So I am new posting to the forum but have been reading for awhile. I am not a DM Preferred Member but fly them quite often. I have 75,000 miles to use and have not ever been able to use them in 5 years due to blackout dates or unavailability of free tickets.

So I am flying PHL->LAX on June 19 and purchased a US seat on the way there and UA on the way back, through the UA website. The US seat is NOT code-shared, it is actually booked as a US flight and has a specific US reservation number (the reason I did it through UA site and not Orbitz where I found it was to avoid the $5 fee tacked on). So it is a pure US flight, just booked on the UA website and has nothing to do with UA.

So I call US Airways because I wanted to upgrade the flight (well worth it since it's close to a 6 hour flight). They say they cannot access the reservation even though they can see it is not booked as a UA flight because the "ticket stock" is UA. UA tells me they cannot touch it because it is not their flight. So, I call US back and they acknowledge the mistake. They transfer me to DM Service Center who says I have more than enough miles to make a one-way upgrade to F. She transfers me back to US Res and they then tell me there are no seats available for upgrade. So I'm a bit pissed, I go on the US website, act like I'm booking a first and find that there are 12 available seats out of 16 on the flight. So I call back, pissed and they said all are revenue seats.... and that only 2 were booked with mileage!!!! I demand to speak to a supervisor and I end up on hold for 15 minutes and just hang up. Apparently they do not care enough to upgrade and have no seats period. Would I be able to do this on the day of the flight if they have available seats???

What do you do with miles these days??? Is there a way to force US or put pressure on them to give me the upgrade? Maybe a letter to the CEO or email, etc. Any options?