Global Premier Upgrades
Global Premier® Upgrades are one-way upgrades, confirmable as early as time of ticketing on all United-, United Express®- and Copa Airlines-operated flights systemwide.
Premier members will earn six Global Premier Upgrades upon meeting all qualification requirements of Premier 1K® status. An additional two Global Premier Upgrades will be awarded for each 50,000 Premier qualifying miles or 60 Premier qualifying segments earned thereafter during the same calendar year that Premier 1K was reached. Learn more about Premier status.
Effective January 1, 2019:
- Premier members will earn six Global Premier Upgrades upon meeting all qualification requirements of Premier 1K status.
- An additional one Global Premier Upgrade will be awarded for each 25,000 Premier qualifying miles or 30 Premier qualifying segments earned thereafter during the same calendar year that Premier 1K was reached.
- While you’ll still earn Regional Premier Upgrades when you qualify for Premier Platinum and 1K status, you’ll no longer receive additional Regional Premier Upgrades for your activity beyond reaching Premier 1K status. Learn more
Global Premier Upgrades will be deposited at the time they are earned, and will be valid through the end of the following Premier program year.
Eligible flights
Global Premier Upgrades are available on all United-, United Express- and Copa Airlines-operated flights systemwide.
These upgrades can be used on paid, published United Economy® fares to move to a United® Premium Plus seat or to upgrade to the next higher cabin. Fare classes S, T, L, K and G may only be upgraded on flights to select regions. Tickets containing Basic Economy fares or Economy (first bag charge/no changes allowed) fares are not eligible for Global Premier Upgrades. See the upgrade regions chart for full details on upgrade eligibility and fare restrictions.
United® Premium Plus
For aircraft with United® Premium Plus:
- MileagePlus members seated in United Economy can use a single Global Premier Upgrade request to move to a United® Premium Plus seat or upgrade to the United Polaris® business class cabin.
- If you’d like to be considered for a move to a United® Premium Plus seat or an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin, we’ll move you to the first available seat. If the first available seat is a United® Premium Plus seat, we’ll continue to look for space in the United Polaris business class cabin without requiring an additional Global Premier Upgrade.
- Members who have purchased United® Premium Plus upgrade-eligible fares will also be able to request an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin using one Global Premier Upgrade.
- United Polaris business class upgrade requests for members who have purchased United® Premium Plus seats will be processed in priority order first, followed by upgrade requests for members who have purchased United Economy seats. Learn more about upgrade priority order.
- There will be no fare class restriction, other than for Basic Economy and Economy (first bag charge/no changes allowed) tickets, for members who have purchased a United Economy seat and request to move to a United® Premium Plus seat, and no fare class restriction for members who have purchased a United® Premium Plus seat and request an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin.
- Members requesting to move to a United® Premium Plus seat only and who have domestic portions of their itinerary will not be automatically waitlisted for United First. To be waitlisted for United First on domestic portions of an international itinerary, use your Global Premier Upgrade to request an upgrade to the United Polaris business class cabin.
Learn more about United® Premium Plus
How to request
Once the traveler′s ticket has been issued, members can redeem Global Premier Upgrades by viewing the reservation on united.com and selecting the Upgrade Reservation link. Global Premier Upgrades may also be redeemed by calling the United Customer Contact Center.
Confirmation priority
Global Premier Upgrades may be confirmed as early as time of ticketing or time of request. If upgrade space is not available at the time when the upgrade is requested, members are placed on a waitlist. Waitlists are not available for Copa Airlines-operated flights. If the request includes multiple travelers, then priority is based on the highest Premier status on the reservation. The waitlist is cleared automatically in priority order. New waitlist requests for Global Premier Upgrades can be made until 24 hours prior to departure.
Upgrade confirmation on the day of 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 until three hours before flight departure, at which point our gate agents will handle all remaining upgrade requests.
Sponsoring another member
Premier members may request an upgrade for any other traveler using a Global Premier Upgrade, even if they are not traveling on the same reservation. In order to sponsor a Global Premier Upgrade for another traveler, the sponsoring member will need to sign in to united.com using their own account, then search for the reservation using the traveling member's confirmation number and last name. The sponsoring member can then redeem the Global Premier Upgrade by selecting the Upgrade Reservation link. 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.
Terms of use on United-, United Express- and Copa Airlines-operated flights
- Each Global Premier Upgrade is valid for a single one-way, one-cabin upgrade.
- Global Premier Upgrades are earned based on flights taken between January 1 and December 31 of the same calendar year.
- Members must fly at least four flights on United or United Express during a calendar year in order to be eligible to earn Global Premier Upgrades.
- Global Premier Upgrades will be deposited at the time when they are earned, and will be valid for travel through the end of the following Program year. For example, a Global Premier Upgrade earned in June 2016 will be valid for travel through January 2018.
- Global Premier Upgrades in certain types of sales accounts may have different expiration policies.
- Global Premier Upgrades may be redeemed at united.com or by calling the United Customer Contact Center.
- Global Premier Upgrades are valid on United-, United Express- or Copa Airlines-operated flights.
- Stopovers require multiple upgrade products. A stopover for a single, one-way trip within the U.S. or between the U.S. and Canada is defined as longer than 4 hours in the connecting city. A stopover for a single, one-way trip to or from all other destinations is defined as longer than 24 hours in the connecting city.
- New waitlist requests for Global Premier Upgrades will be accepted until 24 hours prior to departure.
- Waitlisting is permitted, but waitlists are not available for Copa Airlines-operated flights. 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. Waitlists are processed based on Premier status of the traveler, then fare class, then time of request. All waitlists expire 24 hours before trip departure.
- Global Premier Upgrades are fully transferable and may be used for travel with or without the earning Premier member.
- In the case of redeposit or cancellation, the Global Premier Upgrade will be returned to the account from which it was redeemed.
- In most cases, the Global Premier Upgrade will be considered used if any segment of an itinerary is upgraded or flown. However, for travel which includes segments in United Polaris business class, the Global Premier Upgrade will be re-deposited if the United Polaris business class segment(s) could not be upgraded.
- Global Premier Upgrades are subject to capacity controls, which may limit the number of seats available for upgrade.
- Award tickets, flights that have already been upgraded, tickets containing Basic Economy fares or Economy (first bag charge/no changes allowed) fares, and certain fares such as industry discounts and tickets purchased on websites where you don’t know the exact flight itinerary or airline until after you’ve paid for the ticket, are not eligible for Global Premier Upgrades.
- The number of MileagePlus award miles, Premier qualifying miles and Premier qualifying segments earned is based on the fare class of the ticket originally purchased, not the upgraded class.
- The sale, barter or other transfer or attempted sale, barter or other transfer of any mileage, certificates, awards, benefits or status, other than as authorized and/or sponsored by United, is expressly prohibited. Any mileage, certificates, awards, benefits or status sold, bartered or otherwise transferred is in violation of the rules and any accounts or members involved in such sales, barters or other transfers may be subject to United’s Remedies. The acquisition, use, transfer or attempted acquisition, use or transfer of mileage, certificates, awards, benefits or status that have been acquired by purchase, barter or other transfer in violation of the rules may result in United’s exercise of United’s Remedies.
- Other restrictions may apply. Terms and other information are subject to change without notice.
Upgrading on flights operated by ANA or Lufthansa
Global Premier Upgrades on ANA-operated flights are valid for one-segment, one-cabin upgrades on any multi-cabin international flight operated by ANA and marketed by ANA or United. Upgrades are subject to availability and valid for paid, published fares only. The following ANA fare classes are eligible for Global Premier Upgrades: C, D, J, Y, B, E and G. Global Premier Upgrades can’t be used to upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy on ANA-operated flights. Please see the terms and conditions below for specific eligibility rules.
Global Premier Upgrades on Lufthansa-operated flights are valid for one-segment, one-cabin upgrades on any multi-cabin international flight operated by Lufthansa. You may request Global Premier Upgrades as early as time of ticketing in order to upgrade from Lufthansa Economy or Business Class to the next higher cabin. Upgrades are subject to availability and valid for paid, published fares only. The following Lufthansa fare classes are eligible for Global Premier Upgrades: B, C, D, E, G, H, J, M, Q, U and Y. U.S. government fares are also not eligible for electronic Global Premier Upgrades on Lufthansa-operated flights. Global Premier Upgrades can’t be used to upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy on Lufthansa-operated flights. Please see the terms and conditions below for specific eligibility rules.
If you plan to travel with a lap infant, please call the airline you are traveling with first. Some Star Alliance partners do not permit lap infants to travel in a premium cabin and if the infant is permitted, special ticketing may be required.
How to request
Once the ticket has been issued, requests can be made online through the Global Premier Upgrade on ANA or Lufthansa request page. You can make upgrade requests for ANA-operated flights beginning eight weeks before departure until up to 24 hours before departure. You can make upgrade requests for Lufthansa-operated flights beginning 331 days before departure until up to 10 hours before departure.
You may request Global Premier Upgrades for up to four people traveling on the same reservation. You will need one Global Premier Upgrade for each traveler. (If the reservation has more than four travelers, you will need to call ANA or Lufthansa.) You do not need to be traveling with the passengers to request the upgrades and you can request upgrades for travelers with a different last name than yours. While you can only request upgrades for one segment at a time, you may upgrade more than one eligible segment on the itinerary.
If upgrade space is available at the time of the request and the requester chooses to confirm the upgrade, United will automatically deduct Global Premier Upgrades from the requester's MileagePlus account.
How to request for codeshare flights
If you are traveling on an ANA- or Lufthansa-operated codeshare flight with a United flight number, upgrades may be available and can be requested by calling 1-800-UNITED-1 (1-800-864-8331) within the U.S. and Canada, elsewhere call your local United Customer Contact Center.
Waitlist for Lufthansa-operated flights
If upgrade space on Lufthansa is not available at the time of the request, travelers may have the option to be placed on the Lufthansa upgrade waitlist. United will automatically deduct Global Premier Upgrades from the requester's MileagePlus account when travelers are added to the waitlist. The waitlist will clear automatically as upgrade space becomes available on the flight.
If a waitlisted traveler is confirmed in the higher cabin, the Lufthansa reservation will reflect the upgraded class and United will send a notification to the email address provided at the time of the request. Unconfirmed upgrades will be transferred to Lufthansa’s check-in system automatically. In case you do not get the upgrade at check-in, Global Premier Upgrades will be automatically re-deposited to the account from which they were withdrawn within 24 to 48 hours. To make any changes to your upgrade or inquire about your reservation, call Lufthansa at 1-800-645-3880 within the U.S. or visit lufthansa.com for local contact information.