Upgrade from Discount Economy to Business Class using Cash!

[dajop]

Far better than UA's regular coach seats. Only marginally better than NZ's regular economy seats, and much worse than NZ's premium economy seats.

Actually continuing on from this theme, shouldn't this thread be titled "Upgrade from Economy Minus to Premium Economy".... The $500 one way upgrade paid by the OP, after all wasn't really an upgrade to Business class, at least in the QF/NZ/BA/CX/SQ/VS/etc sense of Business Class.

 

[ozstamps]

Actually continuing on from this theme, shouldn't this thread be titled "Upgrade from Economy Minus to Premium Economy".... The $500 one way upgrade paid by the OP, after all wasn't really an upgrade to Business class, at least in the QF/NZ/BA/CX/SQ/VS/etc sense of Business Class.

Have you ever flown UA transpac 747 in Business Class?

I have - about 100 times, and am curious to read your statement.

Ever flown on an Air NZ 767-300 Business class wide-body?

SeatGuru Seat Map Air New Zealand Boeing 767-300 (763)

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Not a fair comparison - medium haul/secondary routes vs longhaul/prime routes. If you are flying transpac on NZ you almost certainly will be on 744 or 772 (according to seatguru, NZ business seat is bigger than UA's first class).

 

[NM]

Ever flown on an Air NZ 767-300 Business class wide-body?

Or a QF 747-300 on the MEL-AKL-LAX route?

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Thankfully not on my recent LAX-AKL, quite the opposite in fact

 

[JohnK]

Actually continuing on from this theme, shouldn't this thread be titled "Upgrade from Economy Minus to Premium Economy".... The $500 one way upgrade paid by the OP, after all wasn't really an upgrade to Business class, at least in the QF/NZ/BA/CX/SQ/VS/etc sense of Business Class.

You are probably right with the naming of the thread but too late to change it now.

Plus I did not pay the money for the upgrade, it was my friend and his wife and they think they travelled business class and I do not want them to think that they didn't for any reason.

 

[clifford]

Actually continuing on from this theme, shouldn't this thread be titled "Upgrade from Economy Minus to Premium Economy".... The $500 one way upgrade paid by the OP, after all wasn't really an upgrade to Business class, at least in the QF/NZ/BA/CX/SQ/VS/etc sense of Business Class.

Hi dajop, I think you may be being a little one-eyed here.

I recently flew QF J class FRA-SIN-SYD and it was quite awful. The seats were bad (it was a 2-class 747) and the hosties could only talk about their industrial relations problems.

I know that UA has its own IR problems, but get real.

As for seat comfort, UA's standard Business Class offering beats the pants off QF's 2-class set-up.

How do I know? I've actually done it.

 

[serfty]

Hi dajop, I think you may be being a little one-eyed here.

I recently flew QF J class FRA-SIN-SYD and it was quite awful. The seats were bad (it was a 2-class 747) ...

...As for seat comfort, UA's standard Business Class offering beats the pants off QF's 2-class set-up. ...

Methinks you scored one of the Qantas 743's; these have "Dreamtime" seats in J.

All Qantas 2-Class 744's have Skybeds.

FWIW, I believe the Qantas Dreamtime seats would still be better than UA J seats.

 

[ozstamps]

Hmmm. Well give me exit row #15 upstairs on a UA 747 for 14 hours as I fly next week and I'll take that with glee over the Qantas upgrade LOTTERY.

And most armchair experts above have never sat in a UA 747 upstairs of course so place what weight you will on the commentary.

United give me 6 x It'l upgrade Certs a year that cost me zippo. with each of them I can confirm them 330 days out, and have exit row seating preassigned.

Three radical concepts unheard on at Qantas.

Next week we fly:

SYD-SFO
SFO-IAD
IAD-PWM

All upgraded. All on ONE free Cert. All seats pre-allocated. Over 10,000 miles of travel in comfort.

Now let's see - 10,000 miles x 1k bonus = 20,000 miles. plus the double mile promo = 40,000 miles all up. There and back. 80,000 miles on one trip. Near enough for a FREE Biz round trip class ticket anywhere in the USA.

Oh and 2 x anywhere USA confirmable CR1 upgrades from this trip. Oh, and 8 x 500 miler upgrades as well earned. That turn into 4000 miles if i never use them - and i never need to.

Yep, you can't beat Qantas.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Oz - no one is arguing that UA Mileage Plus isnt way, way, way more generous than QFF.

But don't make too many assumptions

And most armchair experts above have never sat in a UA 747 upstairs of course so place what weight you will on the commentary.

And yes, I'll take my SQ upper deck exit row seat over UA any day, in fact I am doing so today.

 

[NM]

Methinks you scored one of the Qantas 743's; these have "Dreamtime" seats in J.

All Qantas 2-Class 744's have Skybeds.

FWIW, I believe the Qantas Dreamtime seats would still be better than UA J seats.

Or perhaps the reference to "recent" was not all that recent. Not sure when the last 744 had the Skybed conversion, but it must have been almost a year ago now.

Does anyone know the roll-out schedule for lie-flat beds in business class for US's 744s?

 

[serfty]

Hmmm. Well give me exit row #15 upstairs on a UA 747 for 14 hours as I fly next week and I'll take that with glee over the Qantas upgrade LOTTERY.

And most armchair experts above have never sat in a UA 747 upstairs of course so place what weight you will on the commentary. ...

Glen,

My statement "FWIW, I believe the Qantas Dreamtime seats would still be better than UA J seats." purely compared seats; I made no commentary on FF program merits.

I also did research, comparing the seats before posting.

 

[wallacej]

I have not been able to upgrade from MEL-LAX, but I certainly have been able to upgrade for US$550 from LAX-MEL. I have done this a few times now. As said by others previously, it really is a cough shoot, but well worth a shot.
Most times they have seats that haven't been taken up with upgrades, so from UA point of view it really is a good move to take an extra few hundred dollars that they would not have normally had.
What has bugged me is the willingness of UA to offer upgrades to Economy Plus for regular passengers for only US$50. Where I would have had an empty seat next to me I have found people with a cheap upgrade.
Same reasons I guess, a few extra dollars for the flight is better than none!

 

[ozstamps]

MEL-LAX is tougher than SYD-LAX as they never really know what is going on in SYD with upgrades. From LAX it is irrelevant of course.

I can arrange E+ for anyone tho that likes 5" more room.

FlyerTalk Forums

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

I can arrange E+ for anyone tho that likes 5" more room.

Or 1" more than NZ regular economy (but minus the service, food and avod).

 

[alien]

FlyerTalk Forums

cant access that

 

[straitman]

cant access that

The link works for me.

 

[clifford]

Or 1" more than NZ regular economy (but minus the service, food and avod).

Don't forget to mention that you won't get any FF points for discount economy on NZ, whereas you'll get between 100% and 400% on UA, depending on your status and the time of year.

That's got to be worth a few hundred dollars for a SYD-USA-SYD trip.

 

[clifford]

Glen,

My statement "FWIW, I believe the Qantas Dreamtime seats would still be better than UA J seats." purely compared seats; I made no commentary on FF program merits.

I also did research, comparing the seats before posting.

Just caught up with this post, Serfty.

From my own personal experience, the UA C class seats murder the QF J "Dreamtime" seats. I've flown FRA-SYD a couple of times in J and have flown literally hundreds of times long-haul in C on a UA 747. I can actually sleep in the UA seats, as opposed to the QF seats, and my impression (rightly or wrongly) is that the QF seats feel smaller and more cramped. Just my personal opinion, though.

On the matter of upgrades from any level of economy, I don't fly Oz-US on UA any more, as it is impossible these days to get a confirmed upgrade on booking, using my 1K upgrade certs, so I guess that's someone else's gain.

I refuse to fly all that way in economy, and I'm not going to pay the silly prices asked for business class by UA and QF (or even NZ for that matter). I just go a different way (less direct route) and upgrade on booking every time.

 

[serfty]

Fair enough; I must be lucky that I can get 2-4 hours sleep in a QF WHY seat say between HKG & MEL.

I love the Skybeds; they actually seem to put me to sleep ... certainly better than BA Club World and a little better than CX .

To really illustrate my ability to sleep; in June I was in "the land of Nod" over 5 hours in F on an AA 757, ANC-DFW ... I have been told that's not possible .