Newbie question about upgrading SFO->JFK
Apr 20, 2014, 6:07 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: SNA
Posts: 15
Newbie question about upgrading SFO->JFK
I've lurked around here for a while, but this is my first time posting..
Background:
First time I've tried to book any type of award travel -- I've booked a flight to CDG from SNA, but had to do it in two reservations: SNA->SFO->JFK (on UA) and JFK->FRA->CDG (on LH) and the reverse in July. This was all booked via calling United. The agent for whatever reason wasn't able to book the entire reservation at once and had to split up the UA and LH on two different reservations. The LH segments are booked in Business. The UA segments were supposed to be economy upgraded to BusinessFirst according to the agent.
When I got the confirmation, my confusion begins. According to the united site, my reservation is as follows:
SNA->SFO : United First (R), Upgrade Confirmed
SFO->JFK : United Economy (E), Upgrade Requested
JFK->SFO : United BusinessFirst (R), Upgrade Confirmed
SFO->SNA : United First (R), Upgrade Confirmed
I'm able to search the united.com site for award travel and found that they have standard business award for 50k miles on the same flight available, but I'm not able to select the seat on the seating chart page.
The seat assignment for the SFO->JFK leg is 21F, way back in regular economy and leaving at 10:29 pm. I've never flown on a 757 for this long in regular economy so I don't know how bad it would be to be there that long.
Did I screw up somewhere? What are my chances at getting my upgrade after all?
Background:
First time I've tried to book any type of award travel -- I've booked a flight to CDG from SNA, but had to do it in two reservations: SNA->SFO->JFK (on UA) and JFK->FRA->CDG (on LH) and the reverse in July. This was all booked via calling United. The agent for whatever reason wasn't able to book the entire reservation at once and had to split up the UA and LH on two different reservations. The LH segments are booked in Business. The UA segments were supposed to be economy upgraded to BusinessFirst according to the agent.
When I got the confirmation, my confusion begins. According to the united site, my reservation is as follows:
SNA->SFO : United First (R), Upgrade Confirmed
SFO->JFK : United Economy (E), Upgrade Requested
JFK->SFO : United BusinessFirst (R), Upgrade Confirmed
SFO->SNA : United First (R), Upgrade Confirmed
I'm able to search the united.com site for award travel and found that they have standard business award for 50k miles on the same flight available, but I'm not able to select the seat on the seating chart page.
The seat assignment for the SFO->JFK leg is 21F, way back in regular economy and leaving at 10:29 pm. I've never flown on a 757 for this long in regular economy so I don't know how bad it would be to be there that long.
Did I screw up somewhere? What are my chances at getting my upgrade after all?
Apr 20, 2014, 6:20 pm
#2
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Ohio
Posts: 245
welcome to FT;
to my knowledge this is an award travel? or did you purchase an econ ticket and applied instruments?
as for Upgrade Requested segment SF0 - JFK you might have to wait till the (R) inventory shows up; which means daily checking up on that flight and when the R inventory is avail you call to have manually upgraded if it doesnt happen.
to my knowledge this is an award travel? or did you purchase an econ ticket and applied instruments?
as for Upgrade Requested segment SF0 - JFK you might have to wait till the (R) inventory shows up; which means daily checking up on that flight and when the R inventory is avail you call to have manually upgraded if it doesnt happen.
Apr 20, 2014, 6:24 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: SNA
Posts: 15
I think I purchased economy and immediately applied upgrades to it with miles I transferred over from Chase UR. The agent did all the booking and upgrade applying so I think that's what happened?
Cash + points.
Is upgrade inventory different from pure award inventory? I can see the award available, but not the upgrade.
Cash + points.
Is upgrade inventory different from pure award inventory? I can see the award available, but not the upgrade.
Apr 20, 2014, 7:00 pm
#4
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Platinum/LT Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,594
Yes, upgrade space and award space is different. You are looking for fare class R>0 in expert mode.
It doesn't sound like you screwed up. You just had one segment of your trip wait listed for the upgrade since space wasn't available when you booked.
It doesn't sound like you screwed up. You just had one segment of your trip wait listed for the upgrade since space wasn't available when you booked.
Apr 20, 2014, 9:10 pm
#5
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,844
It would be best to withdraw your upgrade and then re-requested for only SFO-JFK.
If purchased ticket and then mileage upgrade, we tend not to call that an award ticket but rather an upgraded ticket,
What is confusing is the two separate tickets. Are you being charged separately for the domestic upgrade and the TATL upgrade? if so, that was done wrong.
If this was a true award ticket , how was the mileage determined? as 1 USA-EU RT or as Domestic RT and USA-EU RT?
I am very confused.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ce-2014-a.html
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Apr 20, 2014 at 9:17 pm Reason: more questions
Apr 20, 2014, 9:51 pm
#6
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,450
The confusion mounts.
If you purchased a ticket, why are you flying that routing? There's a UA nonstop to CDG from SFO.
In order to receive any meaningful advice, I'm afraid you are going to have to provide more and clearer details concerning your itinerary.
If you purchased a ticket, why are you flying that routing? There's a UA nonstop to CDG from SFO.
In order to receive any meaningful advice, I'm afraid you are going to have to provide more and clearer details concerning your itinerary.
Apr 20, 2014, 11:16 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: SNA
Posts: 15
Ah, sorry, I got the terms mixed up.
So it is a cash purchase with mileage upgrade. An upgraded ticket.
The reason for the JFK-CDG routing is because of the dates I'm traveling, for a wedding unfortunately so not flexible, 7/6 - a direct flight from SFO was ~6K instead of the ~3K I paid for one with stops. I didn't really mind the stops (I'm a strange bird that likes being in aircraft, so long as it wasn't in economy
). Also partially for the mixed carriers, I've never gotten the chance to fly a European carrier before so I wanted to check it out.
The agent said she couldn't book both Lufthansa and United together so she split it into two tickets. I've never done any type of upgrade or award travel before so I just let it happen =/
So it is a cash purchase with mileage upgrade. An upgraded ticket.
The reason for the JFK-CDG routing is because of the dates I'm traveling, for a wedding unfortunately so not flexible, 7/6 - a direct flight from SFO was ~6K instead of the ~3K I paid for one with stops. I didn't really mind the stops (I'm a strange bird that likes being in aircraft, so long as it wasn't in economy
). Also partially for the mixed carriers, I've never gotten the chance to fly a European carrier before so I wanted to check it out. The agent said she couldn't book both Lufthansa and United together so she split it into two tickets. I've never done any type of upgrade or award travel before so I just let it happen =/
Last edited by Zatheria; Apr 20, 2014 at 11:30 pm
Apr 20, 2014, 11:33 pm
#10
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,844
was checking since the OP was a little confusing.
If the TATL was in paid J, then OP has been disserviced by the separate booking of the transcon. For what the OP has likely paid for economy transcon, if had been done on a single booking with the TATL J, the transcon would have been paid domestic F. And there would have been no need to use miles (& copay?).
If the TATL was in paid J, then OP has been disserviced by the separate booking of the transcon. For what the OP has likely paid for economy transcon, if had been done on a single booking with the TATL J, the transcon would have been paid domestic F. And there would have been no need to use miles (& copay?).
Apr 20, 2014, 11:34 pm
#11
Join Date: Aug 2011
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 8,634
was checking since the OP was a little confusing.
If the TATL was in paid J, then OP has been disserviced by the separate booking of the transcon. For what the OP has likely paid for economy transcon, if had been done on a single booking with the TATL J, the transcon would have been paid domestic F. And there would have been no need to use miles (& copay?).
If the TATL was in paid J, then OP has been disserviced by the separate booking of the transcon. For what the OP has likely paid for economy transcon, if had been done on a single booking with the TATL J, the transcon would have been paid domestic F. And there would have been no need to use miles (& copay?).
Apr 20, 2014, 11:42 pm
#12
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,844
Although I would have originally booked UA J considering the type of J seats LH uses.
Apr 21, 2014, 12:47 am
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: SNA
Posts: 15
I'll give it a shot, hopefully it works out
Saga continues.
1. Good news. Asking about the reservations, agent finds an upgrade seat and grabs it for me.
2. However, it's on an earlier flight than my original one. I'll get to SFO from SNA after this one leaves. I catch that and ask if there's an earlier SNA-SFO flight.
3. She says yes and says the fee for it would be $25 dollars.
4. Reservation is modified and linked to my other one so my bags go through properly too.
All should be okay now right? When I get the email confirmation after the phone call, I see:
SNA -> SFO Economy (V)
SFO -> JFK Business (R)
Okay, I can live with that. It's a short flight to SFO, maybe the agent just applied the upgrade purchased with miles to the long domestic leg.
Then I see the fee section: Two $200 change fees along with two 75$ copays from earlier. Checking my credit card, there are indeed two 200$ charges, along with another 24$ charge.
I call customer service back and get a much ruder agent this time. He tells me that I must have requested multiple changes to result in the charges. I try to explain the course that this reservation has taken, but he does not want to listen to my story. I am /literally/ told to call refunds tomorrow instead of repeating my story to him.
Saga continues.
1. Good news. Asking about the reservations, agent finds an upgrade seat and grabs it for me.
2. However, it's on an earlier flight than my original one. I'll get to SFO from SNA after this one leaves. I catch that and ask if there's an earlier SNA-SFO flight.
3. She says yes and says the fee for it would be $25 dollars.
4. Reservation is modified and linked to my other one so my bags go through properly too.
All should be okay now right? When I get the email confirmation after the phone call, I see:
SNA -> SFO Economy (V)
SFO -> JFK Business (R)
Okay, I can live with that. It's a short flight to SFO, maybe the agent just applied the upgrade purchased with miles to the long domestic leg.
Then I see the fee section: Two $200 change fees along with two 75$ copays from earlier. Checking my credit card, there are indeed two 200$ charges, along with another 24$ charge.
I call customer service back and get a much ruder agent this time. He tells me that I must have requested multiple changes to result in the charges. I try to explain the course that this reservation has taken, but he does not want to listen to my story. I am /literally/ told to call refunds tomorrow instead of repeating my story to him.
Last edited by FlyinHawaiian; Apr 21, 2014 at 4:19 am Reason: merge
Apr 21, 2014, 7:44 am
#14
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Texas
Programs: Former 1K turned UA Kettle
Posts: 413
Any change fees are ridiculous, IMO, but $200 (or $400 really) needs to be fought. I suggest the age-old FT strategy of HUACA (hang up, call again) until you get someone who is able to sort this out. I would be furious if this were me.
Apr 21, 2014, 10:33 am
#15
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,844
.....Okay, I can live with that. It's a short flight to SFO, maybe the agent just applied the upgrade purchased with miles to the long domestic leg.
Then I see the fee section: Two $200 change fees along with two 75$ copays from earlier. Checking my credit card, there are indeed two 200$ charges, along with another 24$ charge.
....
Then I see the fee section: Two $200 change fees along with two 75$ copays from earlier. Checking my credit card, there are indeed two 200$ charges, along with another 24$ charge.
....
It is up to you to decide flight this further but the original agent made a major mistake and you should not be on two separate tickets. AND you should not be charged miles for the domestic segments. AND you should not be charged change fees to fix the situation. However it will take some effort to fix. If this is out of your pocket and your have the energy, your decision......