Full scenario. Book economy in a long-haul flight. Waitlist for an upgrade to Polaris for 35k miles + $450 dollars. Payment is made immediately. PQP is credited at the time of travel, even though the upgrade did not clear. Wait 14 days and request miles redeposit and refund (because UA almost always "forgets" to do this automatically). The refund is given and the PQP deducted (with a later posting date). That PQP makes the difference between status levels.

FYI, this exact sequence happened with a flight earlier this year -- but it did not make a difference for status levels at that time. Oddly, I have a flight this month, where it actually would make the difference between Gold and Platinum. Of course, ideally the upgrade clears and I get both a restful flight and also no doubts about the status.

But mostly I'm just a bit curious in general if anyone has had experience with UA clawing back a granted tier level if PQP is later deducted for some reason.