Where's all the UA J (Polaris) TPAC availability gone?

[kangarooflyer88]

UA offers to sell miles at about 1.8c American each, pretty regularly on their 100% bonus buy promos, and one can buy a few 100,000 a year. IIRC one such promo is running now.

The problem is that is a lot of money compared to other programs. You can often Buy Air Canada Aeroplane points for about 1.4 cents USD during a bonus promotion. What's more Aeroplan has a number of interesting partners and actually has a fixed award chart for most of their partners. Even Qantas and Virgin with their issues (i.e. carrier surcharge and limited availability at times) can be attractive as you can buy points for about a 1 cent USD per point during sales on Qantas wine or campaigns like the Choice double point transfer promotion that runs roughly once a year.

-RooFlyer88

 

[bcworld]

Seeing as the thread got bumped.

Today's UA99 MEL-LAX





UA61 MEL - SFO



Many, many empty seats in economy on both.

 

[ElizaB]

I want to fly UA99 (or UA61) October 30th, so sad that these arent avaliable to us. Looks like they dont sell all the seats anyway so might as well offer up even 2 or 4 of those seats as rewards seats.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I want to fly UA99 (or UA61) October 30th, so sad that these arent avaliable to us. Looks like they dont sell all the seats anyway so might as well offer up even 2 or 4 of those seats as rewards seats.

They still get money from award seats/upgrades, so I think they’ll have to refine this over time, even if route specific. No point leaving empty business class seats when they could get money out of them.

These numbers are probably a good thing, albeit with short term pain, to focus UA’s commercial attention. If the cabin had been ‘almost’ filled with uogrades from eligible members they might have left it as it is. But these numbers are poor.

 

[deepblerg]

As someone who valued booking Polaris a few days/weeks out from travel to North America, this change is a massive bummer. Hopefully United change this in time. It's worth noting though that AC have stepped up in their release of short term awards through Velocity. Or maybe they were always there?

 

[kangarooflyer88]

As someone who valued booking Polaris a few days/weeks out from travel to North America, this change is a massive bummer. Hopefully United change this in time. It's worth noting though that AC have stepped up in their release of short term awards through Velocity. Or maybe they were always there?


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From my experience Air Canada does make business seats available although it can be very sporadic at times. And pre-August you could count on there being a United business class seat to take you where you want to go particularly if you booked close in.

 

[2APlease]

UA MP is now useless for J class awards. I've been a member for 40 years and am a UA 1Mmiler.
Needed a LAX/Mel fare recently and picked UA98 on 6 October25 as my target flight since there were 23 open seats.
At no point did UA release any IN Saver space and Polaris remained at 200,000 miles up to departure. Paid fares with points upgrades always showed Waitlist as well.
Flew PE at 70,000 points.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

UA MP is now useless for J class awards. [...] Flew PE at 70,000 points.

It's a pity. I'd routinely relied on the not-great-value-but-reliable 70K seats in PY to have something "held" for family visiting Australia and then counted on J opening up closer to departure -- which it often did like clockwork with a bit of flexibility.

No more.

 

[bcworld]

UA MP is now useless for J class awards. I've been a member for 40 years and am a UA 1Mmiler.
Needed a LAX/Mel fare recently and picked UA98 on 6 October25 as my target flight since there were 23 open seats.
At no point did UA release any IN Saver space and Polaris remained at 200,000 miles up to departure. Paid fares with points upgrades always showed Waitlist as well.
Flew PE at 70,000 points.

If you have UA miles though...clearing the upgrade list at USD600 + 30k miles (from discount economy) is pretty much a sure thing before the doors close at some point.

 

[2APlease]

If you have UA miles though...clearing the upgrade list at USD600 + 30k miles (from discount economy) is pretty much a sure thing before the doors close at some point.

I think you are correct in this as most of the 23 seats filled in the last 24 hours but it's a gamble. PE was bookable for A$2500 plus the upgrade cost if the Waitlist cleared.

 

[avioslover]

At no point did UA release any IN Saver space and Polaris remained at 200,000 miles up to departure.

How many miles is the Polaris IN reward fare on this route (or MEL/SFO), out of curiosity?

 

[2APlease]

How many miles is the Polaris IN reward fare on this route (or MEL/SFO), out of curiosity?

I was expecting 100K.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I was expecting 100K.

I don't think I've seen anything less than 200K in several years.

 

[Silvia]

Its nearly impossible to find 100k seats, it's a needle in a haystack.
I have family on the SFO/BNE in the next few days which is surprisingly very busy, but the MEL/LAX is looking very empty!

 

[2APlease]

I don't think I've seen anyhing less than 200K in several years.

For this flight 200K was JN3 availability, maybe IN is now a unicorn.

 

[avioslover]

I was expecting 100K.

For this flight 200K was JN3 availability, maybe IN is now a unicorn.

SeatsAero shows IN reward availability but not the pricing. Here's UA61 in IN6 for example. I don't have Premier status which is why I was curious on pricing. 100k seems reasonable but the availability of IN awards is still poor as you've pointed out.

 

[kamchatsky]

I don't want to take this thread off topic but you can add PER-SIN to the disappeared list.

That's bad. I wonder if it is SQ pulling all J awards for all their partners for major Oz cities, or just VA only?

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

For this flight 200K was JN3 availability, maybe IN is now a unicorn.

Ah yes. The lowest I remember it being prior was ~90-100, I believe (88K is really sticking in my brain but I might be wrong). But that was several years ago now.