Consolidated "Can I Upgrade an Award Ticket?" Discussion Thread [Merged]
 

I know you can't upgrade off an XY ticket. As far as I know, its been a United rule for forever. WHY?

Don't ask why; it just is, that's why. :p

It's been raised in the past and the simple answer is that dem's the rules. UA decided that award travel is not eligible for upgrades, period.

Of course, rules are made to be bent and I've gotten upgraded on award tkts using 500 mile certs but that was based on the generosity of the gate agent and not because it's something that passengers are entitled to get.

I've raised it in this forum a number of times. It seems to me that if I'm going to use upgrade instruments for my paid flights, why not be able to use it on an award tkt for my wife? I'm going to use them at some point anyway.

So when my wife and I travel (usually I'm on a paid tkt and she's on the award), we both end up sitting in E+.

Others have said that UA figures that many upgrade instruments are not used (which I'm certain is true) and if they allow award tkts to be upgraded, then more will be used, obviously.

It's also been stated that there are options to upgrade awards by simply coughing up more miles to get those seats either saver or standard.

But, in the final analysis, UA makes the rules about the mileage plus program and we abide by them.

Does any airline allow upgrades on award tkts?

Probably only exception at the moment is same-day upgrade paying cash.

Like AA does for $50 per 500 miles... maybe this is just for elites, though.

BR allows upgrades on award tickets. With the miles needed to upgrade, though, you would be better off initially booking the premium ticket (unless you want only a one-way upgrade).

It's actually comparable to UA's system as far as the raw ratios are concerned, e.g. US-Asia XY=60k miles RT, XC=90k miles RT, Y->NC upgrade = 30k miles EACH way. The difference is that on BR, you actually have the option to do the unfavorable-rate upgrade at 60+30+30. Maybe it comes in handy if someone gives you an XY ticket as a gift but you don't do economy travel. ;)

NZ also allows upgrades on award tickets

Jeff

Why would you want to upgrade an award ticket rather than book the award in the preferred class in the first place.

Well I know the answer is "I want to use my upgrades" or "I don't have enough miles" or something similar. And I know UAs answer - "Tough"! :p

on intl itineraries, it's much easier to find NF availability than XF... so one reason might be that it's the easier way to get into the premium cabin, even if it ends up costing more miles.

another might be that you've taken 1/2 of an XY award on a 10+ hour flight and decided that you don't want to suffer through Y on a long flight again... you can't cancel the award and book it in a higher class once you've flown 1/2 of it.

i made the latter mistake, once. after i suffered through 17 hours in the Y cabin, there was nothing i could do to get into C on the return flight... except for what i did: i basically threw away the return ticket and bought a ticket in business class, then upgraded to F.

i'll never fly XY again. you have no options once you begin travel.

As has been mentioned, try getting a business class award tkt for int'l travel. Very difficult compared to getting an economy tkt.

But even domestically, for me I book a saver award, say, HNL-ORD for 35k miles for my wife. Of course, I could book a first class saver award for 60k, if available but I would prefer to use 500 mile certs or even a CR1. In other words, for those that would rather save their miles and use other means to upgrade, UA says it can't be done.

I've seen them upgrade several people from XY to XYY.

UA is very gestapo with awards. They don't allow one-way awards, combinations of saver and standard awards (at least for GMs, 2Ps, and 1Ps), and upgrades on awards. :td:

In a sense, they have the right to be "gestapo" with awards. It's their program. If we don't like it, we can go somewhere else where they give out awards with no restrictions, etc. (I don't know of such an airline.)

Besides, UA can barely manage their program now what with all the possible combinations, permutations, etc. You want to even more chances for screwups? :D

XY is an upgrade... from UnitedCargo. :p

My guess...because "Cash is king"

Sure, there is the debate that miles is a form of currency, but I believe UA wants to get some real $$ for it's upper cabins and limit the number of non-cash people on the plane. If you book 20 people bok xy, and then 10 of them upgrade to NF, then there could be 10 more xy seats open and then you would have more non-monitary people on the plane, lowering the total revenue.

. . . which would be why UA allows buy-ups from XY.

Thanks for all your comments. A lot of your answers make sense, but I'm still left confused when in certain situations, United prefers to leave the F cabin open rather than let someone upgrade off XY. For instance, a few months back I was on a short-haul flight BOS-ORD. The plane had 2 F seats filled and Y was fairly empty. Travelling on XY, I was not allowed to upgrade to F even though United had the seats, no one else wanted to upgrade, and they MAKE MONEY if I use my certs. That's the kind of situation,(i.e. where it seems like United would MAKE MONEY) and then refuses to upgrade that I don't understand.

:confused: ...pretty simple really: because XC/XF tickets exist if you want to travel in a higher cabin.

...did you think of 'upgrading' your XY ticket to an XF ticket by using more miles? @:-)

UA is more likely to "make money" (to use your words) by having you use more miles (and reduce its liabilities) than by you using up some of your e-500s... and BTW, how do you figure that UA makes money when you use e-500s? :confused:

...is the 'currency' used for upgrades the same as for award tickets (airpoints)?

...inKrect™... that would be NY, and only 1Ks can get it ;) :p

Apparently some GAs are still unfamiliar with the rule. I was called up to the counter and offered an op-up by a DEN GA yesterday, but he couldn't figure out how to get the computer to op-up an XY (you can't), so after getting my hopes up, he said sorry and moved to the next highest status pax. Annoying.

I figure there probably is a way he could have given me the upgrade if he'd really wanted to, but instead it was just a tease.

CONFIRMED: UGS able to Upgrade on AWARD SEATS!
 

Received an e-mail about re-qualifying for UGS, and it had a little blurb at the end:

"as well as our new policy allowing you to upgrade from an award seat when calling Global Services."

I called UGS and asked them if this was the case and they said yes it was. I was able to upgrade from a Business Class award ticket to Hong Kong to First both ways using Systemwides. Did anyone know this?

UG

Any chance you could call back and get a profile code for that? Please?

That's awesome! I wonder if they will expand this to other elites. I'm guessing on a DM list that XC and XY tickets will sort to the bottom of the list for each status level, although I'm assuming that Standard Award tickets would be at the top of the list since they book into C and Y...

This (upgrading an award seat) sounds like a pretty fantastic new benefit. I've wanted exactly this functionality many times in the past -- sometimes just because of the upgrade versus award inventory distinction, but also at times when I want to fly a friend or family member in a premium cabin, but would prefer to spring for some combination of (miles + upgrade instrument) rather than miles alone.

Any clue from one of you UGSers about whether you can do this only for your *own* travel, or whether it applies to people using your miles (or upgrade instruments) as well?

I'd love to see them extend this to other MP tiers ...

Even though I'm a 1K, I actually hope they don't. This seems like a great perk for GS folks, and we do need good differentiators among all the various levels.

This is good thinking on UA's part. A new perk for UGS without devaluing other elite levels.

Yes. ^ I like it.

Big deal.

HKG Saver Award in C= 90K miles
HKG Saver Award in F= 120K miles

Why would anyone book award C then use 2 SWUs to upgrade to F? :confused:

2 SWU should be valued more than 30K miles, IMHO.

What if you're flying on Feb 26 and have expiring SWUs? ;)

Couldn't you also upgrade domestic coach saver seats with CR-1s and e500s?

Yeah - that makes sense.

Also this could be a way to get a "split award" e.g. F one way, C the other. It wouldn't be a great deal but in some sectors might be an option if the member doesn't have enough miles to redeem a roundtrip F award. Especially in the case of standard awards. (Or C one way, Y the other etc.)

In your example, 2 SWU would be worth 60K miles... seems like a fair tradeoff.

Sure, but what about

ORD-HNL Saver in Y: 35K miles
ORD-HNL Saver in 2-cabin F: 75K miles

versus, say, ORD-HNL in F for 35K miles plus 2 CR-1s, or 35K miles plus a bunch of e500s? To me those sound significantly better than effectively blowing an extra 40K miles for a 2-cabin F upgrade (admittedly a better-than-usual 2-cabin F).

And that's not to mention the times that, to use your example above, HKG is available for Saver awards in C ... and available for upgrades from C to F ... but doesn't have any Saver F awards available. In any of these cases, this new benefit would be very handy.

30

I think the real value of this benefit is that NF & NC are usually a lot easier to find that XF & XC respectively, so you can book an award in the lower class, and user miles or other instruments to book your "award" into NF/NC. ^

No firsthand experience, but based on a lot of the postings here it seems like there aren't all that many saver C seats to Asia at all, but saver Y does seem possible. It'd be a great deal to pick up Y seats and upgrade to C with SWUs wouldn't it?

That's a good point. I wonder if these book into NC/NF or XC/XF?

I would imagine the system is set to credit MP account with mileage in the NC/NF buckets, so I'm curious how this works.

Availability.

argh availability issue...

My observation is that it's often easier to get saver F than saver C to HKG...

Op-ups book into NF/NC too, and it doesn't affect the mileage earning (non) ability. The booking class on the BP alone doesn't determine the mileage earned. E.g. Booking a B fare and upgrading to NC vs booking H and upgrading to NC. You get 150% EQM in one case, and not the other even though they're both booked into NC.

I'd be very surprised if they weren't booked in NC/NF.

Riiiiiight....?? And also easier to get Saver Y, so it's nice that you can upgrade Saver Y. What's so complicated?