drewguy

This. If you have loads of miles buy a standard award and waitlist for a saver award. Compared to the purchase of a ticket, a copay, and the miles, even a standard award starts to look attractive pricewise, and a saver award will blow it out of the water.

It's not entirely random, even from an outside observer.

UA tracks actual seat sales versus what it predicts based on historical analysis for each flight. If sales are well below what it predicts it tends to make award space and upgrade space available.

Mike Jacoubowsky

As pointed out, UA doesn't fly to NZ, which is likely the reason options to upgrade aren't being shown. But suggesting a change to UA routing through SYD is nuts, because a failed upgrade on that flight means sitting in Y on a UA747 for 11.49 hours longer than you'd ever want to (assuming it's an 11.5 hour flight and you have a desire to see, but not experience, how awful a Y cabin that hasn't been renovated since disco really is... and trust me, you're better off taking my word for it).

I go out of my way to avoid flying in Y in a UA747. Literally thousands of miles out of my way.

kilo

A somewhat harsh response?

LaserSailor was just pointing out a common misconception that those new to the game have. He/She even added an apology in case He/She had misjudged the OPs level of knowledge..

Kacee

Agreed. On an award ticket, you can also explore creative routings on some really excellent asian carriers, such as NH, OZ, and SQ.

The upgrade award is no longer the excellent deal it used to be.

For OP's purposes, this far out it is indeed totally random. As you get much closer to flight time (say, T-30 or T-14), some educated guesses can be made depending on load and what fares they're selling.

It's not "nuts" when the advice is to book if R is available at booking, which is exactly what I advised. Note also that the Sydney routes wil all be serviced by a UA 772 by the time of OP's flights. So you are completely off topic.

laurat55

Ooohh...I didn't know that electing a standard and waitlisting for saver was an option! Thank you.

My head is kind of spinning. Despite all my travel, in less than 8 hours I have gone from feeling like a travel expert to someone who has never flown before! In my defense, 100% of my travel is domestic and most of it less than 500 mile trips (lots of Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Minneapolis trips).

Thanks to all!

Mike Jacoubowsky

There's a difference between being incorrect and being OT. My advice about not gambling on an upgrade on a 747 still stands as relevant info for many reading this post however. Thanks for the updated info on the 772. Maybe I can visit downunder without fear next time!

Wx4caster

Agree that using miles for free tickets in this situation is better than trying to upgrade, thanks to award flexibility as a Plat. As it is free to change/cancel awards as needed, I wouldn't bother redeeming standard award tickets and waitlisting for saver. I would just book the best saver routing available, and modify if/when something better opens up.

I've been looking at AKL award routings a bit the past few weeks. As noted, finding NZ biz seats is challenging - pretty much you have to go via Asia. However .com is not likely to show you those pairs, so you have to research the US-Asia, Asia-NZ segments separately, then call in to get ticketed once you find a route that works. My unscientific searching found PVG to be the most frequently available connection point, and flight timing made connecting back to the US very easy. SQ may open up seats and provide additional options that you can change to as the travel date nears.

mmack

OP Is that Feb 2015 or 2014? If the former, I think you are looking way too early. There is lots of R space out there, but it comes and goes. Constant search and an EF subscription are very helpful in trying to get upgrades to Australia/NZ.

There are several threads on upgrade chances to SYD/MEL in this forum. Valuable insights here.

The other possibility is to try the Premier Economy class on Air New Zealand. By all reports, its quite good.

We go to Australia twice a year, always on a W fare, upgrading at time of ticketing.
Just say "R availability" and my heart starts racing...Good luck

sam123

This can sometimes work wonders, has worked for me twice so far.

Just last week I was on transatlantic flight with family members, two of them were on Standard Economy Awards, and had been waitlisted for Saver Business Awards for several months.

Both cleared just 24 hours before flight time! I did increase my odds by having an Expertflyer alert set for the award type. As soon as those Saver Business Awards (IN) became available I was alerted and on the phone with United!

Nice to have two people go from Economy to BusinessFirst and get 10,000 miles returned to your MP account.

oshkrozz

Laura, a few things:
1) UA doesn't fly to NZ, that means the flight is a code-share and that is why you can not upgrade, you need to see who the carrier is (My guess is Air New Zealand). To use miles to upgrade this flight you need to book in Y or B (or also U, E and O). (O is typically premium economy class).
To book a specific fare class on united.com click on advanced search then scroll a little to
What is your fare preference? section
and select Enter Specific Classes of Service
In this case I would call United to book the flight rather then online to make sure you can upgrade.

2) Once you book you will need to check nightly if they clear the upgrade you have to go here ...
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps...rdUpgrade.aspx
and put in the upgrade request you will be notified if you are cleared or not, there is no wait list option with a star alliance partner, so you just have to keep trying.

3) I have many times booked a flight for full miles and when the saver award became an option they credited back the miles, you just have to keep checking they will not do it automatically.

The chance for an upgrade all depends on how booked up the flights get.

LarkSFO

Ouch! That's the hard way to Platinum! (I'd never be a Plat if I had to do it on segments...)

Now I understand why you want to buy the economy seat and upgrade - that is a lot of PQM's you will earn...

laurat55

Exactly!

Baze

Everybody has their own level of what is and isn't worth it. It is obvious a saver is the best value but savers are not always available. So one has to decide if the standard is worth it for where they are going, when they are going and class of service they want to go in. If someone have miles out the wazoo and they have/want to be someplace and the cost is above their threshold dollar wise a standard could be well worth it to some.

Kacee

You forgot to add "IMO." Everyone's situation is different. A standard J class redemption to AKL prices out at 2.4 cpm. Not a great redemption, but economically rational. Of course, a saver redemption is a *better* deal.

JackInThePlane

Just booked flights for Xmas 2014 in economy. Got the upgrade offer 30,000 miles and $500 to upgrade. Sorry suckers deducted my miles and charged my credit card - only to put me on waiting list. #lame #gimmemymoneyback