United Upgrade-LAX/NRT
 

Hi all, this is my first post on FlyerTalk. If this subject has been posted previously, I apologize in advance.

I became a Mileage Plus member very recently, based on a recommendation from a friend(I'm interested in upgrades on int'l flights. Not award tickets.) I also opened a Chase checking account and ordered the United debit card to accumulate miles. This past month, I spent over $100,000 on business expenses using my new United debit card.

I checked my Mileage Plus account summary and was excited to learn I have over 100,000 miles now. I decided that I wanted to go on vacation to Japan in Feb '10(LAX to NRT), which is 3 months away. I checked fares on United.com and found the cheapest round trip at $885, which are booking classes K and T(not upgradeable). I called United and was informed that the cheapest "upgradeable" tickets available now on the site is booking class H at $2,045, which is still non-refundable. However, the customer service rep said that I would be placed on a waiting list and there's no guarantee that I will be confirmed for an upgrade.

I'm a little surprised that there are no confirmed upgradeable seats on a flight 3 months away. It doesn't really make too much sense to purchase the H class $2,045 round trip tickets since I can't confirm upgrade. Why pay close to $1,200 more on non-refundable economy tickets when I might still end up in economy right? It seems like I should probably buy the K/T tickets at $885.

Has anyone experienced a similar situation when trying to purchase upgradeable tickets? Please let me know. Thank you so much. =)

I am very new here to the UA Forum. I just want to reply to your post to help keep it current.
I checked in at the kiosk in Houston for my Houston SFO Beijing flight : the computer asked me if I want to upgrade for Y+ to C, for $919 ( I don't why that figure ! ). So, I did.
On another trip 3 weeks from that, I was in C class, and heard an onboard announcement that if the folks in C wanted to upgrade into F, it's $700.
I went to the manager looking guy and asked about upgrade from Y+/Y to C :
he told me that it's all depends on the load in YC and C. If they have a lot of seats left in C, they would price the paid upgrades lower.
Was my $919 upgrade from SFO PEK at the high end or the low end, I don't know. Perhaps some of the old hands here at this forum can help us out with the infos.
Welcome to the UA forum. ^

Welcome to FT, lilxtina13!

This is not uncommon; just because a flight is upgrade eligible doesn't mean there are any upgradeable seats available. Please see link below; soon UA will be asking for a copay if you are upgrading with miles and S & T class fares will be eligible for upgrade with miles:

http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,53079,00.html

Agree not uncommon. What would be helpful is how can one now easily check if upgradable seats are available without calling UA. In the past I used expertflyer but UA now not on it.

It can be done on ua.com. I took some notes a while back:



UAL expert mode

Once expert mode is set, you need to do a dummy booking.
Then hover the mouse pointer over "Flight Info" for a particular flight. A pop box will appear with the info. To see award/upgrade classes you will need o be doing a "Standard Award" dummy booking.

XC: Business Class Award
NC: Business Class Upgrade
XF: First Class Award
NF: First Class Upgrade

The accepted policy is that the Kiosk (Easy Chicken) and/or Online checkin (OLCI), and/or Gate agents will offer the Upgrade for Cash (UFC) only if all people on the waitlist have been cleared, and open seats in the upgraded class still exist.

Pricing seems a little variant, but once @ IAD, I asked about an UFC and an agent was checking a printout showing the per-mile cost to various destinations. She told me it's a charge of $69/500 miles flight (take that for what you will...it's the IAD RCC, after all, and TATL vs TPAC). So - at that benchmark - you did OK (IAH-SFO-PEK shows as 7548 miles on Great Circle which would translate to ~$1000 @ that pricing).

Welcome to FT!

The new copay system (linked above) is going to be much better for this situation. You'll pay $500 each way above the lowest fares (S, T, K, L) if your upgrade clears and nothing if it does not. The mileage is also being reduced (by 5,000 each way for trans-Pacific).

Of course try to search for NC space at the time of ticketing, but as noted, it's not always available.

Charles

You should pay $885 and wait for 12-Jan-10 to request upgrade using the new copay system. @:-)

Welcome to FT, my first suggestion is to read the Sticky at the top of the UA Forum. It has a lot of info about UA, like how to process an upgrade, how you get them and also how to look up award space.

As for the OP $2000 plus for an H fare w/ a chance to upgrade is way too much. What you need to do is log into UA in expert mode as another poster suggeted, and find dates when you can confirm a UG at time of booking. Also, keep in mind that UA 1k (top status tied) minus Global Service get System Wide Upgrades that allow of confirmation of UG booking with a lower fare, and may clear their UG before you do.

In short look for confirmable upgrade at time of booking or just use some of your miles to get an award ticket.

Also for the poster looking to see if thet UG for $900 to China was worth it, check out this thread, people post their UG for cash here, and you'll get a gyage of how worth it it is.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...pile-here.html

There's a big thread posting UFC offers. I think they are priced by segment so if you upgraded a domestic and international segment you were charged the sum of the UFC costs. Domestic appear to now be usually $77 per 500 miles. International are not exactly by mileage but determined by a general combination of route length and overbooking in Y (which reduces the asking price).

Now which Chase Debit Card do you have?

The normal United Mileage Plus debit card is only good for $60K and its $2 for every one mile

The other Debit card is Perffered and that is a 1/1 card with a max of 120K miles/Yr

Not sure if you have enough miles, but you might consider using Gary Leff's frequent flier booking service. He could potentially book your trip via a more advantageous Star Alliance carrier...

I have the business Chase Preferred and also a personal Preferred. I earn $1/1 point for both cards. I was informed by Chase that there would be no annual maximum for our company.


Thank you for the info! =)


I called United today and was informed that the Jan 12 upgrade/copay system would only apply to tickets purchased on or after Jan 12 unfortunately.


Thank you so much for the advice! I'll try that now! =)

Pretty sure that info is wrong. Everything I've seen says once Jan 12 comes you can request upgrades under the new system.


From the United Airlines FAQ (not 100% on point but neither does it say anything about time of purchase restriction):

There are many uninformed UA phone agents, especially in India. :mad:

http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,53079,00.html