tish50

Due to the linking of my accounts I am not Platinum on Continental and 1k on United until the systems merged. I noticed a bunch of reservations being upgraded on my flight from DEN to SAN on Friday but not me. I called United and they said I had a continental number in my reservation. She said she would add my mileage plus but keep my one pass number in as well.

First mistake, can't put both in.

Called the Elite desk and was told 1k members were being upgraded to first ahead of Platinums? Is this true?

I had another manager tell me just the opposite that I would have priority on CO using my one pass and priority on United by using my mileage plus number. She suggested I change the number after my flight. Unfortunately, the trips are one day apart so this would be difficult.

Why is this such a cluster?

edcho

It is two separate systems that were never designed to do this -- on March 3rd, these two systems will be combined into one so this should no longer be an issue after that date.

For now, on UA metal, UA 1K > CO Plat. On CO metal, CO Plat > UA 1K.

hockey7711

This was the second report saying that now IK>PLAT on CO metal.
It would be nice to get some clarification.

bocastephen

The agent was wrong. Plat>1K (and GS) on CO metal. I've had a UA agent tell me Plat=1K on UA metal (which is false), so you can't always (and rarely should) trust a policy statement from a phone agent.

dmodemd

Nobody can know for sure what the code in the system is doing. All we have to go on is the last policy issued which states as above: Plat>1K on CO.

Of course that policy was issued shortly after the merger was announced, so it is possible changes were made behind the scenes without an official policy announced. It should all resolve on 3/3.

UA Insider

Hi tish50, once we’re on a single system, 1K will be prioritized over Premier Platinum. Until then, on flights operated by Continental, OnePass Platinum members and Mileage Plus 1K members are currently being treated as equal. This has changed from the original implementation where OnePass Platinum was higher than Mileage Plus 1K when traveling on Continental. I hope this helps.

Shannon

keisari

This is the first time I hear about this change
It would have been nice to know about this instead of struggling with phone calls to the elite lines trying to change FF numbers in the middle of the trip.

bocastephen

Are CO Plat and UA 1K treated equally on UA flights as well? If not, why the one-sided benefit to UA people?

edcho

Cause I don't think anyone is fixing the other system anymore (or even thinking about it) simply cause it's going to be thrown out in less than a few months.

Plus, it feels like anything they try to fix, they end up breaking something else. So I don't think they want to put more effort into it (atleast I wouldn't want them to).

Cuse44

Thanks Shannon. As a follow up to this, is there a difference between Presidential Platinum and Global Services at this time? Or are they also considered equal for the time being?

As a side note, have any GS out there actually gotten Global Services to appear on their CO Boarding Passes? I only have been able to have UA 1K appear on the CO BP.

SunLover

Thanks for the clarification Shannon.


SunLover

Awtas

For me it looks a bit suspicious.
On the UG list I'm towards the bottom CO flight/Low fare/CO plat.
I used to be more towards the middle of the list.
Maybe just coincident and I'm being too suspicious

One strange thing I've noticed, on the BP I see boarding group printed, maybe I just missed the note (last week CO wasn't boarding by the groups yet).

Since there's no way to verify that (how UG is created), I just have to take a word for it, that 1K and CO Plat are equal (I have 1K too via the status match but used CO# on the reservation)

bocastephen

I'm a little confused how a CO Plat and UA 1K can be equal on a CO flight - since EUA is prioritized by status, then by fare class, it seems to me like UA 1Ks would be prioritized over CO Plats on lower fares or later ticketing dates when flying CO metal.

That means a UA 1K can be ranked higher on the CO pecking order, which is not an appropriate solution or option before the March program integration, especially if a CO Plat is still < a UA 1P on UA metal.

kozykritter

This unbalanced state has been going on since the merger was announced, and Shannon, it would be great to have a definitive answer from United as to whether CO Platinum is being treated the same as 1K on United metal now or still coming in line after UA Premier Execs for upgrades. Everyone here has a theory as to how it works these days but so many of us would like an answer directly from United as your phone agents can't provide one when asked.

I have been using my UA 1P status instead of my CO Platinum (where I actually earned the status) for upgrades on United metal and my percentage is well below 20%, even with W fares and all. 75K-99K flyers have been taking it on the chin during this new Mileage Plus hangover period.

777boy

While I can't offer anything more than anecdotal evidence, it seems clear to me that 1k and Plat are being treated the same (or, at least, my 1k and Plat #s are being treated the same) on PMCO flights.

On a BOS-EWR-IAH-SAN itin, I used my 1k number to get the BOS-EWR upgrade, then my Plat number to get the IAH-SAN upgrade. I seemed to have the same priority on both (again, anecdotal, but it seems to me that seats are assigned in priority from front to back: 1st in priority gets row 1, etc.). EWR-IAH was wait listed, but then cleared at T-48 with the Plat number in. So, I didn't seem to be at a disadvantage by using Plat vs. 1k, but also using the 1k number did not seem to be an advantage.


Much as it is unfortunate for Plats on UA metal, it wouldn't make any sense for UA to treat Plats, who may have flown as little as 75k, the same as 1ks who have flown at least 100k, possibly much more. This basically just the reverse issue of the 1k = Plat.