Different U.S. carriers have different policies when it comes to complimentary upgrades on flights to Hawaii. For example, American allows elite upgrades on all routes to Hawaii, while Delta only allows elite upgrades to Hawaii on their flights out of Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. Well, it looks like United is making some…
Continue reading: United Cuts Elite Upgrades On Some Hawaii Flights
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I've heard many times that UA will upgrade their domestic 777s to include flat beds in biz but, which ones will they be? The old UA 8 across seats, the old CO B/E diamond seats or, the polaris seats?
@Andrew
yes....its been that way since Continental. Smallest plane that can fly that route is a 767.
Big mistake. It will alienate frequent business travelers that are looking to take a vacation and/or with family, etc. Only to get turned away from an upgrade after being loyal all year long as road warriors.
Either DEN and ORD needed to go this way or IAH needed to go complimentary elite upgrade. The notion that legacy CO midcon Continental routes didn't get complimentary upgrades and mid-con legacy UA routes did was something that should have been done away with a long, long time ago.
As of January, ONLY EWR and IAD have lie flat on UA to HNL. This may be temporary, but look at flights on January 14-16, for example.
UA downgraded the IAH flight from Houston to HNL a while back. It went from a Continental 767 with lie flat seats to a united 777 with their crappy Barco loungers. Outbound out of IAH you can rarely find award availability anyway in business and the mileage is ridiculous for a crappy seat. American out of DFW to OGG currently is my way to go.
I have been monitoring DFW HNL & DFW OGG for almost a year, Rarely are there any EXP Systematic upgrades on AA123, AA5, AA7 or AA119. Few and Far Between. Appears that in most cases First Class is already booked full with either Paid FC or AA Awards.
@DaninMCI - Like Lucky mentions, I don't think many United elites would expect a CPU to clear on that route anyway. I'm a 1K and I certainly wouldn't count on it.
I scored the upgrade 3 times in 2013 between ORD & HNL as UA gold. Haven't been to hawaii much since then.
I think it is horrible. A 9 + hour flight from ORD and no meals and now no upgrades. Yet to use miles for upgrades they want to charge you $500 + 30,000 miles each way. As a gold member I an very disappointed. Last time I flew I got upgraded and I didn't realize this changed until I checked into my flight. It is impossible to find this information on the web site too. BIG fail United. I know this is considered a "vacation" destination but many business travelers flew many miles to get their status they deserve to be treated right on this flight. At 9+ hours you shouldn't treat this as a domestic flight it should have the same service as your other long haul flights. Makes me not want to go back to Hawaii to be treated like cattle on such a long flight
I have booked a flight from OGG to ORD on United November 25, the seat map is showing lie flat seats in herringbone configuration, but seat guru is showing recliner style, it looks like only Sat. flights out of OGG are lie flat, anyone know for sure?