Would appreciate anyone informing me what, if anything, I can do to expedite having my wait list cleared from UA Economy Plus to Business Class.

My wife & I each used 80,000 Unitd Airlines frequent flyer miles to obtain Economy Plus tickets to fly from Dulles to Paris, France. We requested and were placed on the wait list to be upgraded to Business Class.

We originally asked for Business Class seats, but they were not available so we took Economy Plus to ensure we had tickets.

Thanks for any suggestins/info

Since economy to Europe is only 50k miles, and you paid 80k each, it sounds like you already have first crack at anything that comes open in business. The only way I know would be to pay the standard award cost, which is double the miles per ticket.

Just keep calling back - especially if you don't check online very often. If something clears they don't always call you about it. By calling back I mean every 5-7 days or so. It certainly can't hurt. Simply ask how things are looking.

It looks to me like Trieste 355 redeemed 2 standard coach awards at 80,000 miles each. To get 2 standard Business Class awards would have cost 150,000 each.

Do folks with Standard coach awards really go to the top of the upgrade list? Ahead of 1ks and those who bought coach seats, etc?

Trieste355

UA/MP has three types of awards which seem to be applicable to your travel:

Standard Awards http://www.united.com/page/article/0,,59,00.html
Saver Awards http://www.united.com/page/article/0,,1142,00.html
Star Alliance Awards http://www.united.com/page/article/0,,50042,00.html

Saver and Star Alliance awards are capacity controlled, Standard awards are not. It sounds as though you have secured two (2) Standard Awards in Economy. A Saver award in Business class would cost the same, but is likley not available? You could buy up to a Standard Business class award for 150,000 miles each, or try for a Business Class Saver award? However if there is no Saver inventory in Economy or Business class then I am afraid you may have to go with a Standard award?

Also, you could check into a Star Alliance award, which are Saver-level. Perhaps you could go via FRA on LH?

Thanks Thread,

Appreciate your input. Normal economy seats are 50,000 frequesnt flier miles while business class seats require 80,000 miles.
We used 80 K miles to get Ecomomy Plus seats which are a bit roomier than regular economy, and are on the wait list for business class seats.

We are hoping that between now and our Sept 26 departure date business class seats will become available and we will be moved up from economy plus to business class.

Again, thanks for your input.

Thanks to All

Appreciate your input.
Regular economy seats require 50,000 frequent flier miles while business class seats require 80,000 miles.

We used 80K miles to get Ecomomy Plus seats which are a bit roomier than regular economy seats, and are on the wait list for business class seats.

We are hoping that between now and our Sept 26 departure date business class seats will become available and we will be moved up from economy plus to business class. Because we have already been issued E-tickets we were told we will have to pay $75. each to change tickets to business class.

We were offered business class seats on LH, but chose not to take them. Going via Frankfurt would require almost an additional day of travel

As suggested, we will call UA every few days to check on the status of our upgrade request.

Again, thanks to all for your input.

I am a bit confused. If you spent 80K miles each then you are spending for Business award seats. Now they are not available and all they can do is put you in economy and waitlist you for the business class seats which you have already been charged for. That should be why they gave you economy plus seats. If you want an economy award and have status they would put you in economy plus seats for the miles of an economy award. If you don't have status the only way you could get economy plus is to use the miles for a standard award which is considered a full fare ticket. As you have used the miles for business awards but they could only seat you in economy and waitlist you for business then there should be no change fee as you have already "paid" for the business class seats. If your waitlist does not clear then you would get back the miles difference when you leave, but only if both directions don't clear. If you fly one in business you have flown the whole thing in business as far as how many miles it will cost.

Please correct me if I am wrong on any of this but I am in the same situation with awards to Australia and this is how they explained it to me as the business class seats are not available yet.

What are the dates and where are you trying to go?

To me I can't imagine a situation where LH would not get you were you want to go with only 2-3 hours extra time built in. Plus, LH biz class ain't too shabby.

I looked at the standard award chart for US to Europe and now understand what they did. For a Standard award to Europe it is 80K miles which will get you Economy Plus. You have not "paid" for business class award. They then put you on the waitlist for a business class award and that would incur the change fee they talked about.

This is different from my situation where I have not actually ticketed my award yet. If I had ticketed it would be as I state in the above paragraph. You have obviously ticketed already in XY on a standard award.

All making sense now.