United’s slashing of domestic upgrades remains; how it calculates the cost is no longer clear.
Back in February FCF reported on this fare, a flat-fee surcharge for an upgrade from economy to First Class at time of booking. The upgrade was based on flight miles and started at $50 one-way for up to 300 miles, and rose to about $299 for 2,000 miles. Fares reflecting the ‘UPDI’ letters in the fare basis code are ‘travel agent speak’ indicating it’s an upgradeable First Class fare.
Now, clarity has given way to opacity. The information once included in the fare rules, which told you the cost of the upgrade, has disappeared. FCF suspects that the upgrade cost is now subject to several variables besides flight-miles—demand and flight-time among them. (Or perhaps United has an algorithm that combines all three.)
Even though the upgrade information has disappeared from the detailed fare restrictions, what has NOT CHANGED is that both the upgradeable economy fare bucket and the discounted First Class fare bucket have to be available to get the fare. Meaning the fare is still capacity-controlled on both ends.
Take the Los Angeles-Chicago route, for example: Back in February the cost was $708 round-trip based on upgrading from a “K” economy fare; the fare basis code was KAA00ACN/UPDI. Now, the upgrade is still based on the same economy fare (K) and the fare basis code is KAKVUPFS; the “UP” now indicates it is an upgradeable First Class fare, and the fare is $674—a slight drop in price, also.
Had these fares shot up evenly, this case would be easier to make that United is hiding information to disguise an across-the-board fare hike. But they haven’t (see chart below). They’ve gone up on some routes and down on others. We’re tempted to take a line from Ronald Reagan and say, “United, tear down this wall.”
Examples of United’s Domestic EasyUp Fares
[table_opt id="5201" style="blue-header" heading="thcenter" rows="tdcenter" responsive="all"]