How much does flexibility help in getting upgraded
 

I'll be graduating law school this summer, and I want to take a post-bar trip. I'll have enough miles to upgrade from economy to business class from lax to nrt. Since I don't really have any set dates, if I tell the United people that I can leave at any point during the first week of August will that increase my chances of getting an upgrade? I don't fly often, so my membership status is very basic. Some people have said it's better to just "pay" for a business class seat with miles alone, but for me to accumulate that many miles would take awhile, and I'd really like to travel to asia in style.

Checking availability, there is a lot of upgrade space available on the nonstop LAX-NRT flight 8/1, 8/2, 8/3, 8/8, 8/9, and 8/10. Pick one of those dates and you can confirm your business class seat at booking. Keep in mind there is also a copay to upgrade with miles..if you book it now you can pay the copay at checkin..it's $600 each way on the most discounted coach fares. As of now, the newly configured 777's are scheduled on that route with the lie flat seats in business.

How were you able to check availability!? I've been looking for a tool like this. And I understand that the cheapest coach fares require a copayment, but even with the copayment a round trip flight, in business class, to Japan is worth the 2300 (1100 for flight +1200 copay) for someone who is 6'5 and NEEDS layflat seats.

Also, off topic, but I'm booking a domestic flight and am wondering whether I should do so through United (so it looks like I fly with them more) or Chase (because I get 2x miles). I have to book travel through Chase in order to get the miles, so it's impossible for me to book through United and get the Chase miles.

You can check availability on United.com. I used ExpertFlyer..www.expertflyer.com.. but it's a pay site (which is much faster and easier than United.com..but it's $9.99 per month..you can get a free trial though if you want to check it out). On United.com go into your profile and set it to Expert mode for displaying availability. Then, do a dummy award booking for the dates you want. It will display the LAX-NRT flight.. then click on "Flight Details" which displays all of the award travel buckets. For upgrade space you are looking for "NC" availability. As I said before, there's plenty of space on all of those dates I mentioned.

As for your domestic flight... it doesn't really matter. Unless you earn 25,000 elite qualifying miles in a calendar year on United you'll get no extra benefit from one domestic flight.

To see that space on .bomb (UA.com), first enable the "expert mode" in your UA profile. Click on "My Profile", and then click "My Travel Information". About half-way down the page you will see an option for novice or expert. Set it to expert.

Then follow these steps:

1) Click the tab for an award search, enter your cities, dates, etc, and click go
2) When the flights load up, click on flight details for the preferred flights
3) For domestic flights on two-cabin aircraft (F&Y), you'll want to look for NF. If it's a three-cabin aircraft, i.e. an international flight, or domestic sector using international equipment, make sure to look for NC. If you see NC>0, that means that there is space available to upgrade from Economy to Business. If you had a paid Business class ticket, you would look for NF>0 to upgrade into First.

You, sir, are a God. How come some routes (lax --> sfo --> nrt) offer NC9 status for 32,500 miles, whereas other routes (lax --> nrt) offer NC9 status for 65,000 miles.

NC is economy to business upgrade inventory fare class
NC for USA-NRT is 30K miles + a copay depending to purchased fare class

XC is business award inventory fare class
saver XC for USA-NRT is 60,000 miles oneway
saver XY for USA-NRT is 32,500 miles oneway and 65,000 miles for standard award

would appear you are looking at an economy award, in one case a saver and in the other a standard award (no saver on that routing). Either case those are economy, not business class seats.

I'm 6'3" and fly a lot so I always try to upgrade or buy a Business or First Class seat. To be honest though, if I only had to make a single trip, I'd keep the miles and use them for separate trip. Going across the Pacific once in economy is not bad, it's just gets old when you have to do it a lot.

A god? Hmmm... I think it's more likely I've got a bit of the devil in me ;).

Ignore those milesage amounts..they are for free award tickets. You only need concern yourself with there being space in the NC bucket..then you can book your paid ticket, upgrade it with miles on United.com, and select your business class seat.

If you are seeing XC inventory, another alternative is to book one way for 60,000 miles and buy the ticket in the other direction. Fares on that route have been relatively low (I have seen business as low as $2800 RT) and you would also have the opportunity to earn United miles on the paid segment. If you do this I would highly recommend you consider booking both segments on ANA (United can do this for you), I'm sure you would enjoy their new C product and excellent food and service. Even if you don't see XC inventory, ANA may have it available- check continental.com or call United.