Miles2Earn

I'm a OnePass member (Gold, soon to be Platinum) who booked on CO.com an international itinerary for self and daughter, and requested upgrade (with 40K miles+$500, for one-way, per traveler) for both of us. While my daughter, who ordinates her travel on CO, got her one-way upgrade as of today, I haven't, despite paying for it!

I thought I'd share the issues I've faced and wonder if this is what is awaiting OnePass Elite members once UA-CO merger goes thro'...I'd really appreciate my fellow FlyerTalk travelers to share their wisdom in what I could do better next time around.

Summary: messed up -by UA.com and reps - check-in on a CO itinerary that has UA as the 1st segment; missing opportunity to be on the Upgrade list for my CO flight as I'm no yet checked in on CO flight that departs in less than 11 hours from now, despite 2-3 calls to UA reps and CO Elite Desk.

Details: First off, my itinerary starts with a UA flight from PDX ->SFO on Oct 29th (today), connecting to a CO flight from SFO onto EWR and then onto my international destination (BOM). This was booked on CO.com a good 2 months back, and I was wondering why I wasn't able to select E+ seats on UA. A couple of weeks back I called the UA folks and the call promptly went to one of those outsourced call centers; the guy who handled the call tried to BS me by saying that since it was a codeshare flight (CO codeshare on UA), I can't get an E+ seat! I tried my best for several minutes explaining to the guy I was a Premier Exec-equiv on CO and hence entitled to E+ seating, but, to no avail (this, when CO Elite are supposed to get complimentary upgrades on UA metal starting Oct 12th!!). I gave up after 5 minutes or so. I called UA again a week ago, got a knowledgable rep this time (lucky?) and she promptly assigned me E+ seats on my UA flights, and said I'd be on complimentary upgrade standby list too (status "Pending Upgrade" when looking at the booking on UA website).

I checked in on UA website exactly 24 hrs before my flight (checked-in 28th morning for flight on 29th morning) and noticed that I was removed from the "Pending Upgrade" status, but, retained my E+ seat. However, on finishing check-in, I got an "error" saying "...could not check-in other flights on the other carrier (CO)" or something to that effect. I watched the CO flight (SFO->EWR) status a few times throughout the day (upgrade anxiety :-)) and saw the upgrade standby list grow slowly/steadily...(BTW, thanks and kudos to CO for the transparency in Upgrade handling - waaaay better than UA which doesn't even show any status/names/list on its flight status info on Upgrades)

Then it occurred to me that maybe I was losing 'seniority as I was not checked-in on CO flight due to the UA check-in messup. Long story short: called CO Elite Desk, who told me they couldn't do anything as I need to check-in w/ UA, despite telling them that I had already checked in w/ UA, but got that "error"; I called UA reps and the first one insisted on a stupid logic that I had to check-in with CO separately (as that flight from SFO was operated by CO)! I told him emphatically how the first carrier issues all the boarding passes etc., to no avail. Seeing I wasn't getting anywhere with this guy (wonder how UA can keep several of these ignoramus on payroll at their call centers! Maybe high turnover and poor training?), I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor came on line, and she put me on hold for a good %$#@ing 20 minutes, only to tell meat the end that she too faced the same "error" that I saw on check-in, didn't know what better to do, had called CO but no way out etc etc, and I hadto go physically to the airport to check-in for CO flights!

Maaaan! So far my check-in and upgrade experiences with CO have been pretty good (been a CO Gold for a couple of years, had several domestic flights w/ automatic upgrades); this is my first time with UA and CO flights on the same itinerary; if this is the way things are going to be when "merged", what's to be expected? I'm spoiled by the great customer service I've received in general from CO ( I used to be a Premier w/ UA a few yeast ago, never had any great service from UA, contrasted with that I've been experiencing from CO).

I was supposed to get SFO->EWR and EWR->BOM upgrades, but, so far I've only EWR->BOM upgrade (my daughter got both on CO, though she is not of any Elite status - I sponsored her upgrade, and am very happy she got it). So, hat happens to my "paid" upgrade (40K miles +$500), as it's only partial upgrade that I got so far?

Awaiting your valuable comments/suggestions...


A LOT MORE MILES 2 EARN!!!