In January I'm going RT HKG. The outbound is direct but CO does not have the direct on the return so I'm going through NRT. The HKG-NRT portion is on United as NWA 18 was very expensive. CO.com could not book this and the Elite line could not even come close to the fares I saw at Orbitz, Travelocity, etc...
I called to upgrade my NRT-EWR portion and it is available. I have ‘B’ fare (both EWR-HKG, NRT-EWR). The web site clearly states that B fares are upgradeable with $300 plus the miles. I was told over the phone that this could not be done due to the UAL portion. They said I had to change the HKG-NRT to another airline (maybe ANA?) adding $800 in fare plus the $300 service fee. Of course I was on hold for a good 15 minutes while they figure this one out. My argument to no avail was what does UAL have to do with this? I purchased a B fare which is the basis for their policies, not footnotes or asterisks. They live by this stuff and can’t just make up secret rules when convention to them. Got nowhere. They could not show me this anywhere in writing.

Any suggestions? Being an engineer and not a lawyer, in my opinion each flight has it’s own fare code that stands alone, especially when there are 2 different and unrelated airlines involved. As I have told CO on other incidents in the past if you publish a rule I may not like it but can understand. However, they can’t just make it up.

Every time I want to use miles CO gets in the way. They gave them out like candy a few years ago but it’s a one way street! In Sept I wanted to upgrade a RT HKG and did not clear either. Outbound was full but the return through NRT had BF seats empty and the gate agents refused to give me a seat since the computer did not clear it. No empowerment what so ever. To make matters worse they deducted 50K miles in advance and it took 3 phone calls to get them back. The Elite (Platinum) line is a joke and I heard 3 different stories from 3 people. I find most do not even understand their own policies. Well, here we go again…

Sorry for the rant and I would appreciate any suggestions. The corporate office may be who I contact next.

Thanks,