In October, United announced that they were moving to an “unlimited” upgrade system from their electronic certificate system. But as readers chimed in, one of the biggest complaints came from top-tier 1K members. The quarterly allotment of confirmed upgrades within North America was going away, and with that, a big perk of upgrade security.
United must have gotten a lot of complaints, as they’re reinstating the so-called “regional” upgrades:
1K® members will continue to earn Regional Upgrades
Sometimes no change is good news. After our last announcement, we heard from our 1K members how much they value their Regional Upgrades. To thank them for their ongoing loyalty, we’ve decided to continue issuing Regional Upgrades to 1Ks, even after the Unlimited Domestic Upgrades program launches.
That gives top-tier elites the best of both worlds: A reserved upgrade if booked in advance (and if United releases seats for upgrade early…) and the top of the free-upgrade list if they’re sweating it out at the gate.
And entry-level elites don’t really lose anything here. The 1Ks would be ahead of them in line, anyway.
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Separately, United and Continental announced that reciprocal “unlimited” upgrade privileges will roll out in mid-2010. No word yet on what the hierarchy will be; I assume that, in a tie, UA 1Ks will still outrank CO platinums…
And on the semi-upgrade front: Continental elites will also have free access to the Economy Plus section on United flights — a privilege which United hasn’t been extending to other Star Alliance partner travelers.
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November 18th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Various sites/blogs are reporting on the priority order. E.g.,
http://www.wanderingaramean.com/2009/11/continental-and-united-announce.html
I think the free E+ upgrade used to be available to Star Alliance elites (maybe only Gold level?) in the past, but that was yanked a few years ago.
December 6th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I would love your advice because due to a United employee giving me the wrong information, I will not qualify for Elite status. I am going to be 4,500 miles shy of Elite. I called United to ask if I would receive mileage if I booked a ticket on priceline which was something I had never done in the past. She said that I would received the miles and I said I wanted to be sure so I would qualify for Elite. It turned out she made an error and when I spoke to a supervisor they said there was nothing that could be done except they could offer me a voucher for $25.
Do you think there is someone that I could write to have this taken care of and maybe threatening to never fly United again would help? Thanks for your help.
January 16th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
I’ll be interested to see how UA and CO work their frequent flyer programs in the near future. My coworker who lives in Tampa flies CO through Houston Bush a lot and he gets upgraded about 90% of the time, no coupons or e-upgrades needed. I’m Premier Exec with UA out of Denver but only get my e-upgrades and a very occasional upgrade due to oversold economy cabin (rarely, if ever, out of DEN).I’ve heard a lot of back and forths about each airline’s program but it seems like CO has the more “lenient” program? I’m not sure of this but for flying 60,000+ miles a year with UA I don’t feel very special (upgrade-wise). Any thoughts?