Weird one - flying LAX-NRT-LAX last week with wife, paid miles+cash to upgrade outbound no problem, tried it on the return leg and ended up on the waiting list near the top but got an email 24h before that said "sorry you we couldn't clear you". Both the app and the website showed us on the upgrade list.

All normal except when I went to check for the refund of the miles and money, I found that they never charged my cc and never took out the miles (and I didn't have any SWU's before either).

Called them today and at first they could find no record that I had requested an upgrade then after a long bit of research they found a record that I had been on the web page, but that there was no payment attached to the upgrade request. They could tell that my status was "upgrade didn't clear".

So, since there's no complementary upgrades on international, how does one end up on the upgrade waiting list without forking over money or a SWU? Every time in the past they have charged the cc right away and the miles disappear from your account, then you get it back a week or two later if the upgrade doesn't clear. It's just weird.