US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Upgrading on United

I know this subject has been beat to death, but I wanted to know if what I was told by a United TA in SNA was true or not.

I flew out to SNA on US, but was returning on United. When I checked in at SNA, I inquired about buying upgrade certificates for an upgrade from economy plus to first.

The TA indicated that, 1.) I had to have a Mileage Plus account with United & 2.) I had to be Chairman's to purchase upgrades to ride up front. I don't have a MP account and I'm gold so the TA said I couldn't upgrade.

After some futile discussions with her about what is posted on the USAir website which contradicted her statements, she offered an exit row window in economy plus.

Was she right?

No, you are able to purchase UA 500 mile paper upgrade certs. The upgrade can only be confirmed day of departure. You cannot use your US e-upgrades on UA. You do not need to be CP in order to buy these UA certs.

RATS!!! I KNEW she was wrong, but there was no way at the time to prove it.

What would be the best approach to use if you are certain that you are being handed a line of bulls*** from a TA regarding situations of this nature?

There are two general approaches if given either wrong information, and/or an interpretation of a rule or policy that is unfavorable to you that you want to further pursue:
1. Speak with a different airline employee. For example, if your situation happened at the SNA ticket counter, ask a gate agent instead. If you are going to use this approach, in general, just quickly thank the first person who is giving you the wrong or unfavorable information. In some cases, especially if its more unfavorable instead of wrong, you don't want the first agent to make a note in your record about the conversation. If you have an argument or intense discussion, the agent is more likely to annotate your record (called a PNR) with their version of the situation;
2. Ask for a supervisor. And, rather than just saying "supervisor" learn the jargon your airline uses for that function. For example, at US, a general supervisor used to be a PSS. For example, PSS Joe, etc. That stood for passenger service supervisor. I believe, but don't quote me, they are now called CSS Customer Service Supervisor. At AA, they are CSM (customer service manager). At CO, there is a CSR who is above an ASA (customer service rep) and (airport sales agent). Then a SAS (supervisor of airport services) is about both a CSR and an ASA. In general all airlines will have a "shift supervisor" of some kind or a "shift manager" etc., who obviously is over all the lower ranking supervisors. Then of course there is the station manager, but they very well would tend not to be readily available. If you use the airlines inside jargon rather than just "supervisor" it shows you have some knowledge of company station operating procedures. By the way, an airport is a "station" just like the airplane is "equipment."

As in "I've upgraded my UA flights at many stations, and the benefit is listed on the web site."

Don't get too cocky with terms or what you know, but show rather indirectly that you are familiar with internal roles and procedures, etc.

Finally if you are getting nowhere, you can always say you are going to write a letter to Customer Relations (UA) or Consumer Affairs (US). I suppose you could also say you would file a complaint with the DOT, although again threatning to write letters and file complaints usually won't get you very far in most circumstances.

Finally, you should initially try and pick out the agent you are going to work with. For example, as you keep flying, you should develop a 6th sense whereby you can tell if an agent will help you just by the way they say hello, etc. Don't worry, it'll come to you soon enough.

Just wanted to point out the obvious that there is a difference between being 'handed a line of b****hit' and dealing with an underinformed employee. My experience is that it is mostly the latter. And who can blame them for the 'industry of fine print' they work in? Many of us do not fully understand upgrade rules on our own airline (eg whether web check in helps you jump the waitlist - see another thread for that).

Most of the time, when we get 'incorrect responses', employees think they are giving the right answer. In the case of how customers of another airline can upgrade, this is something recently added to the many duties of a UA (or US) agent. While its disappointing the training was unsuccessful - especially since they lost money from you not upgrading - I can only assume that she was underinformed.

Beyond this, I would guess her 'training' involved asking a colleague sometime in the recent past if customer X could upgrade. There was probably a waitlist, with statuses on there. The slots were probably nearly full, such that only a CP could have received the upgrade, and thus the response was 'unless theyre a CP, forget it'.

Does anyone know the price for a 500 mile e-upgrade on United?

I know you can buy them at the airport, but can you still fly on you DM account? It appears you'd have to use your milage plus account - as an electronic upgrade how else would they keep track?

If you have status with Mileage Plus, you can use the e-upgrades in your UA account, upgrade at the appropriate window with those e-upgrades, and still have the miles credited to a Dividend Miles account. The UA reservations agent is able to set that up on your reservation so you wouldn't have to deal with the issue at the airport.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by FlyerAl:
If you have status with Mileage Plus, you can use the e-upgrades in your UA account, upgrade at the appropriate window with those e-upgrades, and still have the miles credited to a Dividend Miles account. The UA reservations agent is able to set that up on your reservation so you wouldn't have to deal with the issue at the airport.</font>

Really?! That is fantastic news. Is this with a direct UA reservation, codeshare through US or both? Does the reverse work? If I credit miles on my UA account can I upgrade on a US flight as a CP?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Fletch!:
Does anyone know the price for a 500 mile e-upgrade on United?</font>

http://www.usairways.com/dividendmiles/programinfo/upgrades_dm_on_ua.htm

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by FlyerAl:
If you have status with Mileage Plus, you can use the e-upgrades in your UA account, upgrade at the appropriate window with those e-upgrades, and still have the miles credited to a Dividend Miles account. The UA reservations agent is able to set that up on your reservation so you wouldn't have to deal with the issue at the airport.</font>

This is true, but they really have to know what they're doing and its technically not in the policy so most agents won't do it.

You can only be sure of using earned e-upgrades for one of the two airlines if you're on the same metal, and crediting the miles to the same airline. (if that made any sense!) If you're on the wrong metal, or on the wrong ticket stock, you pretty much can be asked to pay for the upgrades, and they'd be within policy. That said, US is much more likely to bend the rules here than UA.

It's even a fight to take a UA flight, have them put my US1 number in, and get a seat in the exit row using my 1K status, let alone upgrade!

In any case, to the original posters comments, you were not given right information--you should have been able to upgrade the United flight with purchased upgrades, and you definitely do NOT have to have a MP account to do this (your US acct. should suffice). If you encounter this situation again, ask to speak to a Service Director.

[This message has been edited by kv99 (edited 08-15-2003).]