Intrepid

Yesterday I bought thru United.com a one way ticket: ORD->GRR on mainline.
It was a Q booking class. I made my seat selection in the E+ section of Y. The fare was $112.50 and I clicked on "Purchase".
After some wait, a screen, that is new to me, came up asking me if I want to buy a premium seat for additional $65. The flight duration is about 29-30 minutes. I planned on upgrading to F with an e-500 miler. But I was taken by surprise. Decided to click "No". All that could happen is sitting half hour in 5F of a 737. 30 minutes in F and OJ are not worth $65 to me.
Aftar my "No" (but thank you No....) I was returned to the regular final screen, confirmimg my purchase of the ticket. Then I signed out, and signed in back to go for the upgrade based on the e-cert. I had no problem and today I got a call from the easy-update that my U/G seat in F is confirmed.

This is a good move to raise extra revenue for a modest extra charge. Nothing wrong with that.

What are others' experience with this automated seller?
Second, did someone buy a tarnscon or trans-atlantic ticket and got an offer to U/G from Y to C for .... $65 ?
OK for $100?

SEA_Tigger

The price seems to be based on segment lengths, and people are reporting both Economy Plus to First (two class only, so far) for elites and Economy to Economy Plus (including international) for non-elites upgrade options.

International premium cabin upgrades (Economy to Business and Business to First) still seem to be day of flight at the discretion of the gate agents.

mahasamatman

I booked two tickets SFO-ORD yesterday and was given a $260 upgrade offer for the outbound leg for each one (booking class S). These are only two data points, but based on this and the OP's $65 for ORD-GRR, the offer seems to map pretty directly to $65 per 500-miler.

MikieLikesMiles

I'm seeing the same thing. 5 upgrade offers at easy check-in during December on the following routes: DCA-ORD, ORD-DCA, ORD-LAX, LAX-ORD, and LAX-IAD. In each case the amount offered for the upgrade corresponded to a 30% markup on the dollar equivalent of 500-milers. Such that DCA-ORD market that requires 2 500-milers, could be upgraded for $130 (and some off cents I recall). Since it would cost me $50 per 500-miler if I resorted to buying them online, that would be $100 ($50 each for the two requisite 500-milers necessary) plus a 30% ($30) price differential.

The same thing in the other markets: ORD-LAX segments were offered for approx. $260 (the 4 500-miler cert value plus 30%), and LAX-IAD for $325 (the value of 5 500-miler certs plus 30%).

I always turned them down, and after using all my mileage earned 500-milers chose to sit in E+ vs. buying more 500-milers or resorting to pay for the instant upgrades. YMMV.

Intrepid

Now, if the rate is 500 mile segment @ $65, then if offered this instant U/G on a trip ORD-FRA where the distance is 4,320 (9 segments), premium pay would be $585 for an U/G from Y to C.
Assuming a sale fare ticket (say V class), at $1,100 this adds up to a C class ticket at $2,270. That may be a mediocre deal in my experience - if offered....
On the other hand what would I do with my SWUs?
Ok. I got it. @:-) This deal gets better after I burned my SWU.
D@mn I still have to show up for my daytime job tomorrow.

dcmike

When "buying a premium seat" rather than using 500-milers do you get the milage bonus for C or F?

JY4D

I'm guessing that some person determined that since the price of upgrades for elites is $50 per 500 miles that they should charge a 30% premium for elites to be able to confirm the upgrade in advance.

Unfortunately, most of us probably never purchase upgrades. I know I certainly don't at that price. Its easier just to burn 15,000 miles for a transcon than to pay $200 for a chance of an upgrade. And with many discounted FC fares, I can pay anywhere from $0-400 more than the cheapest discounted coach ticket and not have to use upgrades and get more miles.

I would actually consider purchasing upgrades if they were at the AA price or even at their former price of $125 for a set of 4.

mahasamatman

No, it's still considered an upgrade, so no CoS bonus.