Hello,

My husband I are planning a trip to Paris (our first!) in Sept of 08. (SFO to CDG). We are trying to use our United FF miles to upgrade up to biz or first class. My hubby gets a very stiff back and I'm worried about him flying coach for that long of flight. The problem is that as of now, there are no Saver biz class tickets available for our time frame.

Our choices are just use the miles for free coach seats OR buy coach upgradeable (which seem to be super expensive) and waitlist for an upgrade.

I would appreciate any advice on which way to go is better as well if there are other avenues to take.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I personally would splurge & upgrade especially with a bad back.

we are off to Johannesburg and I am splurging for the upgrade - no way will I ride in coach for 16 - 18 hours, however long it is. We don't travel often so when we do, we try to do it right.

When you were checking for biz class award seats did you call or were you doing it at online united dot com?

If you didn't call then you should. That way they will check for availability on United's partners. You only see flights on United metal online.

I can see online that there are no biz class saver award seats available on United outbound or inbound in September.

There are first class saver award seats available outbound on Sept 10-12 and 17-22. Saver F award seats inbound on Sept 14, 16, 17, 24-27, and 29,30.

There may be additional award seats on United partners, like Lufthansa. Looks like United doesn't have a nonstop SFO-CDG, so there is no schedule benefit in flying United.

The only way you can upgrade to first class is if you buy a business class ticket. You can't double upgrade from economy.

What are your dates of travel and are those dates flexible?

There is only ONE saver F award seat on the dates I gave. I checked again for 2 pax and there are no dates with 2 seats in either direction in September.

What kind of prices do you see for upgradeable vs non-upgradeable fares?