aisleorwindow

My friend won a fistful of those Sales Division ("UpgradeTV") upgrades in a golf tournament last year. I assume because UA was a sponsor or something.

Where else do people get these from? There seem to be a fair amount floating around.
What about the International Sales TV upgrades?

I guess the real question is: how can I get some!?!?!

Just curious.

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"I just wanna wish you good luck, we're all counting on you"
-Dr. Rumack

WhoME

Our internal travel agency has some unknown number of these and distributes them seemingly at random in our travel packages but always shortly before they expire, or so it seems. UA is a "preferred" airline so presumably these certs are sweeteners for the travel contract...

Mike

bigricky4

UA has a dedicated Sales Division. As with most companies there job is to preserve old, and grow new key accounts. Sales upgrades are given out by this group for these reasons, and also given out at UA sponsered events.

iluv2fly

Greg -
The ones I get my hands on you would want. They are usually C/D to F or Y to C on international tickets.
No big whoop, uness the company is paying.

Snorkdoc

E-Bay.

John26

The Land of Narnia.

jonhansen

Certainly in my old agency we used to get a regular supply of upgrade vouchers. Y to C or C to F. It was part of the contract that the client company had with UA. (AA have a similar arrangement). Usually this allowed pax to travel on a corporate discounted D fare and upgrade to F.

The reason the were about to expire is becuase they only have short validities in the first place.

With Corporate Policy allowing C/J class in transatlantic most travellers prefered BA J Class (Sleeper seats, more air mile ops because of the bigger range of destinations)or VS J Class (Limo, Clubhouse, haircut and sleeper seats). The Upgrades where to encourage people to fly UA in preference to the other two. Most UK Corps would have BA as a preferred supplier along with maybe VS and a US carrier (UA,AA,CO) depending on major destinations.

NickP 1K

UA's sales team doesn't do a very good job of recruiting new accounts

Eastbay1K

UA's current sales team is extremely reduced and now has little or no discretion to do anything.

RichardMEL

Back in the late 90's I was given a number of sales upgrade certs by a true angel. I had some red domestic ones (they used to be relatively easy to come across) and I even scored a few of the highly valued international sales upgrade cets (they were blue and white, IIRC). Had to be personally signed or stamped by the issuing sales office, id etc. These things were like SWU's except they had (wait for it) no fare class restrictions!! I used one on MEL-AKL-LAX to go from V to C (woo hoo!). The only limit was a 72 hour out window or somesuch, but as there were no SWU's in those days, it was pretty easy to use these things.

Anyway, I remember my angel telling me one time about them over dinner and the process was something like each sales office was allocated a certain amount - the domestic ones were virtually write your own, and they came as carbon imprint type deals like regular old style tickets. They each had a 016 number, but really they were pretty much like a free upgrade pass. I used to hand them in at the gate and ask for a seat and voila! Suddenly a 2P is up with the big boys and girls in F! The international ones were like the holy grail (and this folks is back when UA C class was 38" pitch, old crappy seats, no ISV etc, but the service rocked... great food, godivas, decent wines etc... I recall getting rhe most amazing desert out of AKL my first time in the upper deck of a 744. ). Anyway those international upgrade certs were far more rare and difficult to come across, and my angel told me they had to account for them all. How she managed to account for the 3 or 4 she got me I'm not sure I want to know. I suspect it was billed as "customer loyalty reward" or something. It worked - I doubled my travel on UA that year!

Of course we're talking 5-6 years ago, so things have no doubt got a lot worse. I still remember the day I opened the envelope with "UAL Sales" on it and feeling pretty special to get a hand written note on UA paper with those blue and white lovelies stuck in there.

It's stuff like that and people like that that make you loyal to a carrier like UA when times go bad....



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RichardMEL, UA 1K
A Star Alliance Member.

aisleorwindow

Thanks everyone for your replies.
It seems like the sales teams are still active, just not as much as in the past.
Seems strange to cut their staff when United needs them more than ever!


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"I just wanna wish you good luck, we're all counting on you"
-Dr. Rumack

redbeard911

We are a Denver-based global engineering and construction firm. We do have several SWU's in the possession of our company travel coord. My asst called the travel coordinator, and I get 1 SWU for each intl trip I take. Whether I actually get the upgrade is another story. (running about 66%) I haven't told my colleagues that these exist. I just made 1K, so I will have my own to use now.

TravelManKen

My wife works for a Fortune 100 company that does almost all of their travel with United. Typically the sales division will send a handful of 72-hour confirmed upgrades (good on any fare, one year expire) through the corporate travel department for any executives taking long flights and for special occasions - wedding, anniversary, birthday, etc.

Lurker

I had never heard of these and then stumbled upon a number of web pages and links devoted to these "Sales Upgrades". I am not sure if these web pages are new.

See here

Lurker

joelfreak

Your link is to electronic sales upgrades. The OP was posting about paper sales upgrades. The paper ones are no longer accepted at all, as per UA Corporate about 9 months ago. I went VERY high up in the company, and these have not been sent out in paper form for over 5 years now, and they are marked to have a one year expiration. Supposedly all ticket counters are aware that these are not valid...