dojetdriver

Poster above you referenced the CAL side. Like he said, CAL upgrades EVERYBODY. Commuting on both UAL and CAL over the past ten years, I've had seats in first/business WAY more on UAL than CAL.

Granted, some of that has to do with CAL not allowing a JS'er to occupy a first class seat. But that's only been once or twice that one was ACTUALLY available.

Monkeyfly

United doesn't auto-upgrade Int'l or PS...yet.

SoCalGuy

Coto....apologies...."semantics".

On the "OLD" UAL, you got first as do many non-revs/JS do under your 'old airline's' pass travel....which was 'nice'. If you read what I wrote, I was speaking about the other half, you know the "OLD" CAL side. Now that we are 'meshing'/cross riding on company listing/passes ect.....as this thread touches on.

Just enlightening those at "Old" UAL as to how things tend to shake down ("Old" CAL market/flights) so there's no 'rude awakening' when non-rev's see 'how the other side works' when "Premium Class" non-rev seating becomes something of a "rarity" in the future.

Just FYI....

ualratt

TRUE but only for those retirees with 25+ years of service. All other retirees board BP8 in relative seniority with other BP8s.

SoCalGuy

CAL's retiree's ALL ride as SA4, which carries a LOWER priority/category than SA3s (SA3's = IE - line pilots, FAs, Mech, Tix Agent, ect).

All up for speculation, but I wonder if the New Airline is going to keep the Retiree Pass Category as CAL has it, or how UAL has it presently.....there's a big difference there on which way they choose, and how it will bode for commuter's trying to get to work.

Should be interesting. I hope the JNC has that one filed in their "To Do List" while at the table.

Andy

Since UAL started upgrading all elites for free domestically, it's gotten tighter. However, I was able to get F as a non-rev last month on a domestic flight.

At least I'll now be able to wear jeans or even shorts to nonrev. Previously, I wore dress pants because you never know when you're going to get F on UAL.

UAL hasn't been upgrading general members of the FF program, only Premier and above. Does CAL upgrade general members?

Edit: last Christmastime, my daughter and her friend were able to get Biz class to and from Sydney, Australia. That was definitely a nice bonus. Hopefully international travel will remain quite a bit easier to get an upgrade.

SOTeric

Wife and I got first SFO-KOA-SFO couple weeks ago (UA). Im really JR too.

757Driver

Get ready for that to change ASAP. I'm sure our BS upgrade policy's will prevail that gives away the first class product for nothing.

dojetdriver

Thanks for the clarification. I was going by what my dad told me, who falls into the 25+ plus category.

SoCalGuy

Andy....

Can't give you the exact "in's & out's" on how all the FF/Up-grades work at CAL....but I can tell you one thing.....First Class Upgrades at CAL come much easier (on the WHOLE) than they do at UA.

I have taken UA as a Non-Rev Int'l a few times, have had nothing but Business or better, very nice.....not so at CAL. Upgrades for rev pax seem to be more common thus making Prem Class hard to get as a non-rev.

My brother was traveling on CAL out of LA (on a 'ave' tix he got on CAL's .com), when he checked in at the automated machine, it offered him an Up-Grade on his coach ticket to BizFirst for $100 (and he is not a FF/or status with CAL or any of it's Alliance Partners).

Would like to see the "hard to come by Upgrades" preserve 'some' Prem Class space at least once in a while for non-revs....but just be aware of the 'trend' on CAL's side of the fence being that we'll all be completely 'seamless' soon concerning non-rev travel as one big happy family.