I'm a US Silver Preferred. If I use 20,000 miles to confirm an upgrade in domestic First on US metal, can I earn UA Mileage Plus miles? I haven't seen a thread with this particular question.

My intuition tells me that the answer is yes, as long as you're using miles to upgrade. You have to credit your flights to US if you're using your unlimited preferred E-Upgrades to move up front, but if you're burning a US20 I can't see why they wouldn't let you credit this flight to your UA account.

You should call the Dividend Miles Service Center and ask, though, just to be sure.

I'm a US Silver Preferred. If I use 20,000 miles to confirm an upgrade in domestic First on US metal, can I earn UA Mileage Plus miles? I haven't seen a thread with this particular question.


The answer is no. If you wish to earn UA miles while flying US Metal, you cannot use miles to upgrade. If you want to upgrade using miles, you must have your DM number in the record. If you have UA elite status, you can standby to upgrade with purchased upgrades. But, there is no way to advance confirm an upgrade on US metal with your MP number as your earning account.

Some people will tell you to confirm the res and the upgrade with your DM number in the record; and then call back and switch to your UA number. If you do find an agent who will switch the numbers without consequence (possible but unlikely) US will more than likely re-seat you in a delightful center seat in the back of the aircraft without telling you. :eek: And yes, they'll give you your 20,000 miles back. I learned about this early this year, when one day I went from 2A to 21B without ceremony. It was only a chance viewing of my itinerary on "virtually there". When I called, a CP agent explained what was documented in the record by someone in inventory, that I couldn't use my MP# and fly on a mileage upgrade.

There are agents at airports who can be charmed into upgrading US elites who are traveling on MP account numbers, so if there is space, you could get lucky.

The answer is no. If you wish to earn UA miles while flying US Metal, you cannot use miles to upgrade. If you want to upgrade using miles, you must have your DM number in the record. If you have UA elite status, you can standby to upgrade with purchased upgrades. But, there is no way to advance confirm an upgrade on US metal with your MP number as your earning account.

Some people will tell you to confirm the res and the upgrade with your DM number in the record; and then call back and switch to your UA number. If you do find an agent who will switch the numbers without consequence (possible but unlikely) US will more than likely re-seat you in a delightful center seat in the back of the aircraft without telling you. :eek: And yes, they'll give you your 20,000 miles back. I learned about this early this year, when one day I went from 2A to 21B without ceremony. It was only a chance viewing of my itinerary on "virtually there". When I called, a CP agent explained what was documented in the record by someone in inventory, that I couldn't use my MP# and fly on a mileage upgrade.

There are agents at airports who can be charmed into upgrading US elites who are traveling on MP account numbers, so if there is space, you could get lucky.

This is appalling. I've had the same trouble with US. I have, however, used UA mileage upgrades from my Mileage Plus account on a US ticket codeshared to UA while earning US credit. They did it with pleasure in the Red Carpet Club 45 mins. before the flight. Not only will US let you credit to your UA with an upgrade - they wouldn't even let you use US20's in the club. Something that definitly needs to be changed.

Sad but true. After I made Gold (50K) three months ago I had to apply miles from two European Flights to US because I was using DM to upgrade. Now I am sitting on 70K for the year with no hope at reaching CP (100K). Since I do a few Asian trips a year it would have been nice to apply all miles above the 50K to United but was told firmly that if I wanted to post those miles to United, I could not use US DM to upgrade. Only good news was that on one upgrade flight to Germany I scored 1A on a 330. The bad news was that the seat was broken and would not move a inch. Luckily one of the flight crew knew how to recline the seat using the manual release.....

It can be done. Just call US reservations after getting your 1st class borading passes while waiting to board. Tell them that the ticket counter agent had trouble entering your UA number and you didn't want to hold up the long line. Don;t even mention the upgrade. Worked for me twice using US20's to upgrade on LAX-CLT and CLT-LAX flights. Haven't tried it again because I have used up all my DM's from before US and UA were friends and I am mainly a UA person expcept for going to places where US flies and UA doesn't.

I've had my girlfriend and myself on the same itinary. And I can put in her UA number and my US number and as a CP, do the upgrade thing, and they'll let it go through (although I can't do electronic check-in).

Once one agent said to another, so long as I was a CP and the 'sponsor' , they'd do it. It sounded like otherwise you both have to have US numbers in the system.