JuliaBerkeley

Greetings. I will be travelling to China in May/June with my daughter and could fly into any city. I want to purchase tickets then get confirmed upgrade with miles or through SWUs. I potentially have 4 SWUs from a 1k friend or I could use miles. I am a lowly Premier. What do you recommend. "Upgrades may be available" on some of the tickets I have looked at. Thanks.

dulcamara

Sign up with expert flyer and you can see the inventory on all the transpacs. I do ORD-HKG about 2x year and if you book far enough out and fly on Tu, W, Th the NC space is there.

UA-NYC

Guessing PEK/BJS may be easier than PVG

drewguy

Yeah, I think generally speaking PEK>PVG>HKG, although as noted if you have enough flexibility and plan far enough out upgrades are available on all routes.

Innerloop

This doesn't apply to China specifically, but I have noticed over the last 1-2 years it has been much easier to get upgrades or find NC space for confirmed upgrades by avoiding 747/767 aircraft routes and opting for 777 routes.

For example, SFO to NRT is much easier to upgrade by routing through SEA or LAX and getting the 777 TPAC crossing than trying for the 747 route direct from SFO.

I would attribute this partly to getting away from the "captive" SFO HUB and its heavier loads, and paying customers for C seats avoiding the risk of catching an up-upgraded 777 aircraft.

Then you add the liklihood of more C seats in the older aircraft.

So look for routes that cross on 777s and you'll increase your odds of an upgrade into SOME form of C-class seat.

npei

+1 This is my experience especially for the SFO nonstops.
PEK is much easier than PVG, while PVG is only slightly easier for summer travel upgrade vs HKG. PVG and HKG have lots of GS/1k elites flying, and PVG have lots of full-fare passengers. PEK have relatively more non-elites and/or discounted coach flyers.

If transit via NRT, you have reasonable chance of upgrade b/c Japan travel is down due to "irrational" nuclear radiation contamination fear.

garykung

For HKG, no need to think.

For PVG, you may need some luck

For PEK, even GMs with SWUs can get the upgrade.

gmitchs

You may want to look at connecting through ICN. There seems to always be NC inventory on SFO-ICN-SFO. The flight arrives early enough to connect to many Chinese destinations.

garykung

Yes - but on OZ?

harryhood

Not sure if serious -- UA flies SFO-ICN, so then you just connect to an OZ flight to PVG or PEK.

garykung

Then the purpose of SWUs?

Cantheplanegofaster?

PVG sucks for upgrades. Someone already stated, stay away from Mon or Friday travel.

Your status is useless if not GS or 1K so best bet is to get booked direct into NC.

You need as much advance booking time as possible as the NC space is limited early and goes very quickly. Off peak days (ie, the day of a US holiday) are the best bet.

Using W fares to PVG I have cleared only 20% (using MANY attempts) in 2011

harryhood

The purpose is "who cares about an ICN-PVG upgrade, a short leg, when you got it SFO-ICN"....

garykung

For real, some 1K do.

Lori_Q

This is a good suggestion, but please be careful to avoid traveling on heavy business-travel days. A friend of mine flies this route every couple of months (SFO-ICN on Sundays/Mondays, ICN-SFO Fridays), and almost never gets upgraded, even as a 1K.