BillMorrow

Is it just me? I'm having a terrible time finding upgradeable fares at 'reasonable' costs on flights that actually have upgrade inventory available.

I'm going to MAD for a trip in early/mid April. I've been watching the fares closely in anticipation of seeing a drop. Unfortunately, any lower fares end before my travel dates and/or are not upgradeable. In the past, fares for April and early May usually would drop by the middle of February. Not this year! The lowest upgradeable fare to MAD from BTV continues to hover around $900.

I got tired of waiting and today booked two premium coach award seats at a cost of 200K miles. My intent was to then upgrade with DMUTA4's (Karen & I are both CP). Unfortunately, US doesn't have any upgrade seats available for either our outbound or return flights between PHL & MAD and we were wait-listed.

One of the flights had 17/24 seats available in Envoy but no upgrade inventory. This seems to be a bit of a change from the past when premium coach awards always seemed to garner immediate upgrades for elites.

We're currently scheduled to go to London for Wimbledon this summer. With these problems in April, I hate to think about what costs/upgraded availibilty will look like then.

dingo

I sense they are tightening the inventory of upgradeable fares as well, and not being as quick to release Envoy seats for upgrades. I'm holding purchased tickets to CDG in May, and have been for a few months. I'm on the standby list to use miles. I decided to go this route instead of SWU's when they changed my equipment from the 330 to the 767 and dramactially reduced the number of Envoy seats available for upgrade. If something doesn't open soon, I'll just take my chances using the certs and have them cancel my miles upgrade request.

geo1005

Bill,

I'd call and try again. Make sure you politely ask/remind the international agent that your premium award is a "full fare" ticket and that upgrades for those come from a different bucket than the discount coach awards/fares. When the agent heard you were trying to use upgrade certs they may have looked in the wrong bucket for the upgrade seats? Just a thought.

Also, because you are on a premium award, maybe ask the agent if the previous/next days flights are available for the immediate confirmable upgrade? You could switch flight with no penalty if your dates are flexible.

good luck

BigLar

Am I missing something? Why couldn't you get two Envoy award tix for 160K?

rhodeweary

... because 80K Envoy seats are almost impossible to find. I was hoping to take a friend to Paris for a weekend - pretty much any weekend - and burn some miles. Found one outbound seat on a Sunday, and two return seats 15 days later.

BillMorrow

I've tried extending and shortening our trip by one day on the outbound and return. No luck there. I've also called back once to have someone check again without result. The international desk told me that with only one flight per day, the available upgrades and award seats disappear quickly.

As someone else noted, regular Envoy award seats are very difficult to come by. For shoulder and in-season travel, you have to book them 330 days out.

I'm NOT going to burn 320K miles to ride up front. I'd rather drive to BOS and pay for a $500 W class seat and ride in coach. Then I could save my miles for Star Alliance awards.

At this point, I'm going to keep watching and calling. Perhaps something will open up. It's interesting to note how US' philosophy on trans-Atlantic pricing has changed. Last year, upgradeable fares were often less then non-upgradeable ones. Now, upgradeable fares carry a significant premium. A smart move for US, but hard on my checking account. I also wonder how the upgrade situation will be later this year and early next year when only CP's will upgrade certificates for these routes.

The Lurker

Actually, all transatlantic Envoy upgrades, regardless of fare paid, come out of the "R" bucket. With a Y/B fare, the upgrade may be confirmed at the time of purchase, but still comes out of the "R" bucket.

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