US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Max Upgradable Segments with DMUP01

Does anyone know what the official US policy is for the maximum number of segments upgradeable with a single DMUP01?

On itineraries with three segments, where the origin and destination have been less than 800 miles apart, I've always been able to upgrade all three segments with one coupon. The agent in the originating airport would just attach the upgrade to the 2nd flight, the connection stub to the 3rd flight, and notate my record that the upgrade had been collected for the 1st flight.

However, on my last trip on 4 January, I couldn't get anyone to agree with me that I could upgrade 3 segments with one coupon. Now, everyone thinks you can only upgrade two flights per certificate because "it doesn't say it's valid for unlimited segments" or "there arent' enough pieces of the coupon for all the boarding passes."

I might buy the second reason. But, I was just wondering what the official policy is/was? Or maybe I've just been getting consistently lucky before?

While it may not say it's not valid for unlimited segments, that alone should be your defense. An upgrade cert. is valid for a one way trip within North America. Period. If USAirways.com or reservations routed you on 3 planes, that's hardly your problem. They should be collecting the appropriate number of certs for however far the distance is from origin to destination.

I have been told a couple of times 2 segments, for the reason that there are only 2 pieces of paper.
Should I be fighting harder?

I thought for sure that there was a regulation or rule stating that the number of certificates to be collected is based on the straight line distance between the two points. Anybody else remember this?

"The number of upgrades needed will be determined by the one way mileage between your origin and destination cities."

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chexfan:
"The number of upgrades needed will be determined by the one way mileage between your origin and destination cities."</font>


CASE CLOSED!

Sounds like there are some agents who just don't know how to do a 3 segment upgrade for one certificate and therefor make up rules!

One time when I was flying from GSO I had to buy some upgrades. Unlike the DMUP01's, purchased upgrades do not have the "stub" for connecting flights. The checkin agent printed something out on the dot matrix paper (didn't really look at it to see what it said ... guess I should have http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif) and attached it to my connecting boarding pass as proof of the upgrade. I think in cases of three or more, this is probably what they're supposed to do by the book.

In all my cases, they attach the "big part" to one, the "stub" to another, and write UPGR LFTED XXX on the last one (XXX=airport where I checked in).

When I used a purchased upgrade coupon to upgrade LAX-PHL-BUF, the agent attached the coupon to my LAX-PHL boarding pass and wrote "upgrade collected at LAX" on my PHL-BUF boarding pass.

I think the lack of consistency in handling upgrades is one of the things I like most about the Dividend Miles program. Sometimes the agents forget to collect your certificates altogether, sometimes they book you in F class! :-)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chexfan:
"The number of upgrades needed will be determined by the one way mileage between your origin and destination cities."</font>

Where does that come from? usairways.com? I didn't see it on the back side of the DMUP01.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ITRADE:
Where does that come from? usairways.com? I didn't see it on the back side of the DMUP01.</font>It's on the back of my DMUP01:

the above was quoted from, How to Obtain Your Upgrade- #9

Also...
Important Information- #6: Each upgrade certificate is valid for up to 799 miles of one-way travel including connections

These are older NAUs w/ a 2/28 expiratory date.

ok...so I am not trying to rain on anyones upgrade parade, but if you are all in agreement that upgrades are valid ow from origin to destination then why do so many of the preferred members I speak with get very upset when I tell them that it will take 2 cert to upgrade a flight from point A-B when the first segment is flown on a Dash-8? I know for a fact that this is probably one of the inconsistencies you mention.

Thanks
Brenda

Brenda, what you are talking about is not an upgrade from point A to B though, but A to B to C, where you're only upgrading B to C. So, what you're saying is the upgrades collected would be based on A to C and not B to C?

Depending on the flights, that could actually hurt or help you ... more likely to hurt you though ...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chexfan:
Originally posted by ITRADE:
Where does that come from? usairways.com? I didn't see it on the back side of the DMUP01.</font>It's on the back of my DMUP01:

the above was quoted from, How to Obtain Your Upgrade- #9

Also...
Important Information- #6: Each upgrade certificate is valid for up to 799 miles of one-way travel including connections

These are older NAUs w/ a 2/28 expiratory date.




Strange, I'm looking at my 01s which expire 7/31/02 and the language is not there.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ITRADE:
Strange, I'm looking at my 01s which expire 7/31/02 and the language is not there.</font>Yea, I'm noticing that the wording (on this particular NAU) is a bit different then the rules on the website.

But like I said it is an older one that's good for "1-799 miles" not 1-800.

Archived topic of change in NAUs:
http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ftpasttalk_forum/Forum51/HTML/000841.html

[This message has been edited by chexfan (edited 01-08-2002).]

I have done three segments on occason without issue.

I've also done two segments out of a three segment one-way (where one segment in on express metal w/o FC). No problems.

Then again, when I do something like that, I typically have it ticketed at the CTO, since they generally don't screw things up (knock wood).

Flew today and the person sitting next to me was a gate agent. I asked her about the number of segments and on a NAU. She saw no problem w/ 3 segments or the fact that there was one connection attached. She said "we have procedures for upgrades without the connection coupon". She also thought that if you were denied 3 segments that either there was no inventory, the agent was lazy, the agent did not know the rules or the passenger was rude and the agent wanted to put them in the back of the plane (this wouldn't apply to us at FT who are very polite). Don't underestimate the reality of the last option.

[This message has been edited by mileshound (edited 01-10-2002).]

Thanks for your responses everyone. It would appear that I was, indeed, in the right when I thought that a PIT-BWI-PHL-BOS two connection itinerary should only require one certificate.

mileshound, I don't underestimate the power of the third option. Interestingly enough, however, it was the US Airways employee who was rude. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif I've written a more detailed report here...
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum51/HTML/002070.html

Thisflightnofuel

I didn't mean to imply that you were rude. This one gate agent made it a point to me that she thanked nice people and punshied not so nice people. I brought that up since she emphisized it and not that it applied to your situation. I also said that they sometimes don't do it beacuse they don't want to do the paperwork (lazy). The agent I talked to said that they are also uncomfortable at times since we know the rules better than they do.

mileshound, I didn't take any implications from your post, so no worries. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif I was only agreeing with you that rudeness can work against you, since I have also heard similar things from travellers and agents alike.

I was also just trying to use the comment as a segue to introduce my other thread. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif