See below for information regarding upgrade availability and eligible fares on flights across our worldwide network. MileagePlus Upgrade Awards can be used on any United-, United Express- or Copa-operated flight, with no fare restrictions except for tickets containing a Basic Economy fare and Economy (first bag charge/no changes allowed) fares.

MileagePlus upgrade regions and eligible fares

MileagePlus upgrade regions for United-operated flights	Complimentary Premier Upgrades	Regional Premier Upgrades	Global Premier Upgrades	MileagePlus Upgrade Awards
Continental U.S. (except for premium transcontinental routes)***				**
Premium transcontinental routes Flights between Newark (EWR) and Los Angeles (LAX), Newark (EWR) and San Francisco (SFO), and Boston (BOS) and San Francisco (SFO)***
West Coast Hawaii Flights between Hawaii and Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO)				**
Long Haul Hawaii Flights between Hawaii and Houston (IAH), Newark (EWR), Chicago (ORD), Denver (DEN), or Washington (IAD)
Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Central America				**
South America			*
Europe, Middle East, Africa			*
Australia, New Zealand			*
Asia, Japan			*
Oceania (except Tahiti)				**
Honolulu (HNL) to Guam (GUM)			*
Tahiti			*

Notes:

Footnotes

• For regions with a *, Global Premier Upgrades are not available on flights booked in fare classes S, T, K, L, G or N. Basic Economy fares and Economy (first bag charge/no changes allowed) fares are not eligible for any type of upgrade. Return to reference
  • United® Premium Plus: For members traveling on upgrade-eligible fares, there will be no fare class restriction for members who purchase a United Economy seat and request a move to a United® Premium Plus seat, and no fare class restriction for members who purchase a United® Premium Plus seat and request an upgrade to the United Polaris® business class cabin.
• For regions with a **, the co-pay is waived for Premier members. Return to reference
• All multi-cabin flights operated by Copa Airlines are eligible for Regional Premier Upgrades and Global Premier Upgrades.
• Instant upgrades for all Premier members on Y and B full-fare Economy tickets and for Premier 1K® members on M fares are available on all flights that are eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades.

Regions and route exceptions are subject to change at any time. Upgrades are subject to capacity controls, which may limit the number of seats available.

Instant upgrades at time of ticketing
Premier members traveling on full-fare economy Y and discount full-fare economy B fares are eligible for an instant upgrade at time of ticketing on select flights. Premier 1K members traveling on M fares are also eligible. Instant upgrades are subject to capacity controls.

Waitlist priority on all flights
If upgrade space is not available when requesting a MileagePlus Upgrade Award, Regional Premier Upgrade or Global Premier Upgrade, travelers may be placed on a waitlist. Travelers placed on a waitlist are prioritized according to the Premier status of the traveler. If the request includes multiple travelers, then priority is based on the highest Premier status on the reservation.

Effective December 12, 2018, upgrade waitlists are processed in the following priority order:

1. Premier status of the traveler
2. Fare class¹
3. Chase United MileagePlus Club cardholders
4. United Corporate Preferred participant
5. Chase United MileagePlus cardholders with $25,000 annual spend²
6. Time of request

Upgrade confirmation priority on flights with United® Premium Plus
On aircraft with United® Premium Plus, we’ll first process United Polaris business class or United Business waitlists for all members who have purchased United® Premium Plus seats, using the priority order listed above. We’ll then process waitlists for members with United Economy seats, using the same priority order.

New waitlist requests for MileagePlus Upgrade Awards, Regional Premier Upgrades, and Global Premier Upgrades can be made until 24 hours prior to departure.

Priority within four days on flights eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades
On certain flights, automatic processing of upgrades, including Complimentary Premier Upgrades, may begin as early as 96 hours (four days) in advance. The confirmation windows for Complimentary Premier Upgrades, by published Premier status, are:

The following is the order of priority for upgrades, within four days of departure, on flights that are eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades:

• Premier 1K members on eligible Y-, B- and M-class fares: Premier 1K instant upgrades that weren't confirmed in advance are prioritized by fare class
• All travelers on waitlisted Global Premier Upgrades, Regional Premier Upgrades and MileagePlus Upgrade Awards: Sorted in waitlist priority order
• All remaining Premier members: Sorted in waitlist priority order

Priority within 24 hours
New waitlist requests for MileagePlus Upgrade Awards, Regional Premier Upgrades and Global Premier Upgrades can be made until 24 hours prior to departure. If we haven't confirmed your upgrade by the time you check in for your flight, you will be added to the Upgrades list at check-in, so there's nothing that you need to do after submitting your original request. Our upgrade systems process requests, per the priority listed above, until three hours before flight departure, at which point our gate agents will handle all remaining upgrade requests. Learn more about the upgrade standby list.

A MileagePlus member may request an upgrade for another traveler using a MileagePlus Upgrade Award, a Global Premier Upgrade or a Regional Premier Upgrade, even if they are not traveling on the same reservation.

Waitlist confirmation priority is based on the Premier status of the traveler. If the request includes multiple travelers, then priority is based on the highest Premier status on the reservation.

In addition, one companion traveling on the same reservation as a Premier member is eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades on select flights, and may be confirmed with the same priority as the Premier member, even on the day of departure. This benefit does not apply to companions traveling on award tickets.

Premier members who are primary cardholders for certain Chase-issued MileagePlus credit cards are eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades when traveling on award tickets on United-operated flights. The following credit cards qualify for this benefit:

• United MileagePlus Explorer Card
• United MileagePlus Explorer Business Card
• United MileagePlus Club Card
• United MileagePlus Club Business Card
• United MileagePlus Presidential Plus^SM Card
• United MileagePlus Presidential Plus Business Card

Complimentary Premier Upgrades on award tickets will be prioritized as indicated in the "Upgrade Confirmation Priority" section above, and prioritized after the lowest paid fare class within each Premier level. This benefit does not apply to companions traveling on award tickets.