Darn you United!

I was booking flights to PDX in F using my United Mileage Plus miles.  I switched over to Star Alliance awards since United wasn’t showing availability at the saver level.  I was looking over the flights and made sure to choose flights that were booking in F, but 1 of the legs (PDX-ORD) of course was booking in economy, but that itinerary was ultimately the best.

…after I finished booking the tickets it asks if I wanted to pay $600 to move to F on that 1 leg.  I couldn’t tell if that would be $600 for both tickets, or for each.  Still on principle I couldn’t do that.

To all you experts out there, if XF becomes available on that leg can I call and move up, or am we relegated to my exit row?

6 Comments

  1. Yes, you’re entitled to a XF seat if one opens up. If I were you, I’d call United to make sure you have a waitlisted segment so it’ll automatically clear if it becomes available.

  2. Yes, if anything opens up prior to departure you can move up. You will also have priority on day of departure, if necessary, because you are on a “paid” F ticket.

    1. Right after I posted I searched Flyertalk and saw about FFCC and waitlisting.

      Seems it’s common to get XY on the long segments and XF on the short ones.

  3. @Grace

    Call reservations and ask to be put on the wait-list for XF for that segment. In my experience, the first time I called the agent said this type of wait list does not exist and wanted me to pay to be in Economy Plus. A second call resulted in getting wait-listed for XF.

    When you are wait-listed for XF it will show up on your online itinerary. If it doesn’t then call back until it does.

    I had a problem when I cleared into XF. Online my wait list status disappeared. I called UA and what happened is that it cleared, but didn’t assign me a seat in the F cabin! After speaking with the agent, I received my F seat assignment.

    If you didn’t clear, you will want to request to be on the FFCC list at check-in. This list will give you priority on your chance. After all, you’re not “upgrading” because you paid for XF tickets, but were confirmed in XY.

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