Upgrade on E-Fare SFO-MEX
 

Hi all,

This is my first post after a year or so of lurking. I searched the archives and couldn't find an answer to my question, so I thought I'd submit my question to your infinite wisdom.

I just saw what must be a United E-Fare for this/next weekend from SFO-MEX on Travelocity. At $234++ it's a bargain (books into T class). I noticed the following in the fare rules (link here):

THESE FARES NOT UPGRADABLE THROUGH SYSTEM UPGRADES SALES UPGRADES OR 1K SYSTEM UPGRADE TO A HIGHER CLASS OF SERVICE.

... which is consistent with what I remember reading -- that E-Fares aren't upgradeable.

My question is: the rules don't appear to explicitly exclude the use of 500 milers/ mileage upgrade awards as upgrade instruments. Has anyone had luck upgrading these fares with miles/500-milers?

thanks!
berkeleyguy3

T fares to MEX can be upgraded to F (or is it C?) with 500's. Since it is region 1, you should be able to use CR-1's, but it seems like the fare rules prohibit this. With that said, I doubt united.com or an agent would ever bother to check...

BTW, the fare link is broken. What is the full fare basis ?

Funny, works for me. Fare basis is TECATL2Z

berkeleyguy

Huh. It works for me too now. It redirected me to the main travelocity.com main page the first time. :confused:

You raise a good point about the F vs. C. I have some murky recollection about SFO-MEX tickets upgrading into NC rather than NF even though it's a two class aircraft (320). A CSR explained that it was due to the "international flight". :confused: Any of you heard this?

This matters in terms of checking for X (NF) vs. I (NC) class inventory before booking...

Any consensus on what I should be looking for here?

Mexico flights have a front cabin that books into C/D, not into F, whether paid or upgraded. It has its origin I believe to be consistent with MX when they code-shared/were *A, and to also make it clear that it doesn't generally entitle you to Int'l F benefits (in fact, UA closed the MEX F lounge after this change).

I believe the upgrade issue is related to it being an e-fare and not to the fare class. I could be wrong. :rolleyes:
I've used a CR-1 to upgrade an S fare in this market. And an a T fare is really just an S-lite fare ;)