I have Presidential Elite status, and on the basis of last year's flights, was awarded 4 system wide upgrades to use in 2011. I have been denied the use of them so far, as I have twice tried to upgrade a paid-for economy cabin seat to Business First on the Houston-London route and failed. Remember, these "Rewards " expire in December 2011!

I booked a flight from Houston to London on June 26 with a Continental agent on the phone (months ago), at the time requesting an upgrade using a system wide upgrade, and paid the associated duty for the upgrade (my credit card was charged).

I got an email 24 hours before departure telling me that I was unsuccesful so far in my request, but to watch the flight status pages online. This I did, but I was never listed on the eligible upgrade customers standby list.

When I got to the airport yesterday I asked the crew in the departure lounge at the gate why I was not even waitlisted for a Business class upgrade and she told me that passengers NEVER awarded upgrades on flights to Europe. So I asked what the "Sytem wide" meant, and she told me only Latin American flights were eligible. Region wide upgrades of course apply to the US, but I dont have any of those anyway.


If "System Wide" upgrades exclude crossing oceans, then it is misleading to call them system wide, and plain wrong to debit my credit card (even if it will be refunded) for the tax/fuel surchage money.

This is surely the way to annoy what are supposed to be the most lucrative passengers, and frankly means that I view Continental as acting fraudulently in implying worldwide rewards will be accrued if sufficient miles are flown if that is simply not true. And fraudulently in taking my money for something that was never going to happen.

Not happy
And by the way, the flight was 3 hours delayed, and partly filled by passengers displaced from other delayed Continental flights - we had plenty of time to compare notes in depatures at IAH.

The agent was incorrect in their description of what the system wide upgrades are. They were talking about complimentary EUAs, not the upgrades via the SWUs that you earned.

The agent got it wrong.

"paid the associated duty for the upgrade (my credit card was charged)." I'm a little confused by this. I wasn't aware an additional fee/tax was collected for use of SWUs. Are you sure you didn't request a mileage upgrade and a service charge wasn't collected?

In any case, use of the SWUs to Europe will take some detective work. CO only allocates a few (if any) seats during busy times/destinations. London's a prime business travel destination. CO would rather sell the seat at full fare than give it to a economy fare purchaser.

THe info you got was flat wrong unless the info provider misunderstood you and thought you were asking about complimentary upgrades.

The SWUs you have now are very valuable (no fare class restictions). Available SWU-eligible seats and the dates you'd rather fly will almost never coincidentally occur.

I was guessing this was for the higher APD charged ex-UK for premium cabin travel. No idea if that's actually what the OP meant.

I did cross question the agent at the gate regarding the meaning of these SWUs, and it seemed clear to me she understood perfectly well that these were earned by Presidential Platinum plus passengers for miels flown, and also were distinct from regional upgrades as I asked her specifically.


Even if it is true that tis busy route is unlikely to have availability, I should have got onto the list of STANDBY eligible upgrades (distinct from the people who ARE awarded the upgrade) - which is really why I asked - I NEVER got onto that list, even though the email I got 24 hours before departure told me I would be listed there.

The extra fuel/tax surcharge was indeed for the difference in charges between economy and BF cabin.

Any actually succeed on a trans Atlantic flight?

She may have understood perfectly well what you asked but she still got the answer wrong.

I've managed to clear two seats on FCO-EWR in February when demand was pretty low so it can happen. But no guarantees.

You will only appear on that standby list on the website when you check in for the flight. Did you check in at the airport or online? It should have shown you on that list once you checked in, but it sounds like the agent really dropped the ball here

I was on the same boat. A PP status, put my mom on the EWR-HKG flight using my SWUs. She was never on the UG list and did not get the UG for the flight.

So my question is why she was never on the list? If her name was physically on the list, I wonder if she would have gotten UG'ed (a few people on the actual list got UG'ed). I assume those people who got UG'ed maybe miles UG.

Another question then is what is the priority of UG? I am a PP elite, used my SWU on a non-elite (my mom). Where would she have placed on the list?

What if I am the one using the SWU for myself, how would that change the priority?

So far this year, I still have all 4 my SWUs! Would be ashame that I won't be able to use them this year.

" You will only appear on that standby list on the website when you check in for the flight. Did you check in at the airport or online? It should have shown you on that list once you checked in, but it sounds like the agent really dropped the ball here "

The point is that as soon as I got the email telling me I was unsuccessful and should watch the website and the upgade list, I did check in and then watched the upgrade list and also the "standby upgrade list for eligible passengers" - but I never even got onto that (standby) list, so I wondered what made one eligible for upgrade? Even if others were more eligible (although I booked my flight months ago, am Presidential Platinum etc) - I should have been on the eligible standby list somewhere. Or why have an eligible standby list at all?

SO if never eligible for trans-Atlantic flights that are busy, then what on earth does the system wide upgrade award actually mean? After all, on an underbooked flight, a Presidential Platinum plus passenger may be upgraded anyway ...

The net result is that many have expectations raised that will never be fulfilled - which is actually a smoke and mirrors trick - a vague promise never intended to be kept, and verging on fraudulent.

You are correct that you should have been on the list. There are, from time to time, issues with CO not transferring the list from the reservations system to airport control correctly. That is something that the agents should fix but, in your case, the ignorance of the agents worked against you. Should you find yourself in a similar situation again I'd recommend asking them to call their internal help desk for instructions on how to properly transfer the listing or call the Elite desk and have them help out (which I had to do coming home from FCO when mine did clear).

It means that you can get an upgrade without paying the cash + miles. It does not mean that you will get the seat over paying passengers. That's why there is a waitlist.
HIGHLY unlikely. OpUps generally only happen when coach is overbooked and biz in not.

OP - the good news is that if you make Global Services next year (as opposed to the faux-high end status level that is PPlat that CO dropped the ball on), this issue won't happen, as (at least pre-merger) UA knows how to treat its most valuable customers (aka GS). Sorry to hear about your predicament.

So SWUs always clear for GS and agents never make mistakes?

I find that hard to believe.

Well - and here you are going to think I am really over the top over this - I did call the special Presidential Platinum plus phone number to ask them why I was not on the eligible standby upgrade list. This was after checking in, within 24 hours of the flight. They told me there was a secret list you could not see.

Sorry, but I think that is baloney. Simple truth is that on certain flights system wide upgrades will never be applied - or else you would be on the eligiblestandby list they publish. You simply will never become eligible.

This is I think why the agent at the gate told me categorically that SWU were NEVER granted on flights to Europe.

BTW I am also a frequent flyer with British Airways and frequently get upgraded on their flights without any of this complicated palaver. They DO make me feel special and appreciated.

You better damn well believe they would have made sure the GS was on the UG list, and that he wouldn't have gotten that answer on the phone.

It's been pretty well documented that the PPlat status level isn't much different from Plat experience-wise...GS get a world of treatment better than 1Ks.

This comment is baloney too. That's simply not how SWUs work. You will be treated with exactly the same priority level as you would if you had used miles + co-pay from your account. The process for upgrades being processed is identical too - if inventory is available (the same inventory by the way) then your upgrade will clear immediately, if not then it will be waitlisted and may clear at any time up to 24hrs before departure.

The piece that went wrong here is the transfer of that waitlist to the airport upgrade standby list. I remember reading a couple of other threads about similar events in the last few weeks, so it's highly likely that there was some system error that caused this. It's certainly nothing more sinister than that.

What causes confusion here is the ridiculous comments by the agents, as well as the conclusions you've arrived at based on these comments. Neither are correct, and there certainly are not any flight that are ineligible for SWUs. An upgrade may never clear because the flight goes out full, but that's perfectly normal.