Transatlantic Upgrades
 

I decided to take advantage of UA's $338 SEA-LHR fare to spend a few days in London next week. Since this fare isn't upgradable, I decided to connect in IAD on the way there so that I could upgrade at least that portion of the long journey. On the way back I decided to fly through SFO just for variety, and I figured if I really hated coach on the 777 I could pay the difference in dollars ($300) to make the return a B fare which can be upgraded one way for 10K miles.

My question for 1K transatlantic travelers is this: is there a likelihood that UA will bump me to business class on one or both of the transatlantic segments? My brother is only a Premier, and he typically gets upgraded from coach to business on about half of his segments on transpacific flights.

Any experience or advice? Thanks!

in 98 I (1K) received one free upgrade IAD-FRA when eco was overbooked (the gate-agent just called - without me asking for it).

I never experienced free upgrade on transatlantic just because of free business (for upgrades form eco to business), or free first (for upgrades from business).

On my last round the world trip (january-99) UA didn't even allow me to upgrade to international first at check-in or at the gate with miles (K-fare are not upgradable I was told) from Melbourne to Los Angeles (and first class was only 2/3rd full).

Transatlantic upgrades are getting harder and harder to get. They are also hard to plan for, as the ticket does not indicate whether it is upgradeable or not.

My defense against this trend is to use my mileage for free C or F flights on Atlantic sectors, when I am not on a Round The World itinerary. In light of the C and F Atlantic fares (much, much higher than Pacific fares), this is the higest and best use of your United miles.

Being only a semi frequent flyer, only hiting premier once I cant speak from personal experience. However in December, I went to London on a long weekend and while checking in, at Heathrow, was privy to the following conversation next to me which I followed with interest. The flight was less than half full on a 777 with most of the middle 5 seats empty, or only one passenger.

The gentleman next to me was a 1K attempting to get an upgrade from coach without using miles. The gate agent firmly advised him that he could use miles to upgrade, but wouldnt give him a freebie. The 1K state he had been upgraded before. The Gate agent replied that since the flight was so empty, they wouldn't upgrade him, only on a full flights.

I dont know if this official policy. Good luck

As far as I can work out from my experience flying in and out of Narita regularly, the upgrade policy is:

1) immediate refusal unless the flight is full in your class of service at checkin.
2) listing of names of requesting passengers and then upgrading them when either the flight fills up or when the agents at the gate decide those requesting are flying on fares which justify the upgrade and/or are of a Premier Status that makes it reasonable to upgrade the passenger.

Narita is a notoriously hard place to get upgraded, although I have had it happen a few times. These were when I was flying Y class to either Shanghai or Hong Kong. Both flights have more coach passengers and fewer business passengers than the longer flights to the States.

Does this jive with what you Atlantic flyers see? When I was doing most of my Atlantic flying in the mid 80’s it was on Pan Am and their ploicy seemed to be if you were well dressed and ploite you had a better than even chance if space was available.