Hi everyone

Long-time lurker, seldom poster. I've searched the boards for a question similar to mine and haven't found the answer, but please direct me if this has been asked before.

I'm currently 1P with a very healthy amount of EQM already this year. I've had two UA long-haul international flights this quarter where I've put it for an upgrade from economy to business with miles and co-pay, and while the miles have been deducted in these two cases at the time of booking, I was never charged the co-pay when the upgrade came through at the gate--on fare classes that should be charged co-pays.

The first time this happened, I was originally on a flight that was cancelled, and the next flight wasn't until 24 hours hours later. It was a totally packed flight, but I didn't hang around the gate much to know if they were looking for volunteers to be bumped so I can't say if it was truly oversold and if I was more an op-up than a miles & co-pay passenger. I can tell you that the two people sitting next to me in business had also been upgraded from coach, and my memory is that they had status, but that I had flown more than both of them already this year.

The second time this happened, the flight was definitely oversold, the gate was chaos, there was a huge standby list (40 people?) and they were asking for volunteers until about 20 mins before boarding. So I can rationalize that maybe I was an op-up. Also, when I got to my seat, I asked the two women next to me how they got upgraded, and they had absolutely no status, but had used miles + co-pay and the upgrade came through at the gate.

So my question...do you think it's more likely that I was operationally-upgraded for both flights, and UA has forgotten to return the miles so I should call and ask for them back? (And is it just a simple matter of calling the 1P line and saying "Give me my X0,000 miles back?) Or do you think UA forgot to charge me the co-pay?

Any thoughts would be great. I should note that also this quarter, I've had 4 other international segments were I was charged the co-pay at the gate and received the e-receipt by the time I made it to the other side so it's not like this happens all the time.