I have a couple reservations waitlisted for first coming up and it looks like they probably wont clear and will have to hope I get the upgrade at the gate. I am going to redeposit both - do they charge a redeposit fee? ($35.00 since am gold)

The last time I dont think they did but they could have been in error.

I don't belive you should be charged a fee (I never have been at least). You may have to call OPSC to make sure they put miles back in though.

No, there's no redeposit fee for this case. But you do have to wait until after the flight to request the redeposit -- otherwise they consider it a case of you un-waitlisting and they do charge the fee. You do need to call or write the OPSC after the flight to get the miles redeposited, as they don't do it automatically. I've been in this situation several times, and regardless of elite status, you won't be charged a redeposit fee since the redeposit is a result of CO not being able to clear you off the waitlist into a confirmed F seat.

I ALWAYS put myself on waitlists for upgrades as the flights I want are NEVER available for milage upgrades. I normally ask about the upgrade process at the end and I have been told DOZENS of different things, from the fact that your upgrade could clear right up until the flight to the fact that it drops off 3 days prior to the flight and all in between. Needless to say, I NEVER get an upgrade when I am on the waitlist if it hasn't cleared before the platinum upgrades start to hit. PERIOD. So I ALWAY ask them to take me off of the list and refund my miles and they NEVER charge me.

I waitlisted SEA-EWR in Jan. Flight was full... I'm only silver... "I" fare class... first sold out... sat in 6f, headphones on awaiting departure... tap on shoulder... 2A! yes!!! it works!!! The mileage waitlist can work!

Are you sure it wasn't a metal upgrade? Did you check and see if you got your miles back? I was told ABSOLUTELY that it couldn't be done later than 4 hours before the flight by a MANAGER at One Pass.

I was told in the PC that the mileage upgrade waitlist put me at the top of the upgrade list, but with no hope, she thought.

The PNR reflected the formerly waitlisted "R" segment as having flown (but with no seat assignment), and the prior coach seat as cancelled.

The miles aren't automatically redeposited - didn't occur to me to call and attempt a redeposit... nor would I as it seemed pretty clear that I bought the upgrade with the miles.

so the consensus is that we don't know if the fee is charged or not for redeposits and waitlists?

my question is actually a variant on this exact topic (this is the only thing I'm getting from search that seems relevant) -- I was waitlisted for BF on a 777 with a friend's miles, and I wanted to unwaitlist. I was told that I had to pay $35 for the privilege. per ssullivan's comment above, that seems like standard operating practice?

for a transaction that was visible to me online in under 30 seconds, I feel like that is a steep price to pay. but if that's the going rate, then so be it. just want to make sure.

thanks everyone!

There is no fee to waitlist or de-waitlist. No charge.

Also, remember that calling the OPSC the first time doesn't always get the job done. Case-in-point:

I didn't get a mileage upgrade from MPX-EWR about two months ago. I was flying on a K, so i thought i had a decent chance of getting it, but it ended up happening that BF was oversold. I flew back in good ol' 16K

Waited a bit to see if my mileage (20k) would redeposit. It didn't. Called the OPSC and talked with one of the most unfriendly ops i've ever dealt with at CO. She told me she'd need to 'pull the microfilm' on the flight to verify that i had indeed flown in cattle-class and that my owed mileage would be redeposited in the coming week.

Well, two more weeks went by with no 20k mileage action.

I called back yesterday and spoke to a VERY polite and professional OPSC agent who redeposited them immediately while on the phone. Just that simple. 'Microfilm' my butt...


The moral of this story is: If you want your mileage back, keep calling until you find someone who's willing to help.



BN

Is there any way to get back the $35 once I've paid it? I asked the guy if he would verify with a supervisor before charging it, and he put me on hold and told me that he had to. FWIW, I was told that the $35 had to be charged b/c the miles had already been pulled from my friend's account (which was true).

It would help if there was something specific I could cite from co.com (or some other "official" site) regarding this. I looked around last night on ft and co, but no luck.

thanks again!

W/regard to unfriendly OPS, I ALWAYS take their name down now and send an email to the Presidents office to have them straightened out.

No, the guy wasn't unfriendly, but he was pretty determined to get his $35. Actually, I am flying MSP-IAH-LGW on a Y fare. MSP-IAH was supposed to upgrade for free since I am NW elite (and eventually was upgraded to AU). Upgrading the long-haul using NW miles was not an option since we were already in waitlist mode. So my friend ponied up 20k of his miles to get me on the waitlist.

When I called to de-waitlist, I was initially told that the 20k miles only covered the IAH-LGW segments (which I didn't know and was surprised to hear, but didn't care since I figured that my domestic segs were fine. But later this same guy told me that if he de-waitlisted me, that that would punt me to the back of the plane on the domestic and international segments.

I asked him, didn't you just tell me that the 20k only upgrades the international flights? To which he said yes, but pulling will un-upgrade all flights. I asked how that made sense esp since the Y fare guarantees an upgrade on the domestic segments, and he just basically kept saying the same thing.

I'm not that big, so Y on all flights was not a big deal. But luckily, once the upgrade was de-waitlisted, I was still in F on the short-hauls.

Same questions apply though -- did I pay the $35 mistakenly? is there a way to prove that I wasn't supposed to pay the $35? and can I get the $35 back or should I just kiss it (like my BF seat) goodbye?

thanks (yet) again!

Sorry but I was referring to the ops in Benjamins posting