I have an exciting trip to the French Riviera coming up that I have been looking forward to for months. Today, I received an email from United luring me to redeem my miles for an upgrade from paid BusinessFirst to GlobalFirst.
Out off curiosity, I checked the “price” of the upgrade, and I saw I had the option to upgrade my P-fare ticket from EWR-TXL for 20,000 miles and zero co-pay.
In normal situations, an upgrade like this is usually offered for 20K miles and a $550 co-pay. When I told some of my friends about my upgrade offer, they all immediately chimed in saying, “DO IT!”. These friends are also 6’3″ and 6’5″, respectively. I am 5’2″ on a yoga day.
I knew in my gut that I couldn’t justify spending 20,000 miles on an overnight flight just to have a slightly more-private seat, larger bed, an added soup entree, and “premium” bubbly, but I still thought about the possibility.
While I’m usually quick to just say yay or nay to these types of offers, I did in fact ponder a bit. My “earn and burn” mentality was conflicting with my rational side like the devil was on one shoulder and an angel was in the other.
I thought to myself, “With so many devaluations left and right, am I being utterly ridiculous that I’m ‘attached’ to these 20,000 miles? Or am I simply living up to my savvy self?”
I turned to Twitter, and thankfully the majority of responses made me feel better for leaning towards NO.
Sure, sitting in a “better” cabin is tempting, but temping and UA metal shouldn’t ever appear in the same sentence to begin with. I think my 5’2″ self will survive and arrive in Berlin just fine in BusinessFirst.
At the end of the day, I’d rather save those miles for a free flight in economy than have a United soup entree up front.
Now, if I had only been able to use one of my GPUs for this upgrade, that’s a whole different story…
What would you have done? Truly a #firstworldproblem, I know.
I wouldn’t have upgraded either. Coach to Biz is worth 20k, but its a pass from business to first.
Received the same email today for an EWR-AMS flight next week from paid BizFirst on a P-fare as well (from the fare sale a couple of months ago originating in BOS) but it’s the normal 20K miles and $550 co-pay. Do you know why only 20k miles and no copay?? Another fine UA IT glitch perhaps?? If I were in your shoes I wouldn’t pull the trigger either.
I’m torn. I get where you are coming from but it’s pretty easy to churn cc’s or manufacture spend to get 20k united miles. With programs going to devaluation hell I think I would have burned the miles. Would take the sting out of buying a biz ticket.
You made the right call. As far as the soup entree goes, you are so not missing out! Three teaspoons of bland vegetable water vs. 20k points? I’ll take the points, please.
And there lies one of the issues with UA, in my opinion. Nobody is debating whether 20k miles is “expensive”, but rather if the difference between UA’s J and F is worth the small cost. If the benefits of UA’s F cabin only marginally outweighs it’s J cabin, then what’s even the point? Just my two cents (I would pay that to upgrade, BTW). :)
It depends. If you’ve never experienced United Global First, then spending an extra 20k + 0 fees is a great deal and I’d recommend taking advantage of it. However, if you have flown in United Global First in the past and what you really need is sleep, then keep the 20k miles. United First is nothing to write home about, unfortunately.
On a ex UA777 I’d do it in an instant. On a 767 or 747 it would be a more considered decision with factors such as availability of Global First lounge and if I liked my current BF seat. No yoga for me.