FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - UA metal, mixed CO/UA flight numbers - will SWU upgrade work?
Old Jan 13, 2012, 12:10 pm
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Passmethesickbag
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: NCL
Programs: UA 1MM/*G. DL Gold for one more year.
Posts: 5,305
UA metal, mixed CO/UA flight numbers - will SWU upgrade work?

I am about to book a R/T LHR-GRU in March. I fully appreciate that a one-stop connection via a US gateway comes across as extremely silly from a number of perspectives - total travel time, clearing immigration at transfer point etc - but it would maximise my EQMs, and above all, I can upgrade with my UA SWUs if I book in class W and above. Only problem is, whilst all potential connections show full availability in W for each individual leg, on UA.bomb, the full itinerary (for reasons known only to revenue management) is only available in non-upgradeable discount fares or in fare classes nearly twice as expensive as W. I have confirmed with the 1K line that it looks the same from their end. However, W class is available on CO.com, but with a twist. It's all UA metal, but with UA flight numbers on the transatlantic leg (into IAD or ORD), and CO codeshare but UA metal IAD/ORD-GRU. CO metal would have been both simpler and nicer (if the upgrade cleared), but it's nowhere to be seen in class W (plenty in S/T though). If I were to book this, is there any chance in heck that I could get UA, CO, and their integration desks to apply single SWUs on each one of these connecting itineraries, should I decide to purchase them? As an alternative to mixing UA and CO flight numbers, the outbound would be available with CO flight numbers LHR-ORD, a UA flight number ORD-IAD, and again a CO flight number IAD-GRU (again, UA metal throughout). Would that make upgrading less of a headache (I don't care about ORD-IAD)? I've upgraded a single-leg codeshare in the past with a CR-1, that was a pain in the neck but it did work in the end - I'd really appreciate any information about first-hand experience with this level of itinerary complexity.

Last edited by Passmethesickbag; Jan 13, 2012 at 12:16 pm
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