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Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
Ryan is a former TPG credit cards writer who has been around points and miles for several years and has published content at Miles to Memories, AwardWallet and The Points Guy. His wife joins him on many of his trips, and they enjoy snowboarding, diving, and seeing animals in the wild. When not traveling, Ryan is probably answering questions from his family about how he travels so much and whether this points & miles stuff is illegal.
Rachel Craft is a travel writer at TPG. She's excited about introducing more people to the world of points & miles and helping fellow travel newbies make the most of their points.
also contributed to this story
May 2, 2025 • 11 min read
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Quick summary
United Airlines offers multiple ways to upgrade to premium cabins, including using miles, upgrade certificates and complimentary elite member benefits.
Upgrade inventory is limited and tied to specific fare classes, so availability can vary significantly by route and timing.
Upgrade priority is determined by elite status, fare class, upgrade type and other factors, with top-tier elites and higher fares receiving preference.
PlusPoints, United's upgrade certificate currency, allow eligible members to upgrade themselves or others, with varying costs depending on route and cabin.
What to consider
Upgrade availability is often best far in advance or just before departure, but can be unpredictable.
Some upgrades, especially instant or skip-the-waitlist options, require higher fare classes and may involve nonrefundable certificate use.
Mileage upgrades may require a copay, and the value of using miles should be compared to the cash price, with United miles valued at 1.35 cents each as of April 2025 per TPG's valuations.
What you'll miss from the article
A detailed breakdown of United's upgrade priority system and practical tips for maximizing your chances of securing a better seat.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
On longer flights, seat upgrades can be worth their weight in gold — or, at least, tastier food, more space and better inflight sleep. Upgrade availability is often strictly limited, so we recommend booking the seat you want with points to avoid being disappointed if an upgrade isn’t available. That said, upgrades may be easier (and cheaper) to snag than you think, and there are several ways for United Airlines passengers to land a better seat.
Whether you have your sights set on United's premium economy or luxurious Polaris business class, we’ll share everything you need to know about upgrade eligibility, priority and more for United Airlines.
Searching for United upgrade inventory
United's Premium Plus cabin. BRENDAN DORSEY/THE POINTS GUY
Before you can score a better seat on your next United-operated flight, you must find seats the carrier has designated for upgrades.
This is based on United’s fare classes, which you can review in this comprehensive guide. United uses three different fare classes to denote upgrade inventory, as follows:
RN: Upgrades for all passengers
PZ: Available for Premier Platinum and 1K members using PlusPoints or mileage awards; also applies to Complimentary Premier Upgrades
PN: Reserved for Global Services members, as well as instant upgrades and mileage redemptions for Premier 1K customers on eligible full-fare economy tickets
After enabling this hidden feature, you can see how many seats are available in each fare bucket when searching for revenue flights on United. Generally speaking, you’ll have the most luck finding upgrade inventory far in advance or just before departure.
For example, look at the following flight from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to London's Heathrow Airport (LHR). This flight has wide-open seats in every fare class.
UNITED AIRLINES
“PN9” means there are nine or more seats available in the PN upgrade fare bucket. The same goes for "PZ9" and "RN9."
It’s worth noting that upgrade inventory is different from regular award inventory. However, since upgrade space generally correlates with award space, it’s no surprise that on this flight, you can also use miles to fly in Polaris business class with “I9.” This means there are nine or more seats open for a business-class saver mileage redemption.
One TPG contributor has routinely confirmed last-minute upgrades thanks to United releasing first-class seats to the “PZ” fare class shortly before departure.
United Airlines Polaris business class. ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY
Finding upgrade inventory is only half of the puzzle. You also need to understand the order in which your upgrade will be processed in case it doesn’t clear when you book.
United’s upgrades are split into two categories.
Instant upgrades at the time of ticketing
United Premier members traveling on the two highest-priced economy fare classes — Y and B — are eligible for an instant upgrade when ticketing on select flights (assuming PZ inventory is available). For Premier 1K and Global Services members, full-fare economy tickets clear into the PN fare and are applicable to M fares as well.
Additionally, customers applying miles or a certificate to move up to the next cabin will also be able to confirm the upgrade instantly when the necessary fare buckets (above) are available.
In my experience, M-, B- and Y-fare economy tickets are often more expensive than first-class tickets.
Waitlist upgrades
In most cases, your upgrade won’t clear at the time of booking, so you’ll end up on the waitlist for an upgrade. This may not be confirmed until a few days before the flight or may even happen at the gate just before departure. Unfortunately, there are plenty of upgrades that never clear.
For requests on the waitlist, United will clear them in the following order of priority:
1. Global Services passengers: Regardless of the fare class, United will clear upgrades for Global Services members before any other Premier members.
2. Premium Plus passengers: Passengers booked in the O, A and R fare classes (which represent United Premium Plus) have higher upgrade priority than those in economy class.
3. Upgrade type: Those redeeming PlusPoints or miles for an upgrade are prioritized ahead of elite members relying on a complimentary Premier upgrade.
4. Travelers with Premier status: After Premium Plus passengers and upgrade type, elite status is the next tiebreaker. Premier 1K members take the lead, followed by Premier Platinum, Premier Gold and Premier Silver members.
5. Fare class: For regular economy tickets, the priority order for different fare classes is as follows: Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K and G. Complimentary Premier upgrades on award tickets will be prioritized after the lowest paid fare class.
6. United Club cardholders and Presidential Plus cardholders
7. United Corporate Preferred participants
8. Other United Chase cardholders with $25,000 in annual spending
9. Date and time of the request
Not all of these factors will come into play on every flight. However, if multiple passengers with the same elite status tier request an upgrade, United will move down the list and use fare class as a tiebreaker.
If that doesn’t work, the system will continue to the credit card type the passenger holds (if any), spending threshold and, finally, the time the request was submitted.
United PlusPoints
ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY
PlusPoints are United's upgrade certificate currency, available only to Premier Platinum members and above. You earn PlusPoints as follows:
40 PlusPoints when you reach Premier Platinum
280 PlusPoints when you reach Premier 1K or Global Services
PlusPoints can be used to upgrade another traveler, even if they aren't on your reservation. If you want to upgrade your friend with PlusPoints, you’ll need to log in to your MileagePlus account and have their six-digit confirmation number handy.
Within PlusPoints, there are two types of upgrades and varying cost factors to understand.
Waitlist upgrades
You can use PlusPoints to put yourself on the waitlist for an upgrade, similar to what we described above. When you go into your trip in your United account, you'll be able to choose the seats you want to request with your PlusPoints and see the relevant prices. Your PlusPoints will only be deducted if the upgrade clears. You can also set different preferences for each leg of your trip.
Here's how many PlusPoints you'll need for different types of upgrades:
Premium Plus to business class on short-haul flights: 10 PlusPoints
Economy to Premium Plus, first or business class on short-haul flights: 20 PlusPoints
Economy to Premium Plus on long-haul flights: 20 PlusPoints
Premium Plus to Polaris business class on long-haul flights: 30 PlusPoints
Economy to Polaris business class on long-haul flights: 40 PlusPoints
Discounted economy to Polaris business class on long-haul flights: 80 PlusPoints
Skip the waitlist upgrades
While United advertises skip-the-waitlist upgrades exclusively for Premier 1K members, they’re few and far between.
If you find one, you can pay extra PlusPoints to skip the waitlist and upgrade immediately to Polaris business class on select long-haul international flights operated by United, subject to availability. You can also upgrade your traveling companions this way. If your itinerary also includes domestic legs, you’ll be wait-listed for those — unless immediate upgrade space is available.
While you’ll typically pay 20 PlusPoints to move from economy to premium economy or 40 PlusPoints to get into business class, prices to skip the waitlist are much higher — they vary by flight, departure date and availability. Prices can reach upward of 100 PlusPoints to move from economy to Polaris on peak travel dates.
In addition to the higher costs, you should note that these upgrades are nonrefundable. This means that once the upgrade is confirmed, there’s no way to get your PlusPoints back if you cancel your flight, and you can't apply them to an upgrade on another flight if you change your flight.
As long as you’re ticketed in the W fare class or higher, skip-the-waitlist upgrades will be available to Premium Plus and Polaris, subject to availability. However, you can only request them 30 or more days before departure.
United also allows you to redeem miles to upgrade yourself and other travelers. You can check the number of miles (and possibly copay) required on the airline’s upgrade award chart. However, you'll notice that mileage upgrades aren't available on fares booked with miles (X, XN or YN) or basic economy (N) fares. Some upgrades require a copay, which is waived for Premier elite members.
You can request these upgrades when purchasing your ticket or after purchase by selecting your trip from the “My trips” menu and clicking the “Upgrade cabin” button at the top of the screen.
UNITED AIRLINES
MileagePlus upgrades are valid on most paid tickets on United-operated flights, excluding basic economy tickets, if seats are available.
Before redeeming miles for an upgrade, consider the cash price of the upgrade and the value you'll get for your miles. For instance, say the upgrade you want costs 27,500 miles or $567. Since 27,500 United miles are worth $371.25 based on TPG’s April 2025 valuations, paying with miles makes more sense in this case.
If you have United elite status, you can reserve a Premium Plus seat at no additional cost on some flights using this hack.
United is rather generous in making complimentary Premier upgrades available to members with every tier of Premier elite status. This includes one companion traveling on the same reservation, even for lowly Premier Silver elite members.
However, the lower your elite tier, the lower your waitlist priority. This means Premier Silver members rarely get to take advantage of complimentary Premier upgrades.
Complimentary Premier upgrades are space-available one-cabin upgrades on select flights from economy to the next cabin of service. CPUs will be automatically requested for you on all eligible flights, which are paid tickets on United- and United Express-operated flights (excluding basic economy and economy first bag charge/no changes allowed fares) in the following regions:
Continental U.S. (excluding premium, transcontinental services)
Hawaii (West Coast departures only)
Alaska
Canada
Mexico
Central America
The Caribbean
Oceania (excluding Tahiti)
If your flight doesn't meet the above criteria, you'll need to redeem miles or use PlusPoints for an upgrade.
As noted earlier, select elite members are eligible for instant upgrades when booked into the highest fare classes, as long as there’s upgrade inventory available. If you aren’t upgraded instantly — or are booked into a lower fare class — complimentary upgrades, in theory, begin to clear based on your elite status at the following windows:
Premier 1K: Four days before departure
Premier Platinum: Three days before departure
Premier Gold: Two days before departure
Premier Silver: Day of departure
You can circumvent this rule if you hold the right United cobranded credit card. Most United cards with an annual fee give you this privilege.
United offers several options for upgrading your flights to a more comfortable seat. Most of these options are benefits for Premier elite members, as you would expect. But even if you don’t fly United frequently enough to earn elite status, you should still be able to upgrade your trip with cash or miles.
Always check upgrade inventory first, as the carrier is notoriously stingy at opening up inventory, especially in advance.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
