Companion upgrade, should I check in?
 

I'm sure this question has been asked to death, but I am really confused about how this works.

My wife and I are flying out tomorrow, I'm a UA 1P and she is a general member. We only want to fly together, but I'd like to try to get us both upgraded (chances look so-so as of right now) but have no idea what to do. When I go to check in they it asks if I (just me) want to be upgraded. Do I enter yes or no? Do I even check in? I know I have to add her at the airport, but what do I do about myself?

Thanks in advance.

If you disclose the route you are flying, it will be much easier to determine your upgrade chances. From your post, it seems as if both you and your wife are on the same reservation. Thus, you will have to request an upgrade for yourself at check-in. However, your wife needs to be added to the Upgrade Standby List which can only be processed at the airport. There have been reports that say that when you check in two hours before departure, online check-in allows you to add your traveling companion to the list. However, just check in early and then add your wife later...worse comes to worse, no one will have a problem switching seats with you :)

You should call CO and "divide the record", meaning get two confirmation #s, one for you and one for your wife. This way, you can be processed for the EUA, and should you make it into F, you will be able to add her to the companion upgrade list upon checkin at the airport. Keep in mind that all Presidential Platinums, Global Services, Platinums, 1K's, and Golds will be upgraded (and their companions) before you.

Let us know the flight # so we can help you find out if you will even have a shot of an upgrade.

as goldelite8 suggested, if your wife does not end up getting upgraded, i'm sure you can find a volunteer to take your seat. Or, if you want to play by the rules, refuse your upgrade at the gate prior to boarding and they will pass the upgrade on to the next person on the list.

Tomorrow we're on ATL-IAH-SAL, on Monday SAL-IAH-CUN, then a week later CUN-IAH-ATL, both of us on the same PNR. I realize not everyone has checked in yet but there are still a few seats available.

So basically - upgrade myself, hope she upgrades at the gate but if she doesn't then give my seat to the person next to her? I'm not terribly familiar with COs cabins (fly only a few times a year on CO), but would someone rather sit in the last row of F instead of the first row of Y? Would there be any other reason that they wouldn't want to move to F?

This is a crazy way to handle companion upgrades...

Wouldn't you rather sit in the last row of F versus the first row of Y?

Not to sound like a CO apologist, and admittedly I do not know how UA handles companion upgrades, but I can't really think of a better, more just way of handling companion upgrades. This allows the elites to get the ELITE upgrades according to schedule, and then as a courtesy they can list their companions at the airport on the day of departure.

If CO put elite companion upgrades through at the same time as the elite member, then it would significantly devalue elite status for business travelers who are usually flying solo. I can just see every business traveler plat going on vacation with his/her kettle spouse sitting up front in my seat as a plat on a lower fare class.

Tagging on - if you're on a 2 person PNR on CO, both have status but at different status levels (1K/1P), is there any need to split it? Can I get upgraded at 5 days out still, or would we both go at 3 days (or at all)? Thanks.

I have had mixed success with 2 person PNR's where one is Plat the other is a Gold. Once we were upgraded at 3 days out, and another time we were upgraded @ the gate. Not sure if this is a result of being on the same PNR or just not releasing seats until boarding. But you will not be upgraded if there are a mix of elites and non-elites on your PNR without dividing the record.

Safest bet is to just split the PNR's. No harm, no foul.

There are some on UA that prefer the bulkhead row vs F on some domestic planes, I didn't know if there was a similar situation on CO.

I can understand that, but there seems to be no good way to make sure that you are not separated without haggling seats after the fact, or refusing your upgrade at the gate and potentially losing your original seat.

FWIW UA upgrades elites plus 1 companion at the same time based on the highest status. If there are 2 seats left, but 3 people on the upgrade list (myself, another, my wife), then I would get them both, but if the other person was ahead of me on the list then they would get the upgrade and since there's one seat left open F would go out with 1 empty seat. That's my best understanding of it anyway. I wonder which method will stay around.

The upgrade runs based on the lowest tier elite in the same PNR.

Mostly correct - this the case up until the 4 hour departure management window. After that, it goes solely by status (if you looked on an Easy Update screen at the gate, you might be #2 with status and your +1 might be #20 as a GM).

Basically, if you didn't clear ahead of time if NC/NF was open, you likely won't clear at the gate.

Not quite;
Once you separate the PNR into two separate reservations then you are flying as two separate people, not a group.
If there is a cancellation or if there are changes in aircraft, CO does not recognize that you are flying together and therefore will make automatic arrangements separately. You may end up on different flights or separated seats. It has happened to me before, several times; mostly with aircraft changes.

Good clarification, thanks.

The minute you say "Yes" to upgrade, it will automatically split your record, and that cannot be reversed. CO will NOT be able to add you to the upgrade list without splitting your record.

Splitting will put you on the upgrade list and also make you EUA eligible for this flight as well as all future segments, and you could get upgraded via EUA for those, leaving your wife in back.

You can add your wife via companion upgrade at each checkin.

So your choice is, don't split and don't upgrade (100% certainty you will not get the upgrade). Or split and try to upgrade (very likely you'll be split on some segments). If it doesn't look good, you can always have the GA downgrade you, but then you're at the mercy of whatever seats are available in the back if the one near your wife is not available.

Up to you if it's worth the hassle.

GoodLuck! and have a nice trip!

I know this has been discussed before and there are strong opinions but he could also no ask for a downgrade and just "trade" the seat up front with the lady sitting next to his wife. I have had somebody refuse only once to do that and ended up changing with the person on the other side of the aisle.

When is the best time to split a PNR?

Thanks Channa, and everyone else.

Apparently trying to upgrade on CO while on personal trips just isn't worth the hassle (irrops being a big one). Too bad I didn't know it automatically split it, I said yes using the Android app and the boarding passes I received now have two separate confirmation numbers. Wonderful. :td: And I couldn't change my passport # on the app, so now I'm not fully checked in and therefore not on the upgrade list.

I would catch hell from my gf if I tried to sit in F and left her in Y (or even if I gave her the F seat and took her Y). IMO, this is the annoying part of CO's EUA policy. I understand I'm going to have lower priority because I'm trying to upgrade a companion with my status, but I also don't want to get separated. It seems like there ought to be a way to average the difference (maybe PP+companion is lower on the list than PP alone but higher than Silver).

To follow up on the (to me) backwards way that CO handles this:

I called to take care of some other things with my reservation and asked about the upgrade process. There is no longer any gaurantee that we will be sitting together since we are on separate PNRs. So much for companion upgrades. Also, since I booked through united.com all the flights have UA flight numbers so she could not confirm if I was on the upgrade list or not. So now we are on separate PNRs AND I may not be on the upgrade list. Looks like the integration is going well... I really hope there's no irrops.

Here's to hoping the UA UDU process stays, or at least a good mix of it.

After booking, but before your EUA window.

I don't think you should be worried about that. While there's a risk you two will get split up, CO doesn't really extend much special treatment to Elites during IRROPS anyway. They treat everyone equally bad. ;)

Thanks, that's what I figured but I just wanted to check.

They're also treated equally bad during equipment changes :(

^

But at least we'd be accomdated together.

I really hope after the merger this is NOT how UA handles upgrades. UA current system is much better. If I fly 100,000 plus in a year and take a trip with a Co-worker I would be not too happy if we got split up. The purpose of traveling together is to get work done on the plane. The UA system is much better in my opinion. Also it is nice when I am able to travel with my wife and we both get upgraded on UA. It makes it less of an argument when I have to be gone so much. She gets a benefit every once in a while when with me. Seems like a much better and less confusing system.

Please UA keep the current UA upgrade policy after the programs are combined and allow one companion to be upgraded at the same time as the highest status passenger. Splitting up co-workers or a husband and wife is just not a friendly situation.

Quick question while we're talking about companion upgrades ...

I know that a companion can be added to the upgrade list "at the airport"...

Does that mean the gate? Or can I do it at the checkin counter?

If I'm at the airport, say, 4 hours before my flight, can they take care of it at the checkin counter? Or does it have to be within 2 hours of flight?

Thanks!

They can add you to the list at the counter or the club.

The two-hour rule is for all practical purposes gone. The reason for the 2-hour rule was that in the past, CO had no way of ranking companions any differently from their sponsor. So, if they let people on early, a Plat Companion would trump a bona fide Plat! Now they rank Plat Companions at below all the Plats, so that's not a concern any longer.

Though some agents do still enforce the 2-hour rule, there's no reason for them to.

Not sure many would agree that folks travel together to work together on th eplane.

As for splitting up co-workers - upgrading a Platinum companion ahead of a Gold is even more unfriendly.

Similar question but reversed. I'm Plat with CO. I'm traveling on UA on the same PNR with a coworker that does not have status. Do I need to split the reservation for an upgrade chance?

Perfect, thank you!! I'm headed to Cozumel in June, and that's a pretty easy flight to get upgraded on... I'm going to buy the wife an F ticket with miles (I can get an F SaverPass, but Y only has SleazyPasses available), and pay for mine & my son's with cash. Try to get an EUA myself, and try to get my son upgraded at the counter.

Then, let my parents take my seat & my son's. He'll be 4 and has no business in F (I love him to death, but 4-year-olds have no business in the F cabin, IMO....) My parents have never flown in F before; this is a nice way to get them there in style.

Of course, I'll let my wife ride in style either way... I'm no fool ;)

A word of warning.... I put my parents in BF to/from HNL and now they won't go any other way :)

Yes. :)

The better answer is "it depends". Either way it doesn't hurt though, since as coworkers it doesn't really matter if you get split up or if only one gets upgraded.

Even though I am Plat, I agree with you; in the past it was less of a problem because as a Gold I would have been upgraded 3 days out and even as Silver I would have gotten upgraded before the day of the flight.
Nowadays I find more often than not that as a Plat I get upgraded barely 24 hours of less before the flight; my guess is that most Gold end up getting upgraded at the airport which means that Plat companion would get upgraded before a Gold traveler that has bought the ticket some time ago and checked in at T-24 vs. somebody that just shows up at the airport at the last minute.

If they want to remain together then this is a bad idea. The GA can process the the upgrades together if they can both clear, or at least have a rational conversation about it. Anything else guarantees that the PNR is split but not that they remain together.
Actually, the answer is NO. If on UA the companion upgrade applies only to a passenger on the same PNR. :-:

My apologies, perhaps I misunderstood. I thought the query was whether he could receive an UG if he were on a PNR with a non-elite. If he's on CO metal, he can't. However, upon reading more closely, it's on UA metal and I don't know what their upgrade policy is for elite w/ non-elite on the same PNR.

Can someone definitively answer whether a OP elite can receive a UDU if traveling with a non-elite on the same PNR? And as a further question, are CO P or G companion upgrades allowed on UA metal? I can't find an answer to either question on co.com or .bomb. :confused:

Language included with new Platinum cards
 

The brochure extolling the benefits of elite membership which was mailed with the new Platinum cards has the following statement:

Companion Upgrades: Platinum Elite and Gold Elite members may request upgrades at check-in for a companion traveling on the same itinerary.


I was excited as I read "check-in" as truly check-in including online check-in or check-in at the airport for a connecting flight. When I go to co.com it still states that The companion may only be confirmed on the day of departure at the airport within two (2) hours of the flight.

My question: Is the companion upgrade process going to change on March 1 to agree with the brochure or is the brochure wording nothing more than Continental marketing hype which is misleading and nothing is changing?

There will be changes in the months ahead, and I think you'll like them.

To answer my previous question and possibly help others, I called the elite line yesterday and asked. According to them, CO*G can request an upgrade for one companion on UA metal. However, they could not tell me if the PNR needed to be separate (as is the policy for companion upgrades on CO) or one reservation (as is the policy on UA). If the trip is entirely on UA metal, one PNR is clearly the best. The tricky part arises when separate legs of the same trip are on different OC. Anyone with experience on this yet?

I used to fly US Air a bunch, made it to Chairman's for a couple of years, and the one good thing I can say was their upgrade policy for companions. As quoted below.

"One traveling companion per Preferred member is eligible to upgrade when traveling in the same reservation with a qualifying paid ticket. Companions will be upgraded at the same time as the Preferred member. If there are multiple Preferred members traveling within the same reservation, upgrade priority will be determined by the highest-level Preferred member in the reservation."

No worrying about status or splitting records. When the wife and I flew together, I made the reservation and we both got upgraded based on my status. No fuss or mess. I'd love to see the new United adopt this policy. Under the existing policy, its almost never possible for her to get an upgrade when traveling with me.

Cheers,