Alaska Airlines U Class Explained: Your Guide to First Class Upgrade Space

Overview

It's no secret that Alaska Airlines is one of my favorite airlines to fly domestically (and internationally too, as of late), and being that I'm based in their hub airport of Seattle, I do that a lot. And because I am primarily flying from or to Seattle, I see myself constantly competing against many other Atmos Rewards elite flyers for those highly coveted first class seats.

Since I don't like to rely on pure luck, I've learned to use ExpertFlyer to help me find and confirm my upgrade space ahead of time. Here's how.

What Is U Class on Alaska Airlines?

Alaska Airlines uses multiple fare classes to categorize different tickets into specific buckets to detail things like cabin class, pricing, upgrade eligibility, refund and change rules and a slew of other rules governing your ticket.

Alaska sells first class tickets in the J, C, D or I fare classes, but it designates upgrades into first class as U class. Just because a flight has seats for sale in first class doesn't mean that upgrades are necessarily available. U class means that by booking into a specific fare type, you can secure an upgrade at the time of booking your coach class ticket.

For Alaska, U class specifically designates a first class upgrade-eligible fare. That is to say it represents upgrade availability into a first-class seat, but how you get into that seat can vary. That is what distinguishes U class from other fare classes that represent an actual first-class ticket, like a J, C, D or I class ticket.

How Alaska Airlines First Class Upgrades Work

Alaska Airlines offers two avenues to score an instant confirmed complimentary upgrade: using your hard earned status or using the upgrade certificates you earn through the loyalty program's milestone rewards. Let's look at each of those scenarios.

Status-based Upgrades

The higher your Atmos Rewards elite status, the higher your chances of hitting an upgrade. That's because your status determines which fare classes entitle you to receive an upgrade, like so:

• Atmos Titanium: Y, B, H, K and M class.
• Atmos Platinum: Y, B, H, K and M class.
• Atmos Gold: Y, B, H and K class.
• Atmos Silver: Y and B class.

Translated, that means that if I buy an M class (discounted economy) ticket as a Titanium I will receive an instant complimentary upgrade to first class provided U class space is available at time of booking, whereas a Silver elite buying the same ticket would not. Silver elites would have to buy a likely more expensive Y or B class ticket to receive a complimentary first-class upgrade.

Upgrade Certificates

Additionally, Atmos Rewards members are given the chance to unlock milestone rewards - including upgrade certificates - as part of their journey within the loyalty program. The more milestones you hit, the more opportunities to choose a certificate as the reward you'll get. But you can't just cash those out to upgrade any economy ticket into first class - only Y, B, H, K, M, L, V, S, or N classes will qualify. Deeply discounted economy tickets or saver fares are specifically excluded from upgrades. Your Atmos elite status, in this case, plays no role, as you're trading in one of your upgrade certificates.

What's best is that these upgrade certificates do not need to be in the name of the person being ticketed. For example, whenever one of my friends or family members have a certificate expiring that they won't be using, they send it my way since they know I fly Alaska enough to put it to good use before it goes to waste.

So, what's the point of booking yourself on an upgrade-eligible fare at a likely more expensive cost if you can't make sure you're going to hit the upgrade? That is why before I even purchase my tickets, I make sure to use ExpertFlyer to find the U class space to guarantee my upgrade will hit.

How To Find U Class Availability Using ExpertFlyer

The best way to ensure you're hitting that upgrade upon booking is by finding first-class upgradeable U class availability on that specific flight you want to book your ticket. To do so just get yourself logged into your ExpertFlyer account and head to 'Awards & Upgrades' on the left side navigation menu.

Once the form loads, you'll want to enter your departure and arrival airports, your desired dates, and in this case, select Alaska Airlines (AS) and check the box for 'First - Upgrade (U)' to search for upgradeable availability. All other fields are optional, but this is where you could choose to search for exact dates or a date range of up to +/- 3 days to increase your chances of finding space. Hit search and wait for the system to do its thing.

Once the results screen loads, you'll find out if you have proverbially struck upgrade gold. For example, for the search I ran, I found at least three direct flights on that exact date with U class availability, plus one with none. Of those three flights with U class space, notice how the least desirable one - the one requiring a 5am wakeup call - shows 2 U class seats, whereas the other two flights have just one U class seat each.

With this information I have all I need to bounce to Alaska Airlines' website or app (or even call customer service) and book myself on the lowest priced eligible fare class available on one of those flights and automatically be placed in first class.

What If U Class Isn't Available?

Sadly, U class isn't available on all Alaska Airlines flights. You will see more or fewer U class seats available depending on market forces beyond your control including travel dates, time of the day, popularity of the route and how many seats are left unsold among many other factors.

If the flight you want does not show any U class space available at the time of booking and you are flexible with your dates, the best way to increase your chances is to search for U class space the days before or after your desired date. However, if that still does not retrieve any U class space, that doesn't mean you should despair. The airline's revenue management team might open up U class space at a later day.

By using Expert Flyer, you can be notified when U class becomes available by creating an alert. To do so, just click on the bell symbol next to the flight you want to be notified about and enter the required info.

If U space ever becomes available, you will get the alert. Then, you'll be able to use your upgrade certificate or call to have an upgrade processed with the Alaska Airlines customer service team.

Does U Class Guarantee a First Class Upgrade?

The short answer is yes, and the long answer is it depends. If you can find a flight with U class availability, and you use one of your upgrade certificates, you will be confirmed into first class immediately. Also, if you find the U class space and you book into one of the corresponding fare classes for your elite status, you will be confirmed automatically.

The key is making sure that the fare class you book in economy is a qualifying fare class. As long as you do that, and depending on if you use your status or a certificate, you'll be upgraded at once.

Final Takeaway

Understanding how fare classes work within the Alaska Airlines world can help make or break your upgrade chances whenever you book your next flight. And knowing how to leverage the tools within ExpertFlyer can help surgically target the right tickets to book on the right dates, and ultimately help you save more of your money and still get that free upgrade.

Have questions or suggestions for this guide? Please reach out to customercare@expertflyer.com