Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability

[jungarmtl]

Thx! what class do i have to ask the agent to book me on thr Ewr-tlv route? and hoe much% is that i will get upgraded?

[rileywiles23]

Thx! what class do i have to ask the agent to book me on thr Ewr-tlv route? and hoe much% is that i will get upgraded?

Read the DDMS post. It's all spelled out very clearly.
There is no percentile in getting upgraded.

[D93]

Thx! what class do i have to ask the agent to book me on thr Ewr-tlv route?

"X" class with "I" class requested.

and hoe much% is that i will get upgraded?

31.9%

[iwlw2]

Hi everyone! First off thanks Dan, I followed your advice and it only took about half an hour on the phone (with the first agent I spoke to!) to book myself first ever Plan B on United, tlv-ewr in X class with I class requested and 70,000 miles debited so heres hoping I clear, and thanks for the exact directions on how to do it! I would like to ask those with more experience, first of all is there anything else that I need to do, and secondly the flight is not till Dec. 27, is there a good chance it could clear in advance or does this usually not happen till right before the flight (assuming of course that it does in fact work). Thanks!

[Yehoshua]

Hi everyone! First off thanks Dan, I followed your advice and it only took about half an hour on the phone (with the first agent I spoke to!) to book myself first ever Plan B on United, tlv-ewr in X class with I class requested and 70,000 miles debited so heres hoping I clear, and thanks for the exact directions on how to do it! I would like to ask those with more experience, first of all is there anything else that I need to do, and secondly the flight is not till Dec. 27, is there a good chance it could clear in advance or does this usually not happen till right before the flight (assuming of course that it does in fact work). Thanks!

Nothing to do but wait.

[D93]

Hi everyone! First off thanks Dan, I followed your advice and it only took about half an hour on the phone (with the first agent I spoke to!) to book myself first ever Plan B on United, tlv-ewr in X class with I class requested and 70,000 miles debited so heres hoping I clear, and thanks for the exact directions on how to do it! I would like to ask those with more experience, first of all is there anything else that I need to do, and secondly the flight is not till Dec. 27, is there a good chance it could clear in advance or does this usually not happen till right before the flight (assuming of course that it does in fact work). Thanks!

I hope you clear in advance, getting an incompetent TLV agent to put you in PR1 won't be an easy task.

[AharonInIsrael]

Hi everyone! First off thanks Dan, I followed your advice and it only took about half an hour on the phone (with the first agent I spoke to!) to book myself first ever Plan B on United, tlv-ewr in X class with I class requested and 70,000 miles debited so heres hoping I clear, and thanks for the exact directions on how to do it! I would like to ask those with more experience, first of all is there anything else that I need to do, and secondly the flight is not till Dec. 27, is there a good chance it could clear in advance or does this usually not happen till right before the flight (assuming of course that it does in fact work). Thanks!

I second the fact that it's difficult to deal with the TLV agents. When I asked here last year, no one mentioned they'd convinced someone there to give them PR1 status (would love to hear if this has changed).
I'd strongly advise getting the callback number to call you <24 hours before the flight and seeing if they can confirm you in I.

[iwlw2]

Thanks for the replies! Actually, I first tried with the callback number and was told they can't do it, and then when calling the regular number is when I got the agent who helped me. Is the callback number better for trying to confirm?
Also, was wondering if I should be constantly checking to see if any business saver space opened so that I could call and get confirmed into that, is there a point in that?
Thanks

[rileywiles23]

Also, was wondering if I should be constantly checking to see if any business saver space opened so that I could call and get confirmed into that, is there a point in that?
Thanks

Yes, the system doesn't always automatically upgrade you, even though the space opened.

[gswannabe]

Have set up United plan B for tomorrows flight and just received the following email.

We are not yet able to confirm your request for an upgrade on your flight from New York/Newark, NJ, US (EWR - Liberty) to Sao Paulo, SP, BR (GRU - Guarulhos). While your upgrade request will no longer appear in your reservation, you will automatically be added to the upgrade standby list after you complete check-in and receive your boarding pass for this flight. Check in now

Rest assured that your position on the upgrade standby list will be preserved, even during the period before you check in and are added to the lists shown online and at the airport.

After checking in, use the United mobile app or go to united.com/info to view real-time upgrade standby lists

Does it make a difference when I check in ?
Should I do it now online or wait till I get to the airport ?

[AJK]

Makes no difference. You're not getting PR1 without manual intervention.

[gswannabe]

Thanks

[gswannabe]

Is telling the United agent to look up “gg onestandby” and review lines 85-89 which spell out the details of this reward (pr1 status) Still accurate ?

[rileywiles23]

Is telling the United agent to look up “gg onestandby” and review lines 85-89 which spell out the details of this reward (pr1 status) Still accurate ?

Should be.

[iwlw2]

Hi, thanks for the help so far, had another couple of questions if you don't mind. I need to book the other half of my ewr-tlv itinerary (being that I live in NJ my wife says the more important part was the way home  and that i BH made a plan b on) but united is only showing regular economy availability on  Newark to TLV for Dec. 22. I think Im going to go ahead and book it anyway so I don't lose the seat altogether. My questions are: Since Im booking it as a separate one way ticket from the previously booked TLV-EWR return, can I and is there any advantage in calling up and having them merge it into one booking, I ask because a couple years ago I made an award ticket which was business one way and economy the other and requested an upgrade and got it without plan b or the like, and I always assumed it was because half of it was already business, does anyone know if that could be true?
Also, if either economy or business saver award space opens up and I call up to switch my regular economy (85,000 miles) to a saver, will they A)let me do that, and B) what if anything will they charge me for that? Thanks again so much for the help!!

[AJK]

Is telling the United agent to look up “gg onestandby” and review lines 85-89 which spell out the details of this reward (pr1 status) Still accurate ?

No. They've been changed, as reported upthread.

Hi, thanks for the help so far, had another couple of questions if you don't mind. I need to book the other half of my ewr-tlv itinerary (being that I live in NJ my wife says the more important part was the way home  and that i BH made a plan b on) but united is only showing regular economy availability on  Newark to TLV for Dec. 22. I think Im going to go ahead and book it anyway so I don't lose the seat altogether. My questions are: Since Im booking it as a separate one way ticket from the previously booked TLV-EWR return, can I and is there any advantage in calling up and having them merge it into one booking, I ask because a couple years ago I made an award ticket which was business one way and economy the other and requested an upgrade and got it without plan b or the like, and I always assumed it was because half of it was already business, does anyone know if that could be true?
Also, if either economy or business saver award space opens up and I call up to switch my regular economy (85,000 miles) to a saver, will they A)let me do that, and B) what if anything will they charge me for that? Thanks again so much for the help!!

Advantage of changing to RT is ability to add a "free one way." Disadvantage = change fee.

[iwlw2]

Advantage of changing to RT is ability to add a "free one way." Disadvantage = change fee.


[/quote]
Sorry, Im not getting this. What is a free one way, and what do you mean by change fee, is it higher on a round trip than it is on a one way, because otherwise in any case if id be changing any part Id be charged a change fee, no?

[AJK]

Sorry, Im not getting this. What is a free one way, and what do you mean by change fee, is it higher on a round trip than it is on a one way, because otherwise in any case if id be changing any part Id be charged a change fee, no?

http://bfy.tw/2iqr

Change fee for booking NOW as RT.

No change fee is you simply book the return alone.

[Emkay]

Is it worth booking plan B for a EWR-HNL flight for 2 people? Anyone here not clear that route? Worth the risk if I really don't want to sit in economy for that long?

[rileywiles23]

Is it worth booking plan B for a EWR-HNL flight for 2 people? Anyone here not clear that route? Worth the risk if I really don't want to sit in economy for that long?

What risk is there in booking plan B ? If you don't clear you'll just get your miles back.