TerryK

SWU upgrades are one-way only. Different sponsors can upgrade different directions.

e500 can only be used for travelling companion on the same flight. Some check in agents will make an exception if you are present to check in with them at the airport counter.

UAL

Not sure if this is correct. I'm currently sponsoring a pax who is not traveling with me. Talked with reservation and they did it for me.

cepheid

The official policy (as posted on united.com) is that e-500s may only be used to upgrade 1 companion traveling on the same flight as the sponsor, i.e. the sponsor must travel with the companion. Agents have been known to break that policy (as they did for you), but officially it is against policy.

That being said, remember that e-500s only clear or waitlist at the e-500 window, which for a 1K is 100 hours before departure, and only 72 hours for a 1P. Even if you could sponsor them with e-500s, the upgrade request would not take effect until the time window opened, by which point the confirmable space may be gone anyway.

UAL

Clarification of questions:

Assume that I can use e500 ugrades to upgrade the domestic segments. My question is if the SWUs are available for the for the outbound flights, would UA looks at the reservation and ask why two different accounts are used to sponsor the pax. (My account for the domestic segments if the international segments are not available and the other account with SWUs for international if seats were available)

bmvaughn

Note that you don't have to be on the same PNR or even the same Itinerary, just the same flight to upgrade someone using e500s.

I just tried on the web, had no luck, called web support, bingo!

jhayes_1780

IME, it makes no difference.... Last year my brother sponsored me with a SWU for an outbound, and my boss sponsored me for my inbound.

Also, FWIW.... I have a feeling that the CSR only requested a u/g with 500's... (not yours), so your friend will probably check in and need to provide (or buy) 500's (I have nothing to back this up other then a gut feeling)

enviroian

Sorry for the dumb ... question, but being new to UA, I tried to submit my request for an upgrade and am having some difficulty.

Here's the deal: I'm flying phx-iad on UA 952 on 12/12 and back on UA 953 on 12/14. Seeing that both are zeroed out for F, I initially thought why would I request an upgrade. At any rate, I tried to apply for the return and a an error message told me I was outside my upgrade window, or something to that nature, but when I looked at my itineraries, it showed "pending" for an upgrade on the return. Oddly enough my 12 A assigned seat has twice now been changed somehow to seats in the arse of the 'bus and I've changed it back to 12A each time, thank god still available.

So that being said, am I only supposed to apply for the upgrade at the 72 hour mark?

Thanks

Ian

lucky9876coins

Nope, you can apply for the upgrade whenever you want, but it will only clear at 72 hours as a 1P. The seats changing is very strange indeed, but I doubt it has to do with the upgrade.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Not sure why you got a different message for the return than the outbound, given that both are currently outside your 72 hour window. In any event, "pending" is the best you can hope for, if F is zeroed out. Realistically, it doesn't look good, especially since IAD (a hub with lots of high-elites) is at one end of your flights.

For the moving seat issue, that's scary. I would get on the phone and call the 1P line and see if someone can give you a clue on that one. Maybe your FF number isn't in the file or some such.

mahasamatman

Even if F is wide open, "pending" is the best you can get outside your window.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Thanks for the reminder. I know that. I live that!

smk48

I'm flying UA 225 this saturday and am a 1P. I just got an e-mail from united confirming my upgrade on this flight using e-500s but the flight is still over 100 hours away, putting this outside of my 1P clearance window. Just wondering if anyone else has had e-500s clear before their window. Is this just a fluke or do you think there's some reason behind it (they need more seats to sell in coach,etc.)?

lucky9876coins

Hmm, only had them clear maybe an hour before the window at most, but never that far in advance. Are you sure you're not a 1K?

smk48

Not unless the Season's Greetings e-mail from UA the other day was a nice early x-mas present

It's also curious because I'm on a separate flight/reservation earlier on that day that has confirmable x on it but I haven't been confirmed yet on that flight.

djerikd

Yes! I had it happen at the 100-hour and 40-minutes mark for a flight last weekend, despite only being a 1P. The flight was F9 Y9 X9, and I haven't received a GS invite, so I couldn't figure out the reasoning behind it.