laurat55

Can anyone provide me some insight on how to book a flight (paying cash) and upgrade (using miles) for an upcoming trip to New Zealand? When I go on the Web and follow the instructions, every flight says "upgrade not available". I have got to the point where I am looking at random days and literally cannot find a single flight in which I can upgrade. I have looked at flying into Auckland and Sydney (yes I know Sydney is not in New Zealand!). Nothing.

Having done this flight before, I know I don’t want to sit in coach. I want to finalize my travel plans, but I can’t even get the flight booked. Secrets? Insight? Help!

skimple

Go into "Advanced Search" mode. At the bottom of the page is a check box that says "MileagePlus Upgrade Award". Make sure that is checked.

It may be that United has not released upgrade inventory for any of those flights yet.

Oh - And welcome to FlyerTalk!

LaserSailor

Laura - quick explanation in case you arent up on this..apologies if this is aimed too low.

There are open seats, and open upgrade seats. Airlines don't 'release' the seats for upgrades even if there are seats available because they know from historical data exactly when the seats will be sold.

Its possible on a popular flight that upgrade seats are never released, so upgrade availability is never guaranteed.

The classic mistake is to look at the seat chart and see open First Class seats and wonder why you cant upgrade to FC...

wildbill412007

The classic mistake is never get involved in a land war in Asia, slightly less well known is that one should never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Right after that comes thinking seat charts are meaningful.

Kacee

International upgrades are difficult. You are trying to get a $6,000+ seat for much much less and United does not make that easy (since they are in business and would prefer to sell that seat for full fare if possible). You have two basic issues to consider: (1) What are my available routing options; and (2) how do I find upgrade space? The most basic answers are, you may need to get creative on routing - for example through HNL or Asia (i.e., NRT-SIN-AKL). You also need to learn how to look for upgrade inventory - it's R fare class, and you can see this in "expert" mode on UA.com or - even better - by getting an Expert Flyer subscription. You can research these subjects further here on FT. Do some reading.

laurat55

Thanks. I feel like I should be smart at this (Platinum on United closing in a million miles), but I rarely use miles.

So...it sounds like I need to purchase the upgradeable ticket and just hope that a couple seats open up? This makes me so uncomfortable (I am not a coach girl going that far!). Any ways to increase my chances of getting the upgrade?

And thanks for the welcome to Flyer Talk. I have been stalking on and off for years, including getting the regular emails, but just never activated my account!

skimple

:-::-::-::-::-::-::-:^^^^^^

Kacee

No, your best chance of upgrading is to find available R space at booking. If you want to buy and take a gamble on the waitlist (and make no mistake - it is a gamble), there is a thread that discusses the best days of the week to upgrade on the Australia flights: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...lights-10.html

laurat55

Thanks Kacee...very helpful!

Kacee, Found Expert mode Going to do some more reading. One more question for you...when do these "R" fares typically open up or does this completly vary? So, if we are going February 2015, should we look for fares as soon as they are available and if they aren't available assume they never will be....or (and I am guessing this is the case)...they can open up when the airline decides to open them up?

(and to clarify, I know that Feb 2015 dates are not open yet, I am a crazy planner and checking out how the website and upgrades work well in advance!)

Kacee

From our perspective, UA opens R space at random. Start looking right at 330 days out. If you don't mind the $10 per month, sign up for Expert Flyer alerts, and that will send you an e-mail when R space opens.

Also, just to be clear, you don't actually buy an R fare. R is a fare code for upgraded economy. So you buy one of the normal economy fare classes (e.g., Y, B, M, W, etc.), apply the upgrade, and clear into R.

Finally, note that since UA no longer flies to AKL, your longest upgrade potential is to SYD through SFO or LAX. Other options I mentioned (through HNL or SIN) will feature segments that are on other airlines (NZ or SQ) and thus not upgradeable through UA.

lhrsfo

Laura

Welcome to the upgrade gamble, where the odds seem to be getting worse all the time. Up until this year I had reasonable success in simply buying a W fare and hoping that R would become available. This year, I'm less than 50% in clearing on that basis, and rarely is any R space available for any convenient travel dates - so much so that I have 6 GPUs left to burn. Another upgrade failed the other day, when in previous years it would have been a dead cert in August TATL, when there are traditionally few business travellers.

At least in your situation, the co-pay (which, you should be aware, will be quite hefty) won't get charged if you don't get the upgrade.

For me, it seems now the best way to go is to book an acceptable flight in a low fare class and hope that I can same day change into W with R available - at least that means I don't lose the gamble.

Kacee

Discussion of W fare irrelevant and likely to confuse OP, as she is using miles/co-pay, not a GPU.

JDS747

Just to clarify this point... you will be charged the co-pay at time of request. If the upgrade doesn't clear then it will be refunded after your flight, so if you book way in advance you'll be out the cash for however long that is.

2002HeelTransplanted

Maybe this is obvious and I know your original post focuses on upgrading, but if don't typically use miles and your primary concern is getting business or first guaranteed, have you considered just booking an award ticket with miles at one of those levels? Assuming if you're closing in on million miler and don't typically use miles, you've got some to consider burning on this.

laurat55

All very helpful. In 2008, we took this same trip (flying into Sydney...with a jump over to NZ) and I don't recall this being so difficult! Booked the flight and got the upgrade all in one booking. I would agree that the odds are getting worse. I have enough miles banked to book us both in business using a standard award....starting to think it may be worth it. Though I would prefer to spend a couple dollars to (1) get more miles from the flight (2) have more miles leftover for more trips!

I am going to keep researching...next decision will be do I book the hotels not knowing when I will be flying!

Thank goodness I don't have a full-time job and other things going on in my life. Oh wait....