During the pandemic, United Airlines repeatedly prolonged PlusFactors (the airline’s improve foreign money). By extending PlusFactors earned again in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the demand for PlusFactors upgrades on United’s flights is greater than ever. In my expertise, it is not unusual to search out improve waitlists with over 30 clients on peak worldwide flights. In flip, some Premier members are struggling to redeem their PlusFactors earlier than the prolonged PlusFactors expire on July 31.
United gives three sorts of Polaris business-class PlusFactors upgrades on its long-haul flights:
- Confirmable upgrades (indicated by the PZ fare class).
- Waitlist upgrades (when the PZ fare class is not out there).
- Skip-the-waitlist upgrades (just for Premier 1K members on choose flights).
So, because you usually cannot depend on a waitlisted improve and with the numerous shortcomings of the skip-the-waitlist choice, we advocate redeeming PlusFactors when there’s confirmable Polaris improve house.
As you’d anticipate, confirmable improve house is tougher to come back by lately, however we got down to discover what’s out there. On the flights that observe, there are a minimum of 4 seats within the PZ fare class (which means you’ll be able to verify an improve from financial system or Premium Plus to Polaris enterprise class). We solely looked for routes that function in a Polaris cabin. You may discover improve house on shorter-haul worldwide flights to locations in Central America and Canada, however these flights don’t function a Polaris-marketed cabin.
With that out of the best way, listed below are the flights the place you’ll be able to verify a Polaris improve on the time of writing. Upgrade availability always adjustments, so these dates is probably not correct while you’re studying.
Related: My last-minute trick for confirming United first-class upgrades
Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR)
- February widespread improve house.
- March 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 24, 26, 27, 28 and 29.
- April 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 24 and 30.
- May 1, 7, 8, 23, 28 and 30.
- June 5.
- July 3, 11, 16, 17, 24, 25 and 30.
Related: United unveils 3 ‘new’ locations, 6 further transatlantic flights for summer time 2023
Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Lima, Peru’s Jorge Chavez International Airport (LIM)
Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT)
Geneva Airport (GVA)
Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)
Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO)
Zurich Airport (ZRH)
Brussels Airport (BRU)
- Feb. 6, 11, 13, 20, 21, 22, 24 and 28.
- March 6, 7 and 28.
London
- February widespread improve house.
- March widespread weekday improve house.
- April 4, 9, 10 and 11.
- May 1, 2 and eight.
- July 4, 11, 18, 24, 25 and 31.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)
- Feb. 1, 8, 10, 11, 14, 21, 23 and 25.
- March 2.
Frankfurt Airport (FRA)
- Feb. 5, 6, 8, 19 and 20.
- March 1.
Munich Airport (MUC)
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Washington’s Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Lagos, Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS)
- Widespread improve house.
London
- February widespread improve house.
- March 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 21, 27, 28 and 29.
- April 8.
- May 29.
- July 31.
Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)
Geneva
- Feb 2, 4 and 25.
- March 28.
Munich
- Feb 6, 13, 20, 23 and 27.
- March 6 and 13.
Frankfurt
- February widespread improve house.
- March 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 20, 26 and 28.
- April 9.
- May 7, 14.
- July 23.
Brussels
- Feb 1, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 27 and 28.
- March 6, 7, 13, 20, 21 and 28.
- April 9.
- July 18 and 25.
Related: How to get most worth from the United MileagePlus program
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Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (HND)
- Feb. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 19 and 21.
Sao Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport (GRU)
London
- February widespread improve house.
- March 4, 6, 7, 8, 13, 20, 21, 27, 28 and 29.
- April 3.
Frankfurt
- February widespread improve house.
- March 1, 2, 6, 21, 27 and 28.
- April 9.
- July 30.
Zurich
- Feb. 20, 23 and 27.
- April 2.
Munich
- Feb. 1, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22.
Brussels
- Feb. 7, 12, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 27 and 28.
- March 4, 6, 13 and 28.
Related: The final information to incomes elite standing with United playing cards
Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
London
Amsterdam
Frankfurt
- Feb. 5, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21 and 22.
- July 31.
Lima
- Feb. 2, 13 and 20.
- March 6.
Related: 6 methods I’m utilizing to shut the hole to top-tier United 1K elite standing this yr
Denver International Airport (DEN)
London
- Feb. 1, 6, 8, 10 and 13.
- April 8.
Munich
- Feb. 20, 26 and 27.
- March 6.
Frankfurt
Related: United’s best-kept elite standing secret: How to earn PQPs quicker with companion flights
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
London
- Feb. 2, 7, 11, 14, 15, 20 and 21.
Related: Why I take into account my United miles to be price 5 cents apiece
San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
Tahiti’s Faaa International Airport (PPT)
- Widespread improve house.
Tokyo (Narita)
- Feb. 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 20.
London
Frankfurt
- Feb. 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
- March 6.
Munich
Related: What is United Airlines elite standing price?
Honolulu’s Daniel Okay. Inouye International Airport (HNL)
Toyko (Narita)
- Feb. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 11.
Related: A 16-hour red-eye: Reviewing United Polaris on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Searching for improve house
To seek for improve house, sign up to your MileagePlus account. Then, choose “Advanced search.”
Enter your search standards on the following display, retaining the cabin in financial system/premium financial system. Expand the “Upgrades, certificates, and promotion codes” menu. Open the “Upgrade kind” dropdown and choose “PlusFactors upgrades.”
On the following web page, you may see which upgrades are confirmed and waitlisted, and you may choose your flight accordingly.
Related: The final information to getting upgraded on United Airlines
How to e-book these upgrades
As with most long-haul flights, you may in all probability need to e-book these flights as spherical journeys (or multicity flights returning to the identical area) to keep away from inflated one-way money fares. United costs the next variety of PlusFactors per particular person for a one-way improve to Polaris enterprise class on long-haul flights:
- Discount financial system (S, T, L, Okay and G fares) to Polaris: 80 PlusFactors.
- Economy to Polaris (Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V and W fares): 40 PlusFactors.
- Premium financial system to Polaris: 30 PlusFactors.
Occasionally, you may discover the premium financial system fare equal to the W fare, like on this instance from Newark to London.
Here’s one other instance of this on a flight from SFO to Frankfurt, the place the premium financial system fare is barely inexpensive than the W fare.
Make positive to verify the premium financial system fare. Sometimes, you are higher off reserving premium financial system and upgrading to Polaris.
Related: Why Premium Plus and better fare courses are the key to United upgrades
Bottom line
As you’ll be able to see, there are many methods to redeem your PlusFactors for Polaris confirmable upgrades earlier than they expire July 31.
Give United a name in case you can’t apply a PlusFactors improve on-line. In my expertise, United’s Premier Platinum and 1K cellphone representatives are properly versed in PlusFactors and may have the ability to course of your improve rapidly.
As a reminder, Premier Platinum members obtain 40 PlusFactors annually, whereas Premier 1K members obtain 320 PlusFactors yearly (40 upon qualifying for Platinum and 280 upon qualifying for Premier 1K). Premier 1K members additionally obtain 20 further PlusFactors for each 2,000 Premier qualifying factors earned past the Premier 1K standing requirement.