Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Come Wednesday, United’s long-standing Global Premier Upgrades (GPUs) and Regional Premier Upgrades (RPUs) will be no more, with the airline rolling out a new system called PlusPoints, instead.As a result of the upcoming change, United will be suspending the ability to make a new upgrade request from 11 p.m. ET tonight (Dec. 3) until 7 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 4. It may also take longer to change or redeposit upgrades during this period, though there shouldn’t be any impact to upgrade requests made before the 11 p.m. cutoff.Overnight, any GPUs in your account will be converted into 40 PlusPoints, while RPUs will become 20 PlusPoints Then, as of Wednesday, United Premier Platinum, 1K and Global Services (GS) members will all earn PlusPoints as follows:40 upon reaching Platinum280 upon reaching 1K or GS20 for each subsequent 3,000 PQPs (1K and GS only)You’ll then redeem PlusPoints as follows:Economy to domestic first/regional business: 20 PlusPointsEconomy to Premium Plus: 20 PlusPointsPremium Plus to Polaris: 30 PlusPointsEconomy to Polaris (Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W): 40 PlusPointsEconomy to ANA business (G, E, Y, B): 40 PlusPointsBusiness to ANA first (J, C, D): 40 PlusPointsEconomy to Copa business: 40 PlusPointsEconomy to Lufthansa business (G, E, Y, B, M, U, H, Q): 40 PlusPointsBusiness to Lufthansa first (J, C, D): 40 PlusPointsEconomy to Polaris (S, T, L, K, G): 80 PlusPointsEconomy to Polaris (“skip waitlist”): TBD PlusPointsElites will redeem fewer PlusPoints to upgrade to Premium Plus. Photo by Zach Honig/The Points Guy.While we won’t have some answers until the new program is live — how many PlusPoints you’ll need for United’s new “skip waitlist” option, for example — you can get a better feel for how the new system will work right here.
