Originally Posted by
arf1410
Wife has a paid economy ticket SEA-SFO-BNE in 5 days. I logged in to check her upgrade options. It was 30K miles to upgrade to premium plus (available), or 30k miles + $600 to upgrade to business (waitlist). From the seat map, there appeared to be a large number of business seats available, so I put in for the waitlist. When do waitlists clear? just at flight time, or before? when I booked the flight, I was gold, now silver. Wife has no status. Can the waitlist clear for one leg, but not the other? and if clearance (or NOT) is at checkin, will I still have an opportunity to upgrade her to Premium Plus for 30k miles, if open seats? too late now, but likely was a mistake to get her paid premium plus for $600+ extra on the return...
The waitlist could clear anytime between now and departure. It's your wife's status that matters.
Yes, the waitlist can clear for one leg but not the other; in fact, that's by far the most likely scenario. She has a much better chance to clear SFO-BNE than SEA-SFO. If somehow SEA-SFO is the only leg to clear, you'll get a full refund and the upgrade is free.
If PremiumPlus was available, you should have been given the option to confirm for that now and remain on the waitlist for Polaris. If she didn't clear to Polaris, you'd get the copay back.