• Purchase 500-mile E-upgrades
• Redeem miles for upgrade awards
• Book upgrade eligible flights

Purchase 500-mile E-upgrades

500 mile E-upgrades are valid for travel within Region 1. These E-upgrades allow you to fly in United First or United Business with your purchase of a published fare in United Economy or United Business. These upgrades may be purchased online or at any United airport counter.

Each upgrade is valid for 500 miles of travel upgraded to the next class of service on United flight within North America. Flight segments over 500 miles require additional upgrades. Upgrades are subject to limited availability and are valid with most published fare classes. After you purchase your ticket, you may request an upgrade online using the 500 mile e-upgrade. 500 mile E-upgrades are valid for one year from the date of purchase.

500-mile E-upgrades are not valid with:

• Mileage Plus award tickets
• Tickets purchased on Hotwire, Priceline or Site59
• Denied boarding compensation tickets
• Code share flights operated by other airlines
• Cities outside of Region 1

Once your 500-mile upgrade has been requested, the timeframe when confirmation of the upgrade will occur is based on your Mileage Plus status. The list below indicates when confirmation will occur prior to departure:

• Global Services -- 120 hours prior to departure
• 100,000 Mile members -- 100 hours prior to departure
• Premier Executive members -- 72 hours prior to departure
• Premier members -- 48 hours prior to departure
• General Mileage Plus member -- 24 hours prior to departure

To use your 500-mile E-upgrade:

• Purchase your qualifying ticket on united.com
• Click on "Request Air Upgrade" at the bottom of the ticket purchase confirmation page
• Select each flight segment individually in order to request the upgrade
• If available, the upgrade will confirm at the specific timeframe prior to departure (based on your Mileage Plus status)
• If seats are not available in the next class of service you will be put on a waitlist.

Please note: 500-mile E-upgrades expire after 1 year. Complimentary 500-mile E-upgrades expire with no mileage conversion.

Redeem miles for upgrade awards

You can redeem your Mileage Plus miles to upgrade to the next cabin of service with your paid ticket on select fares. You may upgrade from an applicable Economy fare to the next class of service or from Business Class to United First Class.

To redeem miles for an upgrade you will need to contact United Reservations.

Book upgrade eligible flights

You may search for only upgradeable flights when you use the Advanced Shop for flights page. The following steps will assist you in finding the flights you need.

1. On shop for flights choose the type of upgrade eligible flight you wish to search for in the drop -down next to upgrade eligibility. You have the option of selecting: 500-Mile upgrade, Regional upgrade, Systemwide - Region 1, Systemwide - Region 2, Miles - YB, Miles - MH, Miles-EMUHQVKWSTL, Global - Region 1, Global - Region 2.
2. After you click search you will see the available flights according to your search. Flights that are upgrade eligible will be highlighted with a gold star.
3. Some items to remember:
   • An "upgrade eligible" indicator does not apply an upgrade automatically.
   • An "upgrade eligible" indicator does not guarantee that seats will be available for an upgrade
4. After your tickets are purchased, you may proceed to request your upgrade.