3 United Global upgrade expires Jan 31 2016

Michel_D · June 28, 2015, 12:18am

Will trade for wine

PM is best

Michel_D · September 18, 2015, 6:19am

Bump

Michel_D · November 24, 2015, 4:37pm

Bump …

David_Kaufman · June 27, 2016, 7:07pm

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I was curious about how these United upgrades work.

We are planning a Euro trip next year and the most favorable flights at the moment appear to be on United/Lufthansa. It’d be great to be able to book in Coach and upgrade using vouchers, but I’m not sure of the process and availability of using on partner airlines.

Mark_Y · June 27, 2016, 7:56pm

Can these be used on miles tickets?

jordan_whitehead · June 28, 2016, 2:21am

no

jordan_whitehead · June 28, 2016, 2:24am

David_Kaufman · June 28, 2016, 2:56am

Thanks Jordan; very helpful. So 1K Elites get 6 of these every year. What is the going rate for the vouchers in the secondary market?

james_l_moleberg · June 28, 2016, 2:58am

these can ONLY be used on UA metal… no codeshares. additionally, you have to book an eligible fare bucket to attach the upgrade. discount economy is ineligible for the upgrade as are some other economy fare buckets. and then of course, you have to find availability. might be difficult with 3 passengers. ymmv.

AndrewH · June 28, 2016, 6:04pm

They’re not supposed to be bought and sold, but they appear to be around $400 each. Of course, if you can use them they can be worth a lot more, at least in terms of the Business v. economy fare differential. And if they’re about to expire, they’re worth a lot less.

To add to the previous post, the fareclass has to be W or “higher” on United, and upgrade space isn’t always immediately available.

Anyway, Flyertalk is probably your best source for information about GPUs (and pretty much anything flying related). Here’s a thread specifically on GPUs:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1409348-consolidated-global-premier-upgrade-gpu-questions-thread-wiki.html

Eric_B_DBA · June 28, 2016, 6:20pm

I pay $400 for them. Can only be used on coach fares of W and up.

David_Kaufman · June 28, 2016, 11:16pm

AndrewH:

David Kaufman:

jordan whitehead:

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/12/10/using-united-gpus-upgrade-lufthansa-flights-change-procedure/

Thanks Jordan; very helpful. So 1K Elites get 6 of these every year. What is the going rate for the vouchers in the secondary market?

They’re not supposed to be bought and sold, but they appear to be around $400 each. Of course, if you can use them they can be worth a lot more, at least in terms of the Business v. economy fare differential. And if they’re about to expire, they’re worth a lot less.

To add to the previous post, the fareclass has to be W or “higher” on United, and upgrade space isn’t always immediately available.

Anyway, Flyertalk is probably your best source for information about GPUs (and pretty much anything flying related). Here’s a thread specifically on GPUs:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1409348-consolidated-global-premier-upgrade-gpu-questions-thread-wiki.html

Regarding the Fare Class, when I search flights on united.com, I see class T for lowest fare economy and class Q for flexible economy. How to tell if either is greater than W?

Eric_B_DBA · June 29, 2016, 12:06am

W is typically the lowest coach fare that’s eligible for an upgrade. In the advanced search option you can search by fare class.

AndrewH · June 29, 2016, 7:59pm

Here’s information from United site:

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/booking/flight/fareClass.aspx

Basically everything listed after “W” in the chart is not eligible for an upgrade (i.e., S, T, L, K, G, N)

Here’s a more detailed unofficial chart that you can sort by “pecking order” - W is 18th on this chart, and all below would not be eligible to use a GPU on an international flight (you can use them to upgrade any domestic flight).

http://cwsi.net/united.htm