Upgrade to SIN
 

I am flying this Saturday to SIN through NRT. I am on the waitlist to upgrade to Business Class using my 1K SWU. I still did not clear. I usually clear a week or two in advance on the same route. Does anyone has the same experience? Does anyone knows why it is suddenly so hard to upgrade?
Is there a chance I will be upgraded at the gate?

Thanks
UA 100K

Wait a few more days. Inventory Management has been increasingly stingy about releasing seats weeks in advance.

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When once you have experienced being a 1K, you will forever fly the friendly skies with your eyes set on 100% mileage bonus and SWUs, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return, every year!

As mentioned in another thread yesterday, upgrades to Asia are really tight for this Saturday. Even paid C tickets are rough to find for this Saturday.

If you could possibly reschedule your outbound for Sunday you'll have a much better shot...

For Sunday, UA 805 shows Similarly, I see lots of Sunday options (such as through LAX and SEA) which are F6 C9.

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More Room Throughout Coach: the Website of Free Miles and Free Markets

I was originally supposed to be on your NRT-SIN flight this Saturday, and all I can say is I'm glad I changed my "SIN run" to a "TPE run" because as a 2P, I don't think I would have had a snowball's chance in h*ll to upgrade, especially if 1Ks are still waiting.

If you can go through HKG, I do know there was confirmable C space about three days ago, HKG-SIN. Problem was, however, SFO-HKG is pretty tight...and 6700K+ in the back of the bus is a scary thought.

I did have a difficult time in getting confirmed upgrades, so UA has definitely become more stingy. Hope that 1K status pulls through for you...

The conventional wisdom seems to have ben holding holding that unless you were able to confirm NC at time of booking 2 -4 months out, upgrades have not been clearing until about 3 days or less out, even on flights that are wide open in C. I have an NRT-SIN segment for mid-November that I have been waiting for a couple of months on. My SFO-NRT, SIN-HKG, HKG-NRT, and NRT-SFO all were available for NC at time of booking. I had the same thing happen in September.

Thanks for the replies. It looks like that there is no hope for any upgrades.

I guess I would approach the flight expecting to ride in Y. (I know, I know, it's easier said than done.) If you get upgraded (the chance still exists, especially for 1K), you'll be delightfully surprised as it'll triumph your original expectation.

The cheapie fares are not upgradable. I could not get a decent price for an upgradable fare.

I got a upgradable fare for $577

Are we talking about the same thing here? Upgradeable with what is key -- with SWUs vs. with miles is an important distinction. Presumably $577 was SWU-upgradeable, but was unlikely an H fare.

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More Room Throughout Coach: the Website of Free Miles and Free Markets

SWU

The only upgrade we've missed in the past couple years was a NRT-SIN leg (I think it was earlier this year) It was oversold in biz, and the gate was offering vouchers to downgrade.

Yeah, that's the thing that pissed me off more than anything else about my failure to upgrade.

I paid $2600 for my flight and others were upgrading $600 fares left-and-right in front of me by using SWU's.

Don't know if you had the time available but had you bought a ticket to TPE instead of SIN (I would think there are many many cheap options TPE-SIN) you could have had a paid-biz class seat roundtrip (or 2 one-ways) for slightly less than the $2600 you paid per other comments here on FT.

Using what fare code? The cheapest biz class ticket I can see LAX-TPE is $4552.00, fare code CR.

Also, I paid $2600 to fly LAX-BLR (Bangalore, India); SIN was an intermediate point. That's why I was willing to fly to any Asian city where I would pick up antoher flight to BLR.

[This message has been edited by robb (edited 10-23-2002).]