear. The problem is that since SJO-IAH isn’t a Polaris route, the official policy would be that the upgrade is considered ‘used’ and no refund is due if IAH-LIT clears but SJO-IAH does not.

OP: As to when they will clear the upgrades — it could be any time between now and when the flight departs. They’ll come onto the plane and move you if your upgrade clears after you’ve boarded. With no status, you’ll be behind all instrument-supported upgrades of members with status, and within 5 days of travel you’ll also be behind complimentary upgrades to Global Services customers. However, you’ll be ahead of all other Premier members awaiting complimentary upgrades, so your chances are nonzero.

SLKJames

Hopefully quick question, and hopefully the right forum for this -- apologies in advance in not!

If I book economy on UA metal with Aeroplan points on AC's website, what are my options to get E+? Best I've come up with so far is to look for a cash upgrade on UA's site post booking, but it's not entirely clear to me that'll be an option, or if so what pricing would look like. Are there other ways available to do this?

Related, is there any difference on the UA side booking a Standard Aeroplan reward vs Latitude? I get on the AC side Latitude makes it refundable, but any other differences? Presumably both are X on UA (or am I wrong on that), so likely is no difference in attempting to get E+, correct?

Thanks in advance!

WineCountryUA

If you don't have United elite status, you can purchase, on the United site, E+ access. Price will depend on the seat -- middles are the cheapest, bulk and exit row the most expense, ballpark number is $20-$30 / flight hour, if loads are light there may be some reduction,

SLKJames

Thank you, very much appreciated!

mahasamatman

Welcome to FT, SLKJames!

No difference.

Fennario

When traveling UA (domestic and booked through UA) as *G (LH SEN), will the system automatically assign a priority boarding group? My LH SEN number is entered into the UA profile section of the website, but through Mileage Plus I'm only Silver, and that's what the UA website shows as my status. How does Gold status work for someone like me who is *G through a partner airline?