midnightio

UA Prem Exec looking for advice for the upcoming scenario:

May-17 AUS->ORD SWU cleared ('First Class' on a CR-7...)
May-17 ORD->HKG SWU not cleared (#0895)

If the ORD->HKG leg international leg has not cleared when I check in @ the AUS airport:

- Should I downgrade the AUS->ORD First Class leg and keep the SWU applied to the ORD->HKG leg?

- Keep the First Class domestic and if the international leg does not clear try and go back later with an agent and apply a CR-1 in lieu of the SWU?

- Any other creative options?


It would be a shame to waste an SWU on a domestic only segment, not to mention the ~$300 (RT) additional cost for the W-fare class which, I guess, is the gamble we all take when NC space is not available upon booking our tickets.


BTW: I reserved seat 01A for the AUS-ORD segment a few months ago. Just now when checking my ticket I find that I no longer have a seat assigned, and 01A is now occupied by someone else. Never had this happen before... and there were no 'schedule change' notes on .bomb prompting me to call and reconfirm. What could cause this?

kb1992

I am booked on the exact flight the same day as you but my first leg is BOS-ORD which did clear NF using SWU.

5/17 ORD-HKG UA 895

When I booked this 15 days ago, C was wide open. It's Tuesday, used to be easy upgrades. Still waitlisted with SWU.

Alas.. it's showing F2 C0 D0 Z0 J0. So business class is oversold.

SWU is close to become worthless with all those up sells and cheap Z fares. What a foolish thought to buy expensive W fare which is $800 more than L fare.

I did snag a saver F award for this flight. I'll see what happpens 3 hours prior to BOS-ORD departure. If it is hopeless, then I'll pay $250 and cancel the ticket.

Life is too short to endure 15 hours, 45 min to HKG in a miserable UNITED crappy 747 coach seat.

ijgordon

Do you really think "cheap" Z fares and up-sells have accounted for this flight selling out several days in advance? Z fares pretty much start around $6k r/t, hardly cheap by any stretch, and that usually requires about a 30 day advance purchase. Discounted upsells certainly wouldn't even be made available at this point.

So you're double-booked on the same flight? I'd be careful about that, they can and often will cancel one of your reservations.

Well that I can agree with!

kb1992

I have been watching this in the past 2 weeks. Z fare was available even a week ago for the identical flight, even when seatmaps showed only few C seats left.

Oh, Z was priced at $3,500. Hardly $6K you claimed.

PTahCha

Well, the prudent way to do this is use SWU on the longest flight only, and apply it toward the shorter fly when/if SWU clears so you don't end up using an SWU for a short flight.

With that said, you're within UDU time period for the shorter domestic flight. To avoid wasting the SWU, I would recommending calling to un-do the upgrade, assuming if you still can. You may need to wait until the day of the flight for the downgrade if your original booking bucket is not longer available.

worldtrav

So if you think the Z fare is cheap why don't you buy one and avoid the upgrade lottery altogether?

kb1992

yeah, that thought occured to me as W fare is closing to $2K now

but then, what's point to retain 1K and get SWU?

Or, why not just buy $950 L fare and find up sell to F, which is even cheaper than Z?

Guess the game is totally changed.

Often1

You hit the nail on the head. There is close to no point in torturing yourself on UA to make 1K when there may be more convenient and pleasant options including, on the right flight, UA itself. It only takes a company with a corporate discount to take 6-8 C or F seats a couple of days out and the UG's of whatever type are gone. Better to do some serious pricing to see if you can find premium cabin at somewhere in the price range you are willing to pay and book that.

worldtrav

That would involve the element of uncertainty again, gambling that the flight will be designated for the upsell.

sensei

UA's requirement that SWUs can only be applied to W (or higher) fares became a problem when upgrades started not clearing as reliably as they used to (for example, because fare paid now trumps time on waitlist). A simple solution would be to collect a co-pay on sub-W fares. The current system is 1K unfriendly in that it is bad enough to miss the upgrade, but knowing that one paid more for the ticket (sometimes in the neighborhood of $1k to SYD and some Asian destinations) adds injury to insult. UA's policy is better than DLs, but a lot worse than AA's upgrade-pretty-much-any-fare policy.

Lori_Q

Well said. With the difference between S/T/L and W fares rising into the high hundreds of dollars, I've made travel decisions that have NOT sent more business in United's direction. When NC space isn't available I would be more willing to gamble on a co-pay than I would on a high W fare.

Better still - why not make SWUs applicable to ALL paid fare classes??? Heck, I'd be willing to settle for four SWUs a year if I could use them on the cheapest fares.

IFLYUA

FYI......Customer Service just received an update last week regarding this scenario.....If you want to downgrade the domestic flight you can do it as long as your original booking code is available on your flight from AUS-ORD. If you fail to clear the UDUG list for ORD-HKG and you flew in F AUS-ORD UA will not allow you to change the upgrade instrument.

BTW, The flight load on ORD-HKG is looking full so I doubt your SWU will clear.

-IFLYUA

adambrau

Not sure how flexible you are - I am traveling out to HKG via SFO/NRT and then the final leg in economy on NH on the 18th. I was not willing to take the chance to book SFO-HKG nonstop in coach. There are still plenty on NC seats SFO-NRT and LAX-NRT on the 18th - LAX-NRT is also NC3 on the new C layout 777 on the 17th so you might want to consider that option and reroute. I could not do ORD-HKG in coach.

I booked a ticket today for 1317 all in JFK-SFO-HKG on different flights as a backup for the 18th, in case SFO-HKG clears. If it doesn't clear by the day of flight I will cancel it and lose $300, a reasonable insurance.

Often1

UA not looking to make 1K's happy. They are using what used to be UG avail to lure corporate discount customers. Those folks travelling in paid F/J, even with 20% discount, generate millions of dollars and are easy to deal with becs. corporate travel handles the bookings, changes and the like.

kb1992

No. There is no gamble.

If upsell to F is not immediately available, just cancel the ticket within 24 hour period.