Originally Posted by
DouglasKelly
Booked a domestic award ticket with self and wife on same reservation. Come check-in, I'm offered to be on upgrade list (wife was not). I received complimentary upgrade, wife is not even on waitlist. There are seats available in first, but that shouldn't matter whether she gets added to the waitlist or not. Called and texted UA, but they keep repeating that CPUs are system generated and they can't add her to the waitlist.
Am I getting the runaround? Or is it truly exceptional that I received a complimentary upgrade? Other legs of the trip show "CPU requested" on my reservation (now split), hers shows none.
Award tickets are only CPU eligible if you are the primary cardholder of a United-branded Chase credit card. It sounds like you are and she is not.
Within the past year, they have extended that courtesy to one companion on the same reservation. However, it seems like it doesn’t work that well in practice, and not every employee seems to have gotten the memo. At the airport — probably not before — you should (may) be able to get her added at the bottom of the list for your status level. Since your records are now split, she’s not eligible for an upgrade on any of the remaining segments, except under this at-the-airport exception policy.