UA Insider

Hi Everyone, as you many of you know, most of our OnePass upgrade rewards for BusinessFirst involve an upgrade service fee. In turn, this fee structure enables us to offer upgrade rewards for every fare and not just our highest fares. For our BusinessFirst upgrade rewards, our upgrade service fees currently range from $100 to $500 depending on the fare class.

One complaint we’ve seen frequently, especially here on FlyerTalk, is that these fees are non-refundable (a thread from Mary2e in particular comes to mind). The short answer is that we agree, and effective today, all upgrade service fees charged in conjunction with OnePass upgrade rewards will be fully refundable. This includes active upgrade rewards issued prior to today. In order for an upgrade service fee to be refunded, the upgrade reward must also be redeposited (and charged any applicable redeposit fees).

Here are some important points worth mentioning:

1. If your reservation is still active, you’re eligible. We tried to make this as straightforward as possible, but we did have to draw the line somewhere. If you have an active reservation in our system, then you’re eligible for this new policy. If your reservation is used or no longer in our system, then the original non-refundable rules apply
   
   
2. You’ll only get your money back if you redeposit your reward. Hopefully this makes sense. The refund of the upgrade service fee is directly tied to the redeposit of an upgrade reward. If you cancel your reservation, you’ll also need to redeposit your upgrade reward to get your service fee back. It’s important to note, the redeposit of upgrade rewards isn't currently supported on continental.com. If you’re cancelling a reservation with an upgrade reward, please be sure to call us instead of trying online
   
   
3. The rules for redeposits still apply. The redeposit fee will still apply to upgrade reward redeposits. Like travel rewards, the fee is $150 for everyone except for Platinum Elite members, who are exempt. The one exception is an "involuntary" redeposit, such as when your BusinessFirst waitlist doesn't clear, and you don't clear at the airport.
   
   
4. Changing from one fee to another won't be seamless. If you change your flights, and your upgrade service fee amount changes, the process is going to be a little clunky. Although you wouldn't incur any redeposit fees, we will have to refund your original service fees and charge the new service fee amount
   
   
5. One of these days, we’re going to use the TravelBank. Refunding these upgrade service fees back to the original form of payment (instead of a travel credit) wasn’t our Plan A. Unfortunately our TravelBank electronic wallet doesn’t yet accept refunds, nor can the funds from TravelBank be used toward upgrade fees. Someday it’ll be able to do all these things seamlessly (and online), and when it does, we’ll likely update the policy to use the TravelBank instead

As always, we strive to balance what makes sense for our customers and for Continental. Thanks as always for your feedback. It does make a difference.

kingalien

Very nice^. And eventual use of Travelbank will a great plus.

hockey7711

So if you use miles and pay the upgrade fee for businessFirst, then for some reason you have to change or cancel the reservation, the fees are now refundable. Excellent!

airphone

Good news indeed. Now its time to allow eua upgrades to hawaii as the premiums for paid first aren't that high and mostly awards anyhow.

jrzyshawn

This is great news. Thanks

OPFlyer

^ This is great news!

sbm12

So basically it costs $150 to get the fee refunded if not a platinum, right?? It is better than nothing, I suppose. I guess CO has made it clear that the difference between gold and platinum is going to come in various fees that are collected.

What about the scenario where one is waitlisted for an upgrade? At that point the reward has not yet been redeemed as the passenger is still in Y. If said passenger decides to forgo the waitlist is there still the fee for the redeposit??

I do see a lot of positive on this move; thanks for the update!

airphone

The fee is refunded whether your elite or not . This change is to mileage upgrade awards with fees attached and if you refund the miles the fees get refunded. The 150 redeposit for non plats on awards is correct.

sbm12

Which is what I originally posted, right?

airphone

No, the 150 fee you refer to is for redeposit of miles from an award not an upgrade award, where there is no fee for redeposit.

craz

^^

It never should have been Non-refundable to begin with

fozz

Excellent. This is definitely some good news. ^^^

wtshef

Great Move - certainly seems more fair now!

sbm12

Are you sure that there is no fee for an upgrade reward redeposit? The portion of CO Insider's post that I quoted suggests that any existing redeposit fees still apply. The co.com page about reward fees does not seem to differentiate between award types for the redeposit fee. And, most telling, last time I had to change a flight that had a reward associated with it I was charged a change/redeposit fee (though it was eventually waived).

So is there still a redeposit fee on upgrade rewards, and if so, what is the charge?

I'm also still curious what the answer is to the other half of my question. Does the redeposit fee apply while one is still on the waitlist versus having cleared for the upgrade?

COFan

In reading the post from COInsider I have the same questions as sbm12 esp wailisted versus cleared

but in anyevent is this good news, thank you ^