During the pandemic, United Airlines repeatedly extended PlusPoints (the airline’s upgrade currency). By extending PlusPoints earned back in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the demand for PlusPoints upgrades on United’s flights is higher than ever. In my experience, it’s not uncommon to find upgrade waitlists with over 30 customers on peak international flights. In turn, some Premier members are struggling to redeem their PlusPoints before the extended PlusPoints expire on July 31.
United offers three types of Polaris business-class PlusPoints upgrades on its long-haul flights:
- Confirmable upgrades (indicated by the PZ fare class).
- Waitlist upgrades (when the PZ fare class isn’t available).
- Skip-the-waitlist upgrades (only for Premier 1K members on select flights).
So, since you generally can’t rely on a waitlisted upgrade and with the significant shortcomings of the skip-the-waitlist option, we recommend redeeming PlusPoints when there’s confirmable Polaris upgrade space.
As you’d expect, confirmable upgrade space is harder to come by these days, but we set out to find what’s available. On the flights that follow, there are at least four seats in the PZ fare class (meaning you can confirm an upgrade from economy or Premium Plus to Polaris business class). We only searched for routes that operate in a Polaris cabin. You might find upgrade space on shorter-haul international flights to destinations in Central America and Canada, but those flights do not operate a Polaris-marketed cabin.
With that out of the way, here are the flights where you can confirm a Polaris upgrade at the time of writing. Upgrade availability constantly changes, so these dates may not be accurate when you’re reading.
Related: My last-minute trick for confirming United first class upgrades
Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR)
- February widespread upgrade space.
- March 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 24, 26, 27, 28 and 29.
- April 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 24 and 30.
- May 1, 7, 8, 23, 28 and 30.
- June 5.
- July 3, 11, 16, 17, 24, 25 and 30.
Related: United unveils 3 ‘new’ destinations, 6 additional transatlantic flights for summer 2023
Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Lima, Peru’s Jorge Chavez International Airport (LIM)
- March 1.
Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT)
- Feb. 6 and 9.
Geneva Airport (GVA)
- Feb. 2, 7, 14 and 21.
Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)
- Feb. 6, 7, 14 and 21.
Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO)
- Feb. 4, 7 and 11.
Zurich Airport (ZRH)
- Feb. 2 and 20.
Brussels Airport (BRU)
- Feb. 6, 11, 13, 20, 21, 22, 24 and 28.
- March 6, 7 and 28.
London
- February widespread upgrade space.
- March widespread weekday upgrade space.
- April 4, 9, 10 and 11.
- May 1, 2 and 8.
- July 4, 11, 18, 24, 25 and 31.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)
- Feb. 1, 8, 10, 11, 14, 21, 23 and 25.
- March 2.
Frankfurt Airport (FRA)
- Feb. 5, 6, 8, 19 and 20.
- March 1.
Munich Airport (MUC)
- Feb. 13, 20 and 21.
Related: United Airlines orders up to 200 Boeing 787s, setting stage for wide-body fleet renewal
Washington’s Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Lagos, Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS)
- Widespread upgrade space.
London
- February widespread upgrade space.
- March 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 21, 27, 28 and 29.
- April 8.
- May 29.
- July 31.
Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)
- Feb. 6 and 25.
Geneva
- Feb 2, 4 and 25.
- March 28.
Munich
- Feb 6, 13, 20, 23 and 27.
- March 6 and 13.
Frankfurt
- February widespread upgrade space.
- March 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 20, 26 and 28.
- April 9.
- May 7, 14.
- July 23.
Brussels
- Feb 1, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 27 and 28.
- March 6, 7, 13, 20, 21 and 28.
- April 9.
- July 18 and 25.
Related: How to get maximum value from the United MileagePlus program
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (HND)
- Feb. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 19 and 21.
Sao Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport (GRU)
- Feb. 20.
- March 7.
London
- February widespread upgrade space.
- March 4, 6, 7, 8, 13, 20, 21, 27, 28 and 29.
- April 3.
Frankfurt
- February widespread upgrade space.
- March 1, 2, 6, 21, 27 and 28.
- April 9.
- July 30.
Zurich
- Feb. 20, 23 and 27.
- April 2.
Munich
- Feb. 1, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22.
Brussels
- Feb. 7, 12, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 27 and 28.
- March 4, 6, 13 and 28.
Related: The ultimate guide to earning elite status with United cards
Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
London
- Feb. 20, 21 and 28.
Amsterdam
- Feb. 7, 8, 15 and 21.
Frankfurt
- Feb. 5, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21 and 22.
- July 31.
Lima
- Feb. 2, 13 and 20.
- March 6.
Related: 6 strategies I’m using to close the gap to top-tier United 1K elite status this year
Denver International Airport (DEN)
London
- Feb. 1, 6, 8, 10 and 13.
- April 8.
Munich
- Feb. 20, 26 and 27.
- March 6.
Frankfurt
- Feb. 20 and 21.
- April 9.
Related: United’s best-kept elite status secret: How to earn PQPs faster with partner flights
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
London
- Feb. 2, 7, 11, 14, 15, 20 and 21.
Related: Why I consider my United miles to be worth 5 cents apiece
San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
Tahiti’s Faaa International Airport (PPT)
- Widespread upgrade space.
Tokyo (Narita)
- Feb. 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 20.
London
- Feb. 7, 20 and 21.
Frankfurt
- Feb. 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
- March 6.
Munich
- Feb. 7, 14 and 21.
Related: What is United Airlines elite status worth?
Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)
Toyko (Narita)
- Feb. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 11.
Related: A 16-hour red-eye: Reviewing United Polaris on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Searching for upgrade space
To search for upgrade space, sign in to your MileagePlus account. Then, select “Advanced search.”
Enter your search criteria on the next screen, keeping the cabin in economy/premium economy. Expand the “Upgrades, certificates, and promotion codes” menu. Open the “Upgrade type” dropdown and select “PlusPoints upgrades.”
On the next page, you’ll see which upgrades are confirmed and waitlisted, and you can select your flight accordingly.
Related: The ultimate guide to getting upgraded on United Airlines
How to book these upgrades
As with most long-haul flights, you’ll probably want to book these flights as round trips (or multicity flights returning to the same region) to avoid inflated one-way cash fares. United charges the following number of PlusPoints per person for a one-way upgrade to Polaris business class on long-haul flights:
- Discount economy (S, T, L, K and G fares) to Polaris: 80 PlusPoints.
- Economy to Polaris (Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V and W fares): 40 PlusPoints.
- Premium economy to Polaris: 30 PlusPoints.
Occasionally, you’ll find the premium economy fare equivalent to the W fare, like in this example from Newark to London.
Here’s another example of this on a flight from SFO to Frankfurt, where the premium economy fare is slightly less expensive than the W fare.
Make sure to check the premium economy fare. Sometimes, you’re better off booking premium economy and upgrading to Polaris.
Related: Why Premium Plus and higher fare classes are the secret to United upgrades
Bottom line
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to redeem your PlusPoints for Polaris confirmable upgrades before they expire July 31.
Give United a call if you cannot apply a PlusPoints upgrade online. In my experience, United’s Premier Platinum and 1K phone representatives are well versed in PlusPoints and should be able to process your upgrade quickly.
As a reminder, Premier Platinum members receive 40 PlusPoints each year, while Premier 1K members receive 320 PlusPoints yearly (40 upon qualifying for Platinum and 280 upon qualifying for Premier 1K). Premier 1K members also receive 20 additional PlusPoints for every 2,000 Premier qualifying points earned beyond the Premier 1K status requirement.
