While several airlines issue upgrade instruments, they can typically only be applied for travel on that airline. United Global Premier Upgrades (GPUs) are unique in that they can be applied for travel on Lufthansa as well, which is United's transatlantic joint venture partner. As a reminder, GPUs are the upgrade vouchers that Premier 1K members…
Continue reading: Using United GPUs To Upgrade Lufthansa Flights — Change In Procedure
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
To even things up with them taking out upgrades within 10 hours, find a flight with space, book it, if upgrade not confirmed within 24 hours, cancel and refund flight.
Willing to bet they will shortly change upgrades so none are instantly confirmed.
Some business wag once noted that margin=mystery. I've had great success with the cumbersome paper cert process. Ensuring you got those upgrades also required understanding how Lufthansa caters food for business class (I won't bore readers with the details). I'll bet that this improvement will increase the general availability of upgrades for others and decrease it for those of us that had the old process down.
hey mr. lucky ,
im in med school in GND , i read your blog while i study all the time.. anyway u have an extra aa SWU so i can get home in style? i would forever be grateful! shoot me an email if ya do!
p.s : one day i hope to do to my dad what you did to urs! you ROCK!!
-Eric
What does the loss in being able to upgrade V fares do to The fare spread for these so called complimentary upgrades? Would be nice if one of the bloggers can do an analysis on what exactly it costs to buy up with these certs?
You can't upgrade within 10 hours of departure even if there are empty seats? That is ridiculous!
to see upgrade availability: do you search for I inventory (award seats)? I can't find any information about this anywhere...
@ dmodemd -- The difference really varies based on the market, but I'd say on average it's a $200-400 difference for a roundtrip.
@ augias -- The information hasn't been published, but my assumption would be that it's "I" inventory that's needed.
Which Lufthansa booking class is current needed to be eligible for an upgrade?
As of August 10, 2015, I got the following reply from United:
"I regret we do not have a list of the valid fares when using a GPU on
Lufthansa.
The Global Premier Upgrades (GPUs) are not valid on the following
Lufthansa fares: L, T, X, I, R, N, E, S, W, Z, P, K, O, ID, AD and IP
(these are subject to change without notice)"
So, does this mean that GPU's cannot be used on Lufthansa flights?
Dear lucky
Are the Mileage GPU upgrade good for the entire one way or just one segment on Lufthansa flights. so for eg. DEN-FRA-DEL. Will i need 2 upgrades or 1 upgrade to upgrade the entire segment.