rickwestrate

Something happened about 8 weeks ago (approximately) where the manual upgrade for Premier Instant Upgrades at time of booking error out. This used to work like a champ. Now it 99% of the time fails with:

! We could not process your request. Please see the message below and make revisions.
! Please select at least one segment to be upgraded.

I know it's web site issue because if I call the 1K line they can do it over the phone for me right away. It's just silly that I have to do the call when it could be done so easily in 10 seconds on the web site. Actually...if the ticket qualifies and there is inventory, it would be even nicer if it would just apply the upgrade rather than having to go back into the record after the fact to fiddle with it.

And yes, I complain about it every time I call to have the agent push it through and they simply say they will, "pass it along".

PV_Premier

+1 and also had an issue wherein the website told me "sorry, the segments are no longer available for upgrade" when they clearly showed JN space available. i haven't had a Y/B fare since so haven't observed behavior recently.

jbm326

I had this same problem last week. Very aggravating, particularly when you're not in a position to spend time on a call trying to get it manually processed. I ended up going through the standby list at the airport because First showed up as booked full before I had a chance to talk to anyone (I was, at least, first on that upgrade list and got the upgrade).

ctp

This has been going for at least six months. I'm guessing it's a simple web coding error because it is always the last segment that fails to allow it to be selected. Most weeks I book B, with the first and the last being PIU (the middle two are one class barbie jets). I've never been able to select the last segment for upgrading.

Every time I call I politely mention that I'm only calling because the web site is broken. The phone call usually takes 5 minutes or less, but still annoying to have to call for a simple web glitch almost every week.

rickwestrate

Agree!

But honestly..why not just auto-upgrade it if the ticket is of a qualifying fare, correct passenger status and there's the qualified inventory? Silly.

PTahCha

You're assuming they are using technology that is capable of handling such complex transaction.

star_world

Terrible idea - huge numbers of people are specifically prohibited from booking First class tickets by travel policies, client contracts, etc. The current setup addresses that exact issue (when the website works obviously) - you can choose whether or not you want the upgrade applied at booking (and therefore on your eTicket receipt) or not.

Beerman92

Which issue does it address? Allowing huge numbers of people who are prohibited from booking a certain type of ticket to book the prohibited ticket?

channa

The receipt issue is a different debate -- the fact that it doesn't show what you paid for (e.g., the B fare).

star_world

Many organizations have no issue with a Y / B / M fare being purchased but have specific restrictions on purchasing a ticket in business or first class - even if it's the same price or cheaper. This is extremely common. The current situation, where you can purchase said B fare and then upgrade it right after ticketing suits those people perfectly. If the upgrade was automatically processed you wouldn't have this option.

I'm afraid it's very much the same debate - I can assure you that if the upgrade was processed automatically, the receipt would show a business or first class fare.

I know what you're getting at, but that's just semantics.

GDaoV

I'm looking at a receipt right now and the fare class is PN. What does that mean?

channa

I understand that. And that's the problem, and it's more than semantics.

The deficiency in CO's system is that the receipt does not show the originally purchased fare.

Even on a CPU, if you don't keep a copy at time of purchase, and print one on day of departure, it shows you're in F with no evidence of what you really paid for.

The receipt does not show the reality of the transaction, which is atypical, because most other companies are capable of detailing the transaction accurately.

I got a free gallon of milk at Safeway the other day on a promotion (Buy X get a free gallon of milk). My receipt shows I bought X, and it shows the milk at $0.00. That is precisely what happened.

CO, OTOH, doesn't show the Y-Up or B-Up as a freebie. That's why they have this elaborate workaround process -- allow you to defer the upgrade, capture your documents, and then request the upgrade. Like so many things with CO's technology, it's yet another a hack to work around CO's lousy systems.

I just looked at my last instant-up fare on DL. It shows me in First with a fare basis in Coach and fare ladder detailing the Coach fare calculation. That is exactly what happened. I got First, but paid for Coach.

The onus should be on CO to properly detail the transaction in these cases. Your concern is not the lack of instant upgrade automation. Your concern is CO's lousy receipts.

onechaiguy

Ugh, the same error is happening to me right now:

! We could not process your request. Please see the message below and make revisions.

! Please select at least one segment to be upgraded.


Annoying!

Kmxu

I had problems early this year when I tried to get the instant upgrades for my return flights on united.com. It surprised me this morning that I could upgrade both outbound and inbound flights without any fuss. I hope that this feature on the united.com has finally been fixed. There were only three upgradable segments on my itinerary. Perhaps, someone else with more upgradable segments may still have trouble. Cross fingers. Happy travels.

Often1

UA is essentially facilitating people who scam their employers. While it's incredibly stupid to tell an employee that it's fine to book a steerage ticket and pay Y, but that the ticket can't be issued as FC, it's the employer's prerogative to do so.

OTOH, inserting the manual -UP procesing step creates needless IT messes on occasion.