transonic

Was just told that you need a H, M, Y or B on fare ticket to be eligible for cash, mile or GPU supported international upgrades on a UA ticket flying on a UA plane. My understanding was that a W fare on the route to be upgraded sufficed, has that changed? I've also been noticing that the site says "Online upgrade not available" for all my tickets and must have missed the announcement if rules have changed.

Definitely not saying it wouldn't be understandable if changes were made to make upgrading harder or more costly but it'll be nice to know for sure what the new rules are: managed to use 2 GPUs last year and would still like to use at least 1 this year!

WineCountryUA

HUCA -- likely a badly informed agent

No partner operated flights?

mr8

Aren't Y, M, and B instant ups for 1K and GS?

Kacee

Absolutely false. MOLA.

Baze

Only on domestic flights. OP asking about international. No instant ups on international for anyone. Unless it is CPU eligible.

chermorg

Not only domestic - Instant Upgrades are available on any CPU eligible flight. Virtually all narrowbody flights are eligible (exceptions being HNL-MAJ, p.s. routes [EWR-LAX/SFO, BOS-SFO], and long-haul 757 routes such as to LIM and some EU destinations) for CPU and thus eligible for instant upgrades. It is not based on domestic or international.

edit to clarify It is not just narrowbody flights that are eligible - merely a vast majority of narrowbody flights are eligible whereas only a select few widebody flights are (any domestic hub-hub that is not p.s. route and not HNL to DEN/eastward, some flights to Central America rarely, some flights to/from high traffic destinations, etc).

scientist001

Most probably you were trying to upgrade a Star Alliance operated flight. The W fare rule is only valid for United metal flights and some other exceptions. Here are the rules to upgrade using a GPU on LH and ANA (see also:https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...pgrades.aspx):

Upgrading on flights operated by ANA or Lufthansa
Global Premier Upgrades on ANA-operated flights are valid for one-segment, one-cabin upgrades on any multi-cabin international flight operated by ANA and marketed by ANA or United. Upgrades are subject to availability and valid for paid, published fares only. The following ANA fare classes are eligible for Global Premier Upgrades: C, D, J, Y, B, E and G.

Global Premier Upgrades on Lufthansa-operated flights are valid for one-segment, one-cabin upgrades on any multi-cabin international flight operated by Lufthansa. You may request Global Premier Upgrades as early as time of ticketing in order to upgrade from Lufthansa Economy or Business Class to the next higher cabin. Upgrades are subject to availability and valid for paid, published fares only. The following Lufthansa fare classes are eligible for Global Premier Upgrades: B, C, D, E, G, H, J, M, Q, U and Y

If you want to upgrade using miles and a copay (in some cases waived) other fare classes apply, see here

Kacee

Possibly, but the reported limitation of Y, B, M, or H does not match up with either the LH or NH requirements.

It's equally possible the agent was grossly mistaken.

garkster

If pure UA metal, still W.

Miles Ahead

Perhaps something is wrong with their systems - I have a TATL booked in S, and it will not let me upgrade it with miles+copay.

tryathlete

Who told you that? Total BS. W fare minimum still applies

garkster

There is no guarantee that an upgrade is available for a given route on the date you are trying to book. It is also possible that S is considered 'deeply discounted promotional', but I don't know whether that is the case."Can I request a MileagePlus Upgrade Award on any ticket?

No, MileagePlus Upgrade Awards cannot be used when flying on award tickets or deeply discounted promotional tickets, or on tickets containing a Basic Economy fare."

Some of the earlier responses to OP concerned using a GPU and what fare class was required to qualify.

Kacee

You can absolutely upgrade an S using miles. Just look at the award chart.

cfischer

I hope this is just a major IT glitch and not an enhancement. Since it is a weekend I'll go with IT glitch for now ... it has been years since United.com worked anywhere near satisfactory over a weekend.

spin88

3/2/12 to be precise.... I date that will be the subject of many Business School case studies....