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Home » United Airlines » I Am Flying From SFO To LAX…Via SYD
United Airlines

I Am Flying From SFO To LAX…Via SYD

Matthew Klint Posted onDecember 23, 2019November 14, 2023 43 Comments

United Reverses Polaris Cutbacks

San Francisco to Los Angeles nonstop? Please, I’m flying via Sydney, Australia.

Hello from 30,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. If you read my recent 1K dilemma post, you’ll know that I wavered (and frankly agonized) over whether to make 1K status in 2020.

For all the horror stories I hear about upgrades never clearing, the vast majority of my domestic and every longhaul upgrade has cleared this year. That’s right, every longhaul upgrade has cleared that I have sought.

And because I didn’t want Zach Honig of The Points Guy to be the only blogger who covers United Airlines with 1K status, I decided to go for it (there are other reasons too).

I think you’ll agree that I did it in the most painless way possible.

The goal was simple: minimize my time away from home. Christmas is this week, it’s a busy travel week, and frankly I didn’t want to go anywhere.

Well, let’s not go that far…I am always willing to hop on a plane and frankly giddy about a trip to Sydney for three hours, as wasteful as that may seem.

I ended up booking Burbank (BUR) – San Francisco (SFO) – Sydney (SYD) – Los Angeles (LAX), with SFO-SYD booked in Premium Economy (for the bonus Premier Qualifying Miles) and SYD-LAX in economy. Ticket was under $2K and (drumroll please) upgrades cleared in both directions.

a map of the earth with a route

The math was simple: are six GPUs (oh wait, 240 PlusPoints) worth the cost of my ticket? Yes…because I am confident I will use them all, as I have in years past. Since 2009, I’ve only let a systemwide upgrade expire once, and that was under the old system in which I had converted one to a paper Lufthansa upgrade voucher which never cleared.

If the internet is stable onboard, I’ll be posting live updates as I progress. I am also hoping to encounter the famous Annie in Sydney, one of United’s most heralded employees who I have missed on previous journeys.

Best of all, I left Sunday night and will be back before the sun rises on Tuesday…not bad for over 15,000 miles of flying. The rest of the week will be spent with my family

I’ll return home on Christmas Eve in the afternoon…and reach LA in the morning thanks to the wonderful international date line.

CONCLUSION

Will my little last-minute trip be worthwhile? Only time will tell, but I think the tradeoff was acceptable and look forward to what may well be my final year as a United 1K. From the blog perspective, I think experiencing the best United has to offer, even from my biased eyes, will be helpful to others in evaluating whether status is worth the pursuit.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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43 Comments

  1. Steve Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 11:46 am

    How did you request upgrades that cleared? GPUs or miles + surcharge? Looking at potential SYD trip in 2020.

    • Matthew Reply
      December 23, 2019 at 12:19 pm

      GPUs (PlusPoints).

      • Paul Hogan Reply
        December 24, 2019 at 2:09 am

        This.is.what.addicts.do.

  2. debit Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 11:50 am

    Love it. That article about doing away with elite status because people take unnecessary trips and cause greenhouse emissions come to mind.

    • Andy K Reply
      December 23, 2019 at 12:49 pm

      Except the plane would still have made the journey without Matthew.

      • Mark Reply
        December 23, 2019 at 12:53 pm

        The Conclusion paragraph seems forced.

      • debit Reply
        December 23, 2019 at 1:07 pm

        Not in aggregate. This particular plane yes.

        That article also didn’t single out Matthew particularly either.

      • Tim Reply
        December 23, 2019 at 7:09 pm

        However the more weight on a plane the more fuel. While the fuel for one person seems slight. Multiply that by the thousands of milage rums it adds up to multiple ful flights. While I easily make 1K in a year due to work $20k pqd and 158k pqm I dearly wish I could deal with clients fully remotely both for environmental and being home in the evenings with the family. I do hope they tax the he’ll out of business travel so corps start using zoom or webex more.

        • Chirpy Reply
          December 24, 2019 at 9:16 pm

          Gross. Go away, eco terrorist.

    • TexasFlyer Reply
      December 25, 2019 at 10:42 am

      Who cares?
      Take a ship if you’re worried. Better yet stay at home.

  3. Paolo Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 11:57 am

    Well, you have to minimize any additional carbon footprint by choosing something other than beef, in both directions ( but one suspects it’s too late to make that point…)

    • Matthew Reply
      December 23, 2019 at 12:19 pm

      I had salmon.

      • Andy Reply
        December 24, 2019 at 12:06 am

        I flew 872,934 UA BIS last year so I can say with some authority, a quick 15k is no big deal, Polaris catering is the main burden here. Depending on the menu, I usually go full toddler, hit up a packed snack and take a grilled cheese or two mid-flight. Polaris omelettes being the worst.

  4. Matt Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 12:16 pm

    Matthew
    Wishing you a Merry Christmas/happy holidays! Just a quick question (in a non confrontational sort of way): do you have any thoughts on the environmental impact of this kind of non-essential flying? I get that we can’t cut flying out of our lifestyles altogether but part of me feels as though this kind of recreational flying is perhaps unnecessary?

    • Matthew Reply
      December 23, 2019 at 12:18 pm

      Will be addressing that in a future post. In fact, I had something planned for this post but the day got away from me.

  5. Mr Chu Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 12:18 pm

    How is this trip gotta do with his individual carbon footprint. The plane’s gonna fly anyway so why not take advantage for it and qualify for your elite status!

    And BTW the beef is also already catered on the plane. Someone’s gonna it…oh wait no one may it but how does it save the climate! The damage is already done.

    Go for status!!

  6. Mr Chu Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 12:21 pm

    What is… take advantage OF it…

    …Someone’s gonna EAT it…oh wait no one may EAT it but how does it save the climate! The damage is already done.

    I type too fast

  7. MeanMeosh Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 12:31 pm

    LOL! I actually did something similar though on a much smaller scale this weekend, flying from Oklahoma City to Tulsa via ORD (a 90-minute drive that took 6 hours in the air) to check out UA’s CRJ 550.

    I suppose if you’re really confident you can clear 3 upgrades to TLV, your decision makes sense. Prepare for me to mock you incessantly if all three of you end up in Y, though.

  8. William Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 12:43 pm

    Greta Thunberg would be disappointed in you. lol.

    • Jon Reply
      December 23, 2019 at 5:09 pm

      I fully support Matthew in his choice of routing from LA to SF, getting to use his upgrades, having some quality quiet time, and earning more benefits for next year.

      I’m more disappointed in Greta and her transportation options. First, the resources and carbon footprint required to build a boat is very high. Moreover, spending 2 weeks in each direction all while eating, farting, and polluting the ocean is less carbon friendly than just sitting on a plane for 8 hours.

    • Bob Suckme Reply
      December 25, 2019 at 7:26 pm

      Greta Greta Greta…but job Supreme.

  9. Andy K Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 12:50 pm

    Hilarious that all these people are concerned about your carbon footprint, Matthew. It’s Christmas week — get a life!

  10. Shawn Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 12:57 pm

    Ah, the things we do … 😉

    “Ticket was under $2K and (drumroll please) upgrades cleared in both directions.”

    OK, color me (very) impressed!

    And, as someone who is concerned about our environment, I feel compelled to add that I, too, find the argument that “the plane would have flown anyway” to be a very convincing one. I can’t see how you not getting on the plane does anything to change our collective carbon footprint. Enjoy your flight!

    • Richard Reply
      December 23, 2019 at 1:14 pm

      Shawn – yes, this plane would, but United airlines are $1.8k USD better off because of Matthews choice.. money that on the margin makes United more profitable and more likely to do more flying in the future that it otherwise would.

      (Unless the GPUs clear when a revenue ticket would have bought the seat…)

      • Shawn Reply
        December 23, 2019 at 1:47 pm

        Copy that. My only quibble is that United certainly isn’t going to clear $1.8k in profit off Matthew’s ticket. That would be a very healthy profit margin, indeed!

        A friend of mine worked on United’s environmental initiatives. Ever the optimist, I very much want to believe that history will show that her work was not in vain.

  11. debit Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 1:10 pm

    People lighten up. I just dumped a gallon of used car oil in my local river.

    That’s my contribution to non sensical arguments. Oil is going to exist, whether in the can or the river. So what difference does it make.

    • Andy K Reply
      December 23, 2019 at 2:37 pm

      I have maybe dumped a few quarts in my local flood control channel, but was only because the receptor at the local PepBoys was full.

      • Kevin Reply
        December 23, 2019 at 6:49 pm

        I actually thought that’s what those roadway drains were for, pulling your car up, lining up with that slot in the curb and draining your old oil. Been doing it for decades.

    • Rohit Reply
      December 25, 2019 at 1:50 pm

      Losers like you are the reason 1k status means nothing now and upgrades rarely clear. Shame on you for creating such massive carbon footprint and bragging about it. Get a real job and do something productive with your life.k

  12. Daniel Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 1:52 pm

    Hmmm… Did you consider using the Premier Accelerator? Today I was offered 10k PQM for $1,000, so for $2,000 you likely could have bought the PQM and stayed home? Am I missing something?

    • Matthew Reply
      December 23, 2019 at 8:42 pm

      You are right – I should have looked into this. But I needed more than 20K…

  13. Howard Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 3:41 pm

    A PE review to Sydney probably would have been better for the blog.

    • W Ho Reply
      December 25, 2019 at 12:23 am

      Can’t Agree more!
      But hey, Matt would have to fly IN PEY …
      #horrors

  14. derek Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 6:52 pm

    Thanks in advance for the trip reports. I wrote that a mileage run for 1K was not worthwhile EXCEPT if Matthew did it and reported about the trip. If he did it and didn’t write a report, then not worthwhile.

    Thank you!

    • Michael Fitzgerald Reply
      December 24, 2019 at 5:03 am

      I was just trying to make platinum one more year my wife and I flew to Taiwan from Raleigh. I still had to purchase miles but at the end of this trip on the 30th of Dec I should have 76000 miles not major by your standards but huge by mine. I also feel with United changes this will most likely be my last year even getting status with them. Oh well

      • Matthew Reply
        December 24, 2019 at 10:17 am

        Hi Michael, congrats on making Plat – it is still a big jump over Gold in terms of upgrades.

        • thomas s. Reply
          December 25, 2019 at 11:38 am

          Sad but true. My wife wouldn’t let me retire until I got million Miler status and hence gold for life for the both of us. She’s a little disappointed with how infrequently we get gold on our vacation trips. Considering how often I used to get it between Florida and New York on my way to work. I explained to her that unfortunately we are now playing the hubs and competing with business Travelers where when I was flying from Palm Beach or even Orlando of to Newark on the first flight in the morning I was typically not flying and competing against 1 K’s and Platnums, I probably got first class ²/3 of the time.

  15. Arthur Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 10:26 pm

    Some people seem to find their GPUs clear, but I have very specific places and dates I have to travel, mostly TATL, and with a bad back, I am not willing to risk it not clearing. If someone els is offering paid discount business or an upgrade at purchase for around 2-2.5k, I will buy it.

  16. Jordann Reply
    December 23, 2019 at 10:37 pm

    With the weather and traffic in California this week, that may be the quickest way from burbank to lax.

  17. Sherab Reply
    December 24, 2019 at 12:18 am

    One thing overlooked by many is exposure to harmful radiation when flying.

  18. Rick Reply
    December 24, 2019 at 12:31 pm

    Matthew, long time lurker, first time poster. Thank you specifically for your mention of your personal upgrade success, super helpful for me. I know I’m probably in a unique situation but the changes United made actually make me think it may make sense for me to pursue status for the first time. We primarily fly international long-haul and the ability to pick up PQDs on partner flights is the key for us. My plan is to use partner flights to close any PQD status gap.

    • Matthew Reply
      December 25, 2019 at 11:14 am

      Hi Rick, thanks for your first comment! Honestly, I know SFO is a different market than LAX, but when I hear all the upgrade horror stories they just don’t register with my experience. From SFO, I’ve cleared HNL, LAX, BUR, ORD, IAD, EWR, LHR, FRA, and AMS this year.

  19. Linda Reply
    December 24, 2019 at 6:59 pm

    Who on earth would want to spend that much time on a plane???
    Maybe it’s because I’ve never flown business or 1st class, but I could not name one single flight of many that I’ve taken that even came close to being pleasant! And as for the small planes – little commuters felt like flying coffins, and a 4 man plane made me physically ill! All the entertainment they have is to take your mind off the boring and nausea inducing nature of flying. Not to mention the millions of tonnes of toxic pollution belched into the air! It was much more pleasant that I could travel around Britain & Europe by train! You should really stop & think about how much damage you’re causing to our climate by flying so much. I so wish that our governments would build high speed rail. Imagine the rush of travelling on a maglev at 500kph!

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