FareLock and buying miles

[Matty F]

After a few days of searching, managed to spot a SYD-SFO J reward in June. I was hoping to use VA points but given the partnership is pushed out a month I'll have to use my UA FF miles - of which I'm about 72k short :\

I'm happy to buy the miles, but had read they don't always land in your account right away, which most likely means losing out on the reward seat -- thankfully, for the first time I noticed you can FareLock a reward seat on points. Just paid only AU$20 to lock in the seat on points for 7 days.

Has anyone used this before as a way to lock in the fare while waiting to top up the FF miles? Gotta say I am fairly impressed they even offer this option for such a small fee. Well played UA, cannot wait for the VA partnership!

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Slightly off topic, but something to consider: would it make sense to simply buy the cash fare and upgrade using miles? SYD-SFO is a 30K mile + $500 USD upgrade from a cheap economy ticket to Polaris business class. Hence, you could theoretically fly SYD > SFO in Polaris J for 60K miles + $1000 USD copay + whatever the economy fare was. This could potentially be cheaper than buying all those miles outright. In addition you would also earn frequent flyer miles and status credit towards earning elite status with whichever program you credit to (based on the cash fare you originally purchased).

If you visit the United advanced search page, there is an option towards the bottom of the page called Upgrades, certificates, and promotion codes, expand that and select MilagePlus Upgrade Awards (MUA) as the Upgrade type and do your search. It will then display the upgrade availability, and can confirm as you are booking the cash fare that your upgrade to Polaris J will clear during the booking:


Hope that provides some insight.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Matty F]

That's a pretty nifty secret, thanks roo!

It works out a bit better doing it this way, not by much though. And obviously this is using the buy rate during the 40% off promotion, which worked out to be about 3.16c per point

So for the reward seat available on June 9 you'd have 80k * 0.0316 pts + 81 taxes = $2,609
And for the upgrade approach you'd get 1266 base fare + 30k * 0.0316 pts + 350 co-pay/taxes = $2,564

So you'd save $45 using the time-of-booking upgrade, however you would also get valuable PQP and PQF - which I wish I would have done as my United Status Match starts early June. I'll definitely research this as an option next time though, thanks again for the share

 

[kangarooflyer88]

That's a pretty nifty secret, thanks roo!

It works out a bit better doing it this way, not by much though. And obviously this is using the buy rate during the 40% off promotion, which worked out to be about 3.16c per point

So for the reward seat available on June 9 you'd have 80k * 0.0316 pts + 81 taxes = $2,609
And for the upgrade approach you'd get 1266 base fare + 30k * 0.0316 pts + 350 co-pay/taxes = $2,564

So you'd save $45 using the time-of-booking upgrade, however you would also get valuable PQP and PQF - which I wish I would have done as my United Status Match starts early June. I'll definitely research this as an option next time though, thanks again for the share

Keep in mind too the PQP would be generated based on the base fare (in USD) with United along with the co-pay you are paying for the upgrade. You would also earn United award miles too. My understanding reading the T&Cs of the status match is you'll need to take anywhere from 2-10 paid revenue flights with United, which again would also favour buying the fare since you would have at a minimum 2 PQFs with United, potentially 4 or more if you add in connections (BTW: LAX is a great connection point since the United Club lounge is pretty good as is the Star Alliance lounge if you have the energy to jog down to TBIT).

I will also point out that there are additional upgrade options such as buying upgrades via manage my booking at any time. Sometimes these offers can be quite favourable (i.e. $1000 USD one-way to upgrade you inexpensive economy ticket to Polaris J). The benefit there is you would save on buying on miles to sponsor the upgrade and would also earn additional PQP since paid upgrades also count to PQP. Keep in mind though that upgrade pricing can fluctuate and there's no guarantee you'll always get a cheap offer (really depends on loads and how long the upgrade lists are).

-RooFlyer88

 

[Matty F]

So I nearly lost my ticket... went and cancelled the June 6th flight and planned to re-book on June 9th using the upgrade approach, but there's a problem with my math - the points value were AUD and the base fare + copay were USD

Updating so all values are in AUD and points remain the same ($0.0316 AUD / pt)

Option 1 - reward seat @ 80k pts = $2,609 AUD
Option 2 - upgrade @ $1,788 base + 30k pts + $494 co-pay = $3,230 AUD

So the outright points for reward seat comes out $621 ahead - but without PQP or PQF earn

Thankfully I was able to use my re-deposited points straight away and get back the reward seat @ 80k, just a few days later. Which works out great as there's a conference on 6th-9th and hotel prices were off the charts. Phew! There were a few panicked moments there.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Welcome to Polaris, Matty! I think you'll enjoy the trip. A note on lounges, since that to me is an important part of the experience. Obviously in Australia flying business class you should be able to avail yourself of most Star Alliance lounges (i.e. Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, etc.) at your departing airport. If you are flying nonstop to SFO there won't be an arrivals lounge as United closed the only airline arrivals lounge in the US a couple years ago. When you land in the US you clear immigration and customs and are booted out to the public part of the airport. Unlike Australia you cannot go back through security to access the Polaris lounge airside since TSA requires you to hold a boarding pass for a flight departing that day out of the airport.

If you are landing in the US and have a connection the same day with United, you can avail yourself of the Polaris lounge at the airport. For instance, if you were flying Sydney to San Francisco (via Los Angeles) you would have access to the Polaris lounges at San Francisco and Los Angeles since Polaris lounge entry only requires you to hold a United Polaris boarding pass for anytime that day. In some respects that makes a connection more preferable to a non-stop since you get to sample the various Polaris lounges across the US.

Some photos from the Polaris lounges I have visited.

From Polaris Lounge Restaurant @ Chicago:


From Polaris Lounge @ San Francisco



From Polaris Lounge @ LAX

Updating so all values are in AUD and points remain the same ($0.0316 AUD / pt)

Option 1 - reward seat @ 80k pts = $2,609 AUD
Option 2 - upgrade @ $1,788 base + 30k pts + $494 co-pay = $3,230 AUD

So the outright points for reward seat comes out $621 ahead - but without PQP or PQF earn

Presumably option 2 is quoting a round trip ticket though? In which case the only fair way to compare these two would be to consider the cost of booking return J flights on UA. In which case you would need to have 160,000 points to book the J award and for the upgrade you'd simply double the points and co-pay.

-RooFlyer88