flyster

Ouch... I am flying to Bangkok from the US and I see that the SEA->NRT route has NC=9, meaning I can get an instant upgrade! (Going to BKK from US involves a stopover in NRT in Japan with United, always).

I used miles to try to upgrade my B class ticket, which is currently IAD->NRT->BKK; NRT->BKK cleared, but IAD->NRT (14 hours!!!!!!!!!) did not and doesn't look good.

I called United and asked if I could change routing to go through SEA, and they told me it's impossible because SEA->NRT has no seats open in economy. I pointed out that I am waitlisted for an upgrade and NC=9, so it should go through automatically and not be a problem. She said that it's impossible to coax the computer into getting me the business seat without actually booking a solid confirmed economy seat first. I asked, could she waitlist me for an economy seat first, and she said that wouldnt work.

This seems so...... illogical! Has anyone else had experience with this?

denverhockeyguy

Thats the way it works. You have to clear into Y before you can upgrade to C. They cannot move you directly into C unless its IRROPS. That said, I still think IAD-NRT you still have a chance. Y seems to be sold out on all NRT bound flights, but there appears to be room in both F & C. For the new planes, UA tends not to clear upgrades until morning of the flight 6-12hrs before.

I don't think all is lost on IAD-NRT.

wxguy

Ask at the airport. At the airport, anything is possible.

SEA1K4EVR

Wow no Y/B seats yet NC9 on SEA-NRT...what that equals is a lot of nice op-ups on that flight tomorrow! Good luck.. just hope the flight is not so far oversold that they won't even consider you for standby. I'd also keep checking the loads online every couple hours..sometimes there is last minute inventory fluctuation and you never know a couple seats could pop into that B bucket.

flyster

Well good news... some seats opened up apparently, but in the Y bucket, I had to pay an extra $600 per person, or $1200 total, to get the inventory routed through seattle, but.... was able to do this and got the upgrade!

Dont care much if it's the older planes. The narita-bangkok segment involves the new business class seats, so I can enjoy them on that segment. Just avoiding the torture of 14 hour 30 minute segment IAD-NRT with a slightly under 2 year old in economy while being 6'2" is fantastic!!!!!!

fastair

And this is y they just couldn't give u NC. If the value of the next seat sold in Y is more than your fare bucket, UA would lose out by just moving your lower fare bucket onto that flight, and denying someone willing to pay more.

The system worked as intended, UA sold more high yield tickets, and you got your upgrade. Everyone is happy!

COSPILOT

[Edited by moderator to conform to deleted quote and reply thereto.]

***And more importantly congrats on the upgrade!!! Maybe someday I will make my first transpac that isn't just a halfway, or rather trip to Hawaii. I'm all domestic.

Ocn Vw 1K

The thread topic is the booking and upgrade process on TPAC flights. Please keep on topic. Posts which have strayed from that into discussing the in-flight behavior of children have been deleted or edited. Thanks, Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

cvn74n2

This happened to me recently. I had been watching to see NC open on a flight back to the West Coast from NRT. Up until T-24 hours prior, .bomb showed no NC on any flights but all sorts of open economy seats and 20+ on the seat map on the NRT-SEA flight. At the 24 hour mark, . bomb showed NC4 the NRT-SEA but ALL economy seats were zero'ed out. I know this because I was online and the phone with United Japan when the issue occurred. The phone agent in Japan was able to work something out after 20 minutes, switching me from my original NRT-SFO flight to NRT-SEA and upgrading me into C. I believe there is a software bug in the system that sometimes negligently zeros out economy availability for a period of time. The flight went out about 65-75% full in economy and C had five open seats.

SEA1K4EVR

I checked the inventory for SEA-NRT and right now there's one B seat open (in fact 1 seat open all the way down to T). But, a bird in hand.. the OP is likely already at SEA or if not will be landing there soon.