United Airlines Upgrade Seat Process

United Airlines seat upgrade is not a very cumbersome task. The entire process has been kept very easy to ensure absolute convenience for the MileagePlus account. The upgrade not only means that you won’t have to struggle for overhead space, but it also means that you get to board the plane beforehand and have a spacious seat. You also get to receive better dining options and free drinks in most cases. The flight attendants are also most likely to cater to your needs.

Under the United airlines upgrade policy, there are various ways through which the travellers can become available for an upgrade. The airline also has certain rules under the United Airlines upgrade seat policy to prioritise who receives the upgrade first.

This article covers everything about the United upgrade priority, United Airlines upgrade seat, United upgrade priority order, United Airlines upgrade chart and other such topics.

Types of upgrades in United Airlines

There are different types of upgrade options available in United Airlines. There are various ways through which you can receive an upgrade through United Airlines. They are as follows:

Complimentary upgrades

PlusPoints upgrades

Upgrade a new booking with miles

Upgrade an existing booking with miles

Upgrade with United’s partner airlines

How to check if United Airlines has upgrades available?

A lot of people don’t know how to check if the airline has upgrades available. If you are also someone who wants to know about the procedure to check if United Airlines has an upgrade available, then we are here to help.

Before knowing how to get a United Airlines upgrade seat if you have made reservations under United Airlines booking, you first need to check whether upgrades are available on your flight or not. The most convenient way to do this is by turning on the United’s Expert Mode, which enables experienced travellers to check fare class availability.

Here are the steps that you need to follow to turn on United’s Expert Mode:

You first have to log in to your United MileagePlus account on United’s official website on the browser of your choice.

The next step is to click “View account” which is located near your name.

Next step is to open “Profile & preferences” which is located under “My Account” and select “Preferences and settings”.

After this, you have to open “Special preferences and accommodations” from the list of toggles.

Now, all you have to do is scroll to the bottom and check “Enable expert mode” which is located just above the “Save” button.

The last step is to click “Save”.

Once the expert mode has been enabled, all you need to do is enter your reservation details. You will then notice that you are now required to click on “Details” which is located on the booking page. After this, you will be able to see the available United fare classes.

After this, you will see numbers next to the various United fare classes. These numbers indicate the number of upgrades that are available. To make this more clear, let us understand this by an example. For instance, R10 means that there are 10 upgrades available from economy to business or United first class on domestic flights.

United Airlines Upgrade Chart

Speaking in simple terms, United Airlines Upgrade Chart has been divided into four separate groups or what we call fare classes:

PN – Upgrades from full fare Y, B or M fare class tickets to first or business class, plus all Global Services upgrades.

ON – Upgrades from business class to first class.

RN – Upgrades from Y or B fare class tickets to business class by Platinum, Gold or Silver Premier members.

R/PZ – Upgrades from economy to business class or first class on domestic flights.

Here we would like to give you a word of caution that although upgrades might be available, you might still not get one because there is a priority order to how upgrades are allocated.

Also, it is in United Airlines’ best interest to sell tickets whenever they can. So whenever it is possible for you to be upgraded, a purchased ticket will take precedence if you for some reason were not able to confirm for an upgrade by the time your flight departs.

How can you become a MileagePlus Premier member?

If you are interested to become a MileagePlus Premier member and become eligible for complimentary upgrades, then you have to reach out to the required number of combined Premier qualifying points (PQPs) and Premier qualifying flights (PQFs), or a higher necessity of just Premier qualifying points (PQPs).

United’s Premier status program has four different levels:

First is Premier Silver level under which PQP and PQF requirement is 8 PQFs and 3,000 PQPs and Higher PQP requirement is 3,500 PQPs.

Second one is Premier Gold level under which PQP and PQF requirement is 16 PQFs and 6,000 PQPs and Higher PQP requirement is 7,000 PQPs.

Third level is Premier Platinum level under which PQP and PQF requirement is 24 PQFs and 9,000 PQPs and Higher PQP requirement is 10,000 PQPs.

Fourth level is Premier 1K level under which PQP and PQF requirement is 36 PQFs and 13,500 PQPs and Higher PQP requirement is 15,000 PQPs.

Listed below are some more things which you need to know about United Airlines Premier status requirements:

Unlike the loyalty programs of other airlines, the United Premier status program does not have any distance requirements.

PQPs which have been earned with a United MileagePlus credit card which includes the United℠ Explorer Card will be counted towards Premier 1K status.

Who gets priority in getting upgraded first on United Airlines?

Although anyone who has a United Premier status is eligible for receiving an upgrade, someone who has a higher status stands a better chance at getting a complimentary upgrade or any kind of upgrade. The upgrade happens differently for Premier Silver members, Premier Gold members, Premier Platinum members and Premier 1K members.

Also, you need to know that United Airlines cannot just upgrade people on the basis of their status. Travellers who have a higher status can also be skipped from being upgraded because upgradation depends on who made a request first.

How to upgrade an existing booking with United Airlines?

If you are someone who has already purchased an airline ticket, then you have three alternatives available to upgrade your existing booking:

The first option is that you can upgrade online through United Airlines’ official website.

You can also upgrade by calling the United Airlines’ number.

The last option is to upgrade at the gate.

If you are planning to upgrade online, then all you have to do is sign in to your MileagePlus account with your credentials and go to your existing reservation. As you sign in, you will see an option which says redeem an upgrade. You will have various options displayed in front of you.

Although, you also have the option to upgrade at the gate as you have ‘United airlines booking, but we don’t recommend doing that because as the date of flight arrives, other customers would have most likely upgraded their seats already which
might leave less or no availability for you.

Just like the upgradation policy, the United Airlines manage booking, United Airlines flight cancellation, United Airlines change flight are also very simple processes which cause no inconvenience to the travellers.

All the modifications and changes can be made very easily through the official website, but if you encounter any problem or have doubts regarding something then you can always reach out to the customer support team of the airlines. The customer support team will patiently listen to your problems and will help you in resolving them and will also guide you through the entire process if you are not able to do something on your own.

We have come to the end of this article now. We hope that we were successful in explaining the upgradation process to you and also expect that this article must have resolved a lot of your queries which you had in mind for a very long time. If, still, there is something that leaves you in doubt, you know that you can either visit the website or contact the customer support team. Also united airlines provide low fare calender to book flight at low cost.