I used a CR-1 to request an upgrade to a DSM-ORD-SFO flight that I took yesterday. Murphy's law: the 400-mile DSM-ORD upgrade was confirmed, but the ORD-SFO upgrade was waitlisted. The day of the flight, the second leg still hadn't cleared, so I called CS and asked to have the upgrade canceled--I didn't want to waste a CR-1 on a 400-mile flight. The CS agent put me on hold, talked with her manager, and told me that as of last week (6/1?), their policy on confirmed upgrades has changed. Before, you could cancel a pending upgrade online and would have to call CS to cancel a confirmed upgrade. Now--according to this agent--once an upgrade is confirmed, it cannot be canceled. (The agent went ahead and canceled mine on an exception basis.)

Has anyone else heard this? I know I don't plan to use CR-1s or SWUs on itineraries that contain short segments anymore. I can imagine applying for an upgrade to something like SFO-LAX-SYD and only getting the first segment upgraded!