Last week I took a spontaneous trip to Barcelona and spent some much-needed girl time with a good friend of mine. I booked the trip using miles, 5 days before departure, and I had a blast exploring a new beautiful European city.
Even after being in “the game” for many years, there’s still always room to learn more. While talking to some of my travel friends, I was introduced to a pretty awesome (but not widely known) United Airlines award trick, which has been given the internet name of a “Plan B” award.
Here’s how it works: If you’re booking a saver award, and the saver portion of a higher cabin class is not available, you have the option of debiting out the difference in miles and “waitlisting” until a seat in the higher cabin opens up. If you don’t end up flying in the cabin that you’re hoping for, you’re still secure in your economy seat, and the difference in miles will be refunded. It’s a no-brainer strategy, and you save yourself the stress of obsessively checking to see if a BusinessFirst seat happens to open up.
Put in simple terms, I wanted to fly in BusinessFirst from EWR-BCN, but there were no saver awards available. Instead, I booked a saver economy ticket for 60,000 miles round trip (I also snuck my free domestic one way in there), and immediately called United to have an agent help me set up the Plan B award by withdrawing the additional miles needed for BusinessFirst.
Here’s where things can get tricky: As I mentioned above, this is not a widely-known practice, even among phone agents. This is an ex-Continental perk that has made its way over to United post-merger. In fact, you’re not very likely to get an agent who can properly understand what you’re trying to do simply by calling United (or even the United Premier Line).
Instead, use this link and have an agent call you. The call back line is often staffed by ex-Contential agents who are very familiar with this practice. I was able to get a fantastic agent within seconds who knew exactly what I wanted to do.
I knew the agent had done it correctly because my ticket showed that I was booked in XN class (economy), but I was waitlisted for I class (business), and that 115,000 miles were taken from my MileagePlus account. I was also told that I should automatically clear if I-class opened up before 24 hours from departure.
Unfortunately for me, I class did not automatically open up before departure, so things got a little tricky. I checked to see if I-space was available at all, and it wasn’t, so then I gave myself some extra time at the airport to get this straightened out.
In person, I had to explain that I was not simply looking to upgrade my seat with miles, but I paid for a BusinessFirst ticket (with miles) and was only seated in coach. For this to work, it’s crucial that the agent understands that you are not a coach passenger trying to upgrade with miles, but instead you are a displaced BusinessFirst passenger.
By doing that, you’re explaining that you are entitled to top priority “PR-1″ status (higher priority on the upgrade list). I immediately jumped from nowhere on the list to #1 on the list and moments later I was handed a new boarding pass and seated in 3K.
The space up front for the return portion of my flight wasn’t looking too promising, and since Barcelona is not a United hub, I decided to play it safe and have my miles refunded before I even got to the airport. I flew in Economy Plus on the way home and it wasn’t too bad.
Here’s how to set up a Plan B award:
- Find an itinerary on United.com that has saver award economy available. Call United, and mention that there’s saver economy, but ticket it at the saver Business or First award price.
- Since the saver Business or First award is not available yet, ask the agent to wait list the economy reservation to the desired higher cabin. If United opens up premium saver award space before your flight, you’ll automatically clear into it (or you’ll have to call an and ask them to manually confirm you).
- If the reservation doesn’t automatically clear, you’ll be put on a wait list at the airport (given you deal with a competent agent) with the very highest priority since you’re a displaced Business/First passenger, and ahead of people using miles to upgrade paid tickets.
- If for some reason you don’t clear, you’ll have to call United before you board your flight to get the difference in miles refunded.
The “Plan B” award works as long as there is United saver coach award availability, and you can be certain that your award was setup correctly if you the higher amount of miles were debited -and- if you see that it says “I class requested”.
Have you ever set up a Plan B award with United before?
Ed says
“In person, I had to explain that I was not simply looking to upgrade my seat with miles, but I paid for a BusinessFirst ticket (with miles) and was only seated in coach. For this to work, it’s crucial that the agent understands that you are not a coach passenger trying to upgrade with miles, but instead you are a displaced BusinessFirst passenger.”
So you are telling people to lie? Um………..
Angelina Aucello says
There’s no lying. I paid 115,000 miles for the ticket, which is the correct price for a round trip BusinessFirst saver award.
Rob says
Agree with Ed. You are not a “displaced BusinessFirst passenger”. You are are a PROPERLY ticketed economic passenger hoping for an upgrade. Claiming the former is rather scammy.
Also, it is NOT ” I knew the agent had DID it right…” It is “had done.”
Ben says
Regardless of how fair or unfair or “scammy” this process may sound, it is documented policy and is a rule carried over from CO, where it has existed for a long time. It’s certainly obscure and the majority of agents (especially those from the former UA) are not going to know how to book this. The process was documented on Flyertalk in the CO FAQ as early as 2006 (probably even earlier):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/continental-onepass-pre-merger-closed-posting/626679-faq-continental-onepass-lifes-greater-mysteries.html#post6883527
The post has the details of how both the phone agents and the airport agents can reference the policy (“ONEWAI in DRS” or “GG ONESTANDBY” respectively) and the steps needed to set it up properly.
There are still references on the UA site (about 15 bullets down):
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/awards/travel/types.aspx
As Angelina’s experience shows, when you get the right agent that either knows the policy or is willing to look up the instructions, the process does indeed still work and can be a very handy trick.
Angelina Aucello says
Rob, it is a documented policy.
Joe W says
Disagree…. she paid the proper amount for a Business Saver Award, having essentially waitlisted for the seat. Gate agent may not see it as a “waitlist”, because it’s a fairly uncommonly used/new policy, so it has to be explained as she said. If she is unable to get the First Seat, she should be refunded the difference in miles.
Also, it’s not “You are are a” it’s “you are a” :)
Ben Komenkul says
One of the most informative and great advanced techniques for us. Thank you Angelina. I always enjoy reading your insightful articles.
And for the fool above who asked you if you wanted us to lie. I don’t think he is ready for more advanced techniques yet.
dhammer53 says
Do tell, where are you going on your free 1 way?
Last year we flew JFK/SFO 6 months later upfront for an extra 12,500 miles (half the usual cost to sit there).
dhammer53
jp says
I think credit should go to Dan at Dan’s Deals for this one…. Just sayin’
I recently flew home from Europe on this type of award. Although my upgrade cleared a few days earlier, I was bounced around in LHR, needing to reticket. They tried to charge more miles (I didn’t have any miles, so who knows how that would have turned out.), even though I said the ticket had been paid for in saver biz mileage rates. It took about an hour to sort this out, which was easy after getting a competent US based agent on the phone. We went to our flight directly from there. got to the boarding gate, and oops… the tickets had been cancelled. The gate agent re-issued the tickets and we did not miss our flight, enjoying our comfortable biz class flight, but that was a lot of hiccups along the way. YMMV
Ben says
To be fair, Dan has some very good write-ups on this trick, but it was documented in detail on FlyerTalk long before he wrote about it.
Sadly, because it is so obscure, it also comes with potential headaches (especially at outstations) if you don’t watch it carefully. A lot of agents will not know how to handle it. But the potential gain tends to outweigh that if you like sitting in the front. ;)
Scott Grimmer (MileValue) says
Not scammy at all. Angelina was a displaced BusinessFirst passenger per the rules of United. She needed to alert the agents to that fact. Good work on the outbound.
My question is why did you preemptively get the refund on the return? Just go try again and if it fails, get the refund afterwards. No lose.
Richard H says
Step # 4, calling United before you board, is the part that would worry me. What if there were extended wait times and you couldn’t get through in time? Then you have just spent the extra miles for an economy seat.
Angelina Aucello says
That worried me too. That’s why I proactively called United before getting to the airport. I am sure you can get an adjustment after you fly if you don’t clear, but that just seemed like a time consuming battle I wanted to avoid.
ro says
Hi Angelina,
I was wondering if this Plan B will work on partner flights as well. I wanted to take a trip to Ireland (for two) next year in business class. I found an Aer Lingus flight from SFO to DUB on 2/14/2016 on United’s search. Currently there are only Economy Saver Award seat available, but I searched expertflyer and there are business class seats open. Would I be able to use Plan B for this?
Thanks!
Angelina Aucello says
Hi Ro, unfortunately Plan B only works on United flights and not partner awards :(
Sam says
I tried to do plan B for 2 legs. The first leg is United, while the 2nd leg is a partner airline. Only economy class was available on United leg. When I called the agent knew about this she said she won’t be able to waitlist because there’s a partner airline in the itinerary. Do you agree?
Angelina Aucello says
Yes unfortunately it has to be entirely united metal for it to work.
Christina says
I have tried to do this on our flight to New Zealand. I booked super saver economy tickets using points and currently no business saver is available. I have talked to over 5 agents periodically in the past couple of weeks regarding this Plan B. They keep telling me it is not available. The only way to do it is to purchase the economy and use points to upgrade with fee. With a couple of them I event went over the applicable rules that are on United’s Wed page
ToddC says
I just booked a 1 way from EWR to SYD (layover in LAX). Book using 40k miles economy (saver). Called the number that you suggested, and I am now a displaced business class passenger. United deducted an additional 30K miles from my account, and now I will hope that it clears. Of course, the agent had no idea what I was talking about, so I asked the agent to check with a supervisor. The agent then confirmed the procedure, and deducted the additional 30k miles. The 30k deduction was done manually, so it took a bit of time. 48 business class seats on the flight from LAX to SYD, and I’m hoping that I get 2 of them (I’m traveling with my daughter, so we did 2 plan B’s). Fingers crossed! Angelina – Thanks for your help!
ToddC says
I received my business class seats for the LAX to SYD flight. I travel next week, and I still have coach seats for the EWR to LAX portion of the flight. If I don’t get the business class upgrade on EWR to LAX, but I travel business class on the 2nd leg (LAX to SYD), do I get any on the 70k miles back, as I only received business class seats for one of one of the 2 legs? Thanks!
Brad B says
Angela! Thank you so much for the tip about having them call you, it worked perfectly, the agent knew exactly what I was wanting to do and was able to get it done in 5 minutes vs last time when I called it took 45! Also this works if you can book business for the international leg but economy for the domestic leg.
Also, I agree about stating you are a displaced business passenger and not an upgrade, never use the word upgrade when doing this as they will tell you that you can’t upgrade an award ticket.
julianna says
Angelina, I had to HUCA once and then the next person put me on the waitlist and verified my current phone and email so that they could notify me and deduct the miles at the time of notification. I let him do it, but I was wondering if I need to call back and have them deduct the miles. The whole conversation was strange. He said that it is a new thing that they don’t deduct the miles before hand. Now what?
Paul Orlowski says
I just booked 4 economy saver seats MAD-EWR-SEA and waitlisted for Business Saver (Plan B). I was talking to an agent today who casually mentioned, that if 2 Business Saver seats opened up, they would go to someone who signed up after me who only wanted two seats. They would not give them to me unless 4 seats opened up, even though I reserved first, because they can’t seat all 4 of us together.
Really? Is that try. What’s my work around. Should I get 4 separate confirmations?
Angelina Aucello says
That’s an interesting datapoint. First I would hang up and call again and see if the next agent says the same. Then, if it is indeed true I would definitely separate the reservations. They may be able to do so over the phone so you don’t have to cancel and rebook.
Rick says
My wife and I tried this for a trip from Newark to Los Angeles to Sydney. We made our reservations six months in advance, and there were plenty of business class seats available until a few days before our trip. However, by the time we left, all the business seats were taken. With airlines flying at near capacity, especially on long flights, the chances of this strategy working are extremely slim. You will never get upgraded until the last second, and even then, business class will be sold out almost all the time. It’s a good move, in theory, but don’t get your hopes up.