I plan to travel Chicago to Christchurch in February 2026. The SFO to CHC leg is on Air New Zealand, booked through United. I plan to purchase an Economy seat, and upgrade only the SFO to CHC to Premium Economy. Is it best to do that right after booking - or if I wait will I get a better deal? I might upgrade the return trip as well - but again, I'm perfectly content in economy from ORD to SFO and am trying to save myself a little money. I flew ORD to Belgium earlier this year and upgraded my seat while waiting at the gate. Trying to decide what's the best way to do this. Thanks for any advice.

Verifying that you intend to do this only with cash? Answer could differ if using miles is part of your plan.

Upgrading a non-UA-operated segment on a UA-issued ticket may not be possible without changing the fare.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Are you certain about the airline? AFAIK, NZ doesn�t fly SFO-CHC. UA flies it 3x per week. As others have pointed out, it makes a huge difference.

There are no *A upgrades to PE, so if OP really is flying NZ, miles wouldn�t be an option.

Right � I don�t remember hearing any reports of success trying to bid for an NZ upgrade with a UA-issued ticket.

I will be using cash - not miles. I thought the flight from SFO to CHC was through Air New Zealand but maybe that was a flight to Auckland - we've been looking at so many different options it gets confusing after awhile.

Whether it is CHC or AKL matters little, the upgrade opportunities of a NZ flight on a UA ticket are very limited. If you want to have more upgrade opportunities, buy on the operating carrier ticket stock.

OK that's really good to know. I often fly a combination of United/Skywest and upgrade just the United portion so I assumed I could do so with this trip as well since it's all booked through United. I'll remember this in the future. And, you all are correct - the SFO to CHC is United, not Air NZ. I think NZ is a LAX to AUK leg which we've decided not to do.

Thank you for the help.

You seem a little confused on marketed flight (flight number) - flight operator.
Air NZ fly SFO-AKL non stop but not SFO-CHC non stop.
For NZ summer of 2024-2025 UA had some flights into CHC. Have not checked for 2026.
Air NZ are notorious for not offering awards to partners. Upgrades will be less. Code shares are another problem for upgrades
USA airlines and non USA airlines have vastly different upgrade polices. If flying an Air NZ aircraft *expect* to site in the seat you purchase. Air NZ will fly with unoccupied PE - business class seats.
FT UA thread --> How to upgrade with UA miles on Star Alliance carriers


Several route's/airlines for ORD<-->CHC. Would not restrict to only UA. General info:-
Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from New Zealand (not from all airports to all airports). Schedules can change. Not all routes daily.

• American Airlines AA . DFW-AKL Until 30 Mar 2024. From 05 Dec 2024 to Mar 2025. LAX-AKL. Pre CV19 AA was due to fly LAX-CHC 3 days a week from Oct 2020. [Oneworld Alliance]
  
• Air Canada AC YVR–AKL From 12 Nov 2022 [Star Alliance]
  
• Air New Zealand NZ LAX SFO IAH JFK YVR ORD HNL– AKL. JFK started 17 Sep 2022. ORD suspended [Star Alliance]
  
• Air Tahiti Nui TN LAX SEA–PPT-AKL (AS AA QF NZ partner)
  
• Delta DL LAX–AKL. From 28 Oct 2023 seasonable. Restart due 02 Oct 2024 [Skyteam alliance]
  
• Fiji Airways FJ LAX SFO DFW HNL YVR–NAN-AKL WLG CHC. NAN-CNS from April 2025 (Oneworld)
  
• Hawaiian HA HNL–AKL (AS AA QF & VA partner) AKL service suspended Apr to Nov 2024. Owned by AS.
  
• Qantas QF SYD-AKL-JFK from 14 Jun 2023. LAX SFO DFW JFK HNL YVR* via SYD BNE & MEL. {* seasonal} [Oneworld Alliance]
  
• United UA SFO–AKL. SFO-CHC from 04 Dec 2024 seasonable[Star Alliance]
  
• And others via Australia, South America, Asia & Middle East
  

EditGood choice . http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=c%3Ablu...=bm&PW=3&DU=mi

United/Skywest is the same - UA/UAX. NZ is a different airlines and while there are in the same alliance as UA, you may mind your upgrade options limited. Sounds like you are on the seasonal SFO-CHC which should be a straightforward upgrade

Air New Zealand said their plan was to resume ORD-AKL flights �late 2025�, pending resolution of the Rolls Royce 787-9 engine mess. Who knows when that will really happen?

Since SFO-CHC is on United, you have the possibility to upgrade to PE from a regular economy fare, but not basic economy (cheapest). If you have enough United miles you can request a mileage upgrade either when you book or anytime later. Should cost 30k miles per person (until November when UA eliminates its fixed upgrade chart and it goes dynamic). You will likely be put on a waitlist, but that might be the best way to attempt an upgrade if you have enough United miles. Otherwise, it is possible United might make you an upgrade offer at the end of your booking process if you book directly with United, otherwise you can check your booking anytime to see the current cash upgrade price which up until check-in is probably going to be just the different between your economy fare and the current PE fare (usually a lot). I never did this for PE, but assuming it works like business, once you get to online check-in United may offer a reduced price to upgrade which varies depending on the loads. PE is a relatively small cabin and some destinations fill it up and some don't. Not sure about the CHC route.

Fares for the most part are O&D based in each direction of travel. So when you are upgrading an invididual segment on a connecting itin, they can't actually use fare differences to calculate cost. The seat upgrades don't actually modify the underlying fare you are booked on even though they update your booked class on flights. The airlines only offer these segment based seat upgrades on flights that are both marketed and operated by them because they have the ability to readily modify them without changing the underlying fare you are booked. They can potentially do so on partner operated flights when using instrument upgrades, but the process is not as seamless.