upgrading flights with miles

When you make your reservation on the United site, it will show you the "booking class" before you actually buy the ticket.

Unfortunately, the cheapest fares to Europe are generally not ones that you can upgrade.

I would at least "touch base" with a person a United first- even if you book online later. It is always best to confirm. Usually you have pay full coach in order to upgrade. We did this on BA and USAir. Flying business is so nice- you can stretch out and really sleep and you don't have to crawl over a 3rd person- or have the crawl over you. It is worth it to upgrade occassionally.

Most of the search engines for flights will have an advance search feature which will allow pricing via fare classes. You need to know from United which fare class is required for upgrade. You need to do now because the few upgrades allowed go fast.

I have my miles with Delta, but I suspect the situation is the same on United. For our last two trips I called and talked to an agent with great success. In one case I scored upgrades; in the other, a free ticket. Both times the computer was showing nothing available. I say make the call.

I believe the UA is following the leads of DL and AA and requiring a copay in addition to miles to upgrade starting July 1. Most of this should be on the UA website.

If you have tons of miles why don't you redeem for a free ticket - the airlines have opened up lots of seats for redemption due to the economy. Best of all you could fly some of the other airlines in star alliance using your UA miles.

Kathleen - we've done the upgrade to Business/First thing for almost every Europe trip these past 10 years. I always call an agent because I want them to look at as many different scenarios as possible in order to get the upgrade. Not sure about United, but with Delta it was not a simple matter of getting a K class (or whatever) - there were still, within this class of service, only a few upgrades allowed. Again, maybe things have changed but I found it easier to do this with a human in order to have them search different dates & different cities. We often determined our trips based on which city had the upgrades available. One other point though, my understanding is that right now the cost of a First Class ticket may well be close to that of an upgraded ticket - so you can have them check that as well.

I book with American and I always talk with an agent first. If I can I book online and avoid the $20 fee, but if I can guarantee the upgrade right then, i just swallow and accept the fee. It is sweet to fly in Business Class. I would be surprised if the actual cost of an upgrade was nearing the point of a business class ticket, but I've found lately that domestic fairs are insane. I had to book a round trip to Boston from Chicago last week and paid $604. We paid $514 for the outbound and were in first class, the return was $91 and we were in the back in exit rows...It is wild out there. Pam

Delta's cheapest "upgrade" fare is around $2,000. You can buy a Business Class fare for around $2,500..... (I fares must be booked at least 50 days in advance)

I agree with others who advise talking with an agent to upgrade. My miles are with AA and I always save time and effort by talking with an agent.