Mel Grant

Is this correct as I was informed the exact opposite were true. If the over water does not clear the full co-pay and miles are refunded but the cleared Upgrade is not taken away. Does anyone have any direct information?

WineCountryUA

The rule states if the none of the BF segments clear you will get your miles back -- nothing about overwater.

The recent question is if PS BF counts when the international BF does not clear. This has not been clear.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-upgraded.html

pnsnkr

Just curious, what are my options if the BF upgraded flight is delayed/canceled? Will UA rebook in Business on other *A flights? For rebooking on UA flights, does there need to be 'R' space available for me to get back in BF?

cfischer

re-booking on UA metal: You only need an available seat ... J1 is fine.

re-booking on JV partners (LH, NH etc.) is supposedly possible, but in my experience does not happen ... they will gladly rebook you in coach, but not in business. Others are reporting better success, but for me it has been UA metal in J or partner metal in Y.

pnsnkr

Good to know. Thank you very much for the quick response.

PsiFighter37

I ended up PMing UA Insider, and he helped get it sorted for me. I'm just waiting for the refund of the copay to hit the CC and I'm set! Probably better for the UA Insider appreciation thread, but that is how I resolved the situation. My R upgrade on EWR-LAX on p.s. is preserved, but no longer wait listed for LAX-SYD.

zurich123

Hi, I read through a lot of message here and it's still not clear to me how UA releases upgrade seats.

I have about 200K miles in my account. I want to book an economy ticket at full price and use my miles to get a business class seat. According to the interactive awards chart, I need 20K miles and a $300-550 co-pay. I'm flying from ZRH to NYC.

I'm searching on United.com and using the "MileagePlus Upgrade Award" search option. No matter what dates I pick, it always shows that upgrade is not available. I'm putting in dates which I think are not busy and I still don't get any inventory.

Am I doing something wrong here? I'm beginning to think that on certain profitable routes, using miles to get a business class seat is simply not possible on ANY DATE. Can you veterans comment on this?

Thanks.

cfischer

I have upgraded this route quite often. You can wait list the upgrade and if you avoid busy days your chance of clearing is not bad IMO.

marscloud

I'm sure this has been answered before, but I couldn't immediately find it. As a UA Plat, does using RDM to 'purchase' an upgrade on a domestic flight put me ahead of other elites waiting for the CPU?

Thanks!

beckoa

As this is a UA specific thread, we'll relocate this post to the UA forum.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk

Kacee

Yes, it puts you ahead of all CPUs except for GS. You're still behind the instant upgrade Y/B/M fares.

big V

I'm making some itin decisions for BKK in December and am checking R availability (unsurprisingly it's 0, but that's another conversation for another thread).

Despite searching for a Y fare and ticking the "Upgrade with miles" button, they are still adding a $500 "Upgrade Award service charge" to the fare.

Seriously???

A travel agent will eventually book me a B or Y fare and I will be able to go into my itin and apply a request to upgrade with miles without paying a penny.

What gives? Am I missing something?

TravelinSperry

Thank you - you guys may have just saved me a lot of miles! I am attempting to find an upgradeable fare from LAX over the pacific (NRT, ICN, TPE, etc.). I want to buy economy and then use miles/co-pay to upgrade. But no matter what dates I search all that is avail are waitlist options.

However, after reading this thread... I searched the same legs using fare basis Y, B, M. The same prices came up ($500 more than the lowest fare) but without the 30,000 miles requirement. Since one of you posted that instant upgrade fares Y/B/M take priority over waitlist using miles... would I be better off booking this fare basis? (Note - I'm only UA silver, not sure if I'm entitled to instant Int'l upgrades). Seems like I'm not overseas (https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...e/default.aspx)

Assuming one can't get instant Int'l upgrades using Y/B/M fares... what happens if I book the upgrade waitlist fare? Will I get back the monies for co-pay and miles if I don't clear? Am I better off booking the eco fare and then just upgrading via miles once it's ticketed ont the UA site?

Kacee

Instant upgrades are only available on CPU eligible routes, not long-haul international.

If you book a Y or a B fare, there will be no co-pay on the mileage upgrade and you will have higher priority on the waitlist than other Silvers with lower fare classes. But there is no free "instant" upgrade on any BusinessFirst route.

Also note that even on CPU eligible routes, the M fare is instant upgrade eligible only for 1K and GS.

bkjohnso

In practice you want to look for flights to Asia where there is 'R' availability where you can instantly upgrade. Some routes have consistently more availability than others. I am finding availability on the following routes:

LAX - NRT (Available dates Oct, Nov outbound, , Dec outbound. December return)

SFO - HND (Tokyo Haneda) (Dates available Oct, Nov & Dec outbound and return)

SFO - CTU (Chengdu) (Dates available Oct, Nov & Dec outbound and return)

SFO - KIX (Osaka) (Dates available Oct, Nov & Dec outbound and return)

HND is a good jump off point to the rest of Asia either from it of from NRT which is a doable train ride away from HDN). CTU and KIX are not as good connection point-wise.

Tip: I usually look for availability on Wednesdays first. I usually do the lookups segment by segment. e.g. find the long flight (SFO - HND) and then add in the shorter hops (LAX - SFO & HND/NRT - BKK).

Tip: User expert mode to see the fare classes. Using the the selection to find upgradeable fares seems to not work well at all.