Originally Posted by
Starman
What many including I have discovered about the manual refare done by the CSR however is that the sponsored upgrade, which if done originally on the web by the owner requires no further authorization (i.e., an airport visit to sign the bluey in person) suddenly becomes "unauthorized" when the CSR does the refare on the phone. Not to alarm you, but you might not discover this until you try to do OLCI 24 hours out, when it will state "upgrade not authorized", even though the upgrade is indeed properly reserved and confirmed and shows as such on the web. There seems to be no way to determine the authorization status of the sponsorship on the web. What then happens when you get to the airport can be unpredictable, and is a risk if the original u/g owner is not also present.
For this reason I've stopped refaring tickets with sponsored upgrades unless the difference is huge. Of course, if you're traveling with the sponsor, it doesn't matter.
This is very true,
Starman!
I was once traveling on an itin with a sponsored upgrade when UA cancelled one of the upgraded legs, forcing me to fly on a different flight. If you can believe it, I got into a near shouting match with a SD who kept insisting that the upgrade couldn't be applied to the new itin because the sponsor hadn't authorized it! Every time I patiently tried to explain that this was ridiculous, that I was flying the same routing on different flights only because UA's metal went mechanical and that there was no reason in the world why the upgrade shouldn't be applied, he kept saying "Sir, the upgrade has not been authorized by the sponsor for this flight."
Eventually I called back and got a hold of someone who knew their job.
But to the point, there are two ways to preempt problems. First, when refaring, communicate the problem to the CSR, that you're traveling on a sponsored u/g and that you want to make sure that the authorization -- and not just the upgrade -- transfers to the refared itin. After the refare is done, with the agent on the phone, check online to see if it looks all right. Even then, ask the agent whether the upgrade shows "HK" ("Holding Confirmed"), which means it's authorized. Second, be sure to use OLCI at the 24-hour mark. If there are problems with the upgrade, this is where they show up... IME, refaring an itin almost always means problems with OLCI, usually a message saying they "can't find your electronic ticket" or something like that. A phone call is needed to fix this. If there are any residual u/g authorization problems, this is also where they show up (i.e., if it won't let you check in and gives some message about unauthorized upgrades). Again, a call to UA is needed to fix it, perhaps escalating to a SD. At the end of the day, authorization
should be portable between itins after refaring or irrops, so be persistent.
Bottom line: Go ahead and refare your itins with sponsored upgrades (by phone, never online), but be aware that you'll have to jump through a few more hoops to avoid unpleasantness at the airport.