How do upgrades work
 

sorry, i know this is newbie question but i don't understand upgrades.

ual website reports that I have 4 "500 mile complimentary" upgrades available.

I don't understand how these are counted. Does this mean I can upgrade up to four segments?

For instance, i have two upcoming trips, one on my own, another with the family during holidays (5 ticket) . i'd truly love to upgrade with the family (although i know it is unlikely in holiday season).

So when I see this:
REQUEST UPGRADE (for all travellers), requires 2000 upgrade miles or 1 confirmed N America upgrade.

What does that mean? That I would use up the 4 upgrades (and leave one family member un-upgraded?) Or something else?

Sorry for the confusion. I have lots of miles and am apparently braindead about this whole upgrade business, so if some add'l upgrades cost me some miles, that's oK.

So, when I get to the itinerary page, and see the "request upgrade"

So when I see this:

REQUEST UPGRADE (for all travellers), requires 2000 upgrade miles or 1 confirmed N America upgrade.

Means what is says, that the flight is between 1520 and 2000 miles and you need to use your 4 x 500s for that one way flight per person.

You can buy extra 500 mile upgrades if you need from UA, or go to Coupon Connection and see if you can trade for a "confirmed N America upgrade/s" (usually termed 'HK49s' by those here) that generally only 1Ks can earn, but can transfer.

You're going to need a lot more than 4 500-milers to upgrade the whole family.
What it means is that 1 person can upgrade one leg up to a distance of 2000 miles.
Most US transcons are going to require 5 500-milers per person to upgrade the whole trip.
So, if you're going from SFO or LAX to ORD , 4 would cover it. If you're going to JFK, BOS or TPA for example, you'll need 5.

AFAIK, this is a per-person type thing. So you'd need something more in the neighborhood of 20-25 to upgrade the whole family.

JD

AFAIK 500-milers can only be used to upgrade yourself and one traveling companion. You need to use Confirmed North American upgrades to upgrade the whole family.

Recently, I took an SFO-JFK-SFO trip with a couple of my relatives. One of them had somewhere around 36 500-milers but she couldn't upgrade all four of us because of this rule. She didn't have any Confirmed North American Upgrades at the time either so we had to fly coach http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif.

Welcome to FT! Also realize, that the 500 mile upgrades can only be used within your window of upgradeability e.g., 1K = 100 hours, PremEx = 72 hours, Prem = 24 hours. So if you definitely WANT to ensure you're upgraded, you can always use your miles to upgrade. You can also use miles to upgrade others as well if there is space available.

Do all of these responses answer your question?

Have a similar question on earning complimentary 500 mile upgrades. As I understand, you have to fly 10k miles on UA metal and UA tickets to earn 4 comp 500 mile upgrades.

Do the 10k miles have to be flown all within the same quarter? I flew one transcon in Sept and two in October and still have not realized any complimentary upgrades? Did UA screw up or do they really have to be in the same quarter?

For those expert UA flyers, is there a link describing this on UAL.com?

It calculated on a calendar year basis. So for every 10K status miles you fly within a calendar year, you'll earn 4 500 milers.

http://www.united.com/page/article/0...e=RelatedLinks

They screwed up. IMO.

We both flew 20,000 miles last week on UA metal and 8 x 500 milers have posted already for example.

The "clock" ticks over STRICTLY for each 10,000 flown on UA metal. If you flew 9999 miles in January and your next flight was today you'll THEN get 4 after today's flight - even a very short one, posts.

The 1K HK49 upgrades rely on an infreqent "sweep" of all accounts before they post, but 500 milers in my experience post fast. (Or as you have found, not at all!)


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~ Glen ~ sipping bubbly from UA 747-400 exit row 15A near you SOON!

Based on my experience upgrading with 500-milers two years ago and more, SFO-JFK will cost six 500-milers per pax each way, not five. It is over 2,550 miles one way. (2,586 or something like that.)

But, for example, SFO-PHL will cost only five 500-milers. It's 2,521 miles one way (thus meeting the less than 2,550 cutoff mark).


Kathy

Thanks everyone. This has been very helpful. How long does it take for the 500 milers to post after you fly the 10k qualifying flight?

[This message has been edited by NeoOfTheCRS (edited 11-02-2003).]

Complimentary 500-mile upgrade certs post on Saturday nights.

Can a Premier Exec ever look forward to any complimentary upgrades from UA other than the 500 milers?

Are the HK-49's and the Sweet Spots reserved for 100k's only?

They are GIVEN to 1Ks only but lots of ohers get to USE them http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif



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~ Glen ~ sipping bubbly from UA 747-400 exit row 15A near you SOON!

I am flying to Europe next year, 10,400 miles round trip. I have no status. Will I ge these 4 500 mile upgrades? What do you have to do to become a 1p?