Business Class upgrade on United booked with Amex offer

[Bella Ciao]

I booked an economy ticket with a bag to New York in K & T fare class to benefit from the Amex £250 cashback. I am looking to upgrade the flight to Business class either with cash or miles. Has anyone got any experience upgrading with United?

P.S.: Don’t have any miles with United, so my best bet is to buy them if I have to go down that route.

[memesweeper]

An alternative to buying miles is transferring (ideally in 60k chunks) from Marriott. It’s 3:1+ 10k bonus. So sending 120k Marriott yields 60k United.

To get 120k Marriott points from Amex you need to send 80k membership rewards to Marriott.

I don’t know the current rates (if any) for buying United or Marriott directly. You can buy additional MRs — there’s an obscure points top up feature at the not attractive rate of 1.5p each.

[AlanC]

Going EDI to Newark on United tomorrow. Booked economy at £583 return less £250 Amex. Just checked in online and offered Polaris Business class upgrade for $599 or £482. Took their hand off at that price.
AlanC

[Bella Ciao]

AlanC wrote:

Going EDI to Newark on United tomorrow. Booked economy at £583 return less £250 Amex. Just checked in online and offered Polaris Business class upgrade for $599 or £482. Took their hand off at that price.
AlanC

Congratulations! That’s a great success. Enjoy Polaris.

Thanks for the tip. I will try my luck.

[Bella Ciao]

I am getting a quote of USD 3,916 per person for Polaris. 🙁