travelhive

I typically fly Delta but I applied for and was granted a status match from United giving me Premier Platinum status. I am still learning the rules and quirks of United's rules and I have a question about an upgrade I am trying to do on an upcoming fright.

My wife and I are are flying LIS-EWR-MSP in Economy Plus, and were offered an upgrade to Polaris Business for a couple of hundred dollars. We took the offer and were wait listed for the upgrade. I now received an email telling me we have been upgraded on the domestic leg, EWR-MSP, but are still wait listed for LIS-EWR. I don't really care about the domestic upgrade and I mistakenly thought the upgrade would be "all or nothing" (an upgrade on both legs or none at all). If the LIS-EWR upgrade doesn't happen I don't want to pay for the domestic upgrade so I called the United help line to see what my options are.

I ended up calling a couple of times because the agents seemed a little unsure about how to go about getting a refund if the LIS-EWR upgrade doesn't go though. It seems that if the TATL upgrade doesn't happen I will still be charged for the domestic upgrade on a prorated basis, with a partial refund. One agent implied I could get mileage credits as some type of refund. Another agent said that if I don't get the TATL upgrade, I could call United within the pre-flight 24 hour window and there's a possibility I "may get a complete refund". (Of course then it would depend on Economy Plus seat availability for us to be "downgraded" back to our original status.) The inability to get a cash refund apparently has something to do with the upgrade I purchased being considered a "mileage upgrade" or a conversion to mileage credits (sorry but I am still learning United terminology) rather than a pure cash-for-upgrade situation even though I paid for the upgrade with credit card. The charge on my credit card shows up as a "Mileageplus Business First Upgrade Fee".

Has anyone else had an experience with this - getting an upgrade on only one leg of an itinerary and not being able to get a cash refund if you don't get the whole upgrade? Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer.