klakhav

Greetings All,
After reading several threads on this forum, I sent in the paperwork from my UA 1K and got comped Platinum. With that we also received 3 Regional upgrades.
We are flying tomorrow from PTY to REC and it looks like all 12 seats are opened. I have called the Service center but they state the flight is full but check at the airport.
Is there something I am doing wrong in order to get an upgrade on this flight?
What is the best way to get an upgrade beside phoneing and checking on line?
Thanks

rrohio

Need to include more info. How many are in your reservation. From what I was told the automatic upgrade will only happen if you split reservation so you are on a separate one from rest of your party. For using RPU's T&L ticket class are not valid to use upgrade cert. hope this helps

USFFlyer

In order to be upgraded, Z class needs to be available on your flight. I have been wrestling with CM to upgrade a LAX-PTY-GRU RT for weeks now. I can tell you that it is difficult if not impossible to get an accurate view of inventory other than simply calling the CM Service Center. In my experience, both EF and United Expert Mode do not display up to date CM inventory. I have had each show Z space only to call in and be told that no upgrades are available.

Adding to the frustration, CM does not waitlist upgrades. You will have to continuously call in to secure your upgrade space.

Sorry I can't be of help in your particular situation, but the general system for upgrading is seriously flawed and I wouldn't expect much success.

YadiMolina

Bumping this for any new experiences other than the post above. I am trying to apply an upgrade certificate to a r/t PTY - EZE. Using the online "request an upgrade" in my ConnectMiles account, it produces the error message "There are no seats available on the selected flights to perform the upgrade". However the text at the top of that form reads "use miles to upgrade" and doesn't mention upgrade certificates, even though it is under the My Upgrades menu on the left and above "my certificates". My fares are not L or T classes.

Does this form ever work? Or is the only solution to call ConnectMiles repeatedly?

Milkman

I had given up on my certificates as well, but I actually managed to apply one to a PTY-KIN in 2 weeks. Before this, I would also get the same error message as you, every time I tried to upgrade.

YadiMolina

I called ConnectMiles to try to use a certificate, and they told me that there was no upgrade seat available, so at least that correlates to the web site.

I asked the agent when I should check back again (my flight is mid-Nov.). She seemed unfamiliar with such a query and gave a very unconvincing response of "maybe at the start of the month."

YadiMolina

I've been using the website daily trying to apply certificates to my flights, without success. Then I get the insult of an email encouraging me to bid for an upgrade.

YadiMolina

Constantly applied upgrade certificate through the website up to the day of departure, for both flights. No dice. I knew it was a losing proposition as the flight appeared to be sold out when trying to buy a first class ticket for the flight. I also kept monitoring the flight status tool--one can easily plug in future dates into the webpage URL and get an idea of what's going on. That was showing high number of booked seats, but seemed to show 15/16 up to two days before the flight..Interestingly, after I checked in they had an upgrade list shown on the flight status, showing 1 person upgraded, another 12 or so on the list, but it was full at that point. I wonder how that one person got that upgrade. With no waitlisting for the certs, I guess it's possible that pax got a complimentary upgrade at checkin or just tried at the instant the seat was released.

The return trip was actually worse. Flight status page was showing 16/16 full several days in advance, at least that saved me some anxiety checking the certificate upgrade webpage.

That upgrade webpage is really clunky too. Have to plug in eticket number and booking locator and dates every time.

Also disappointing to not be able to use the danged thing when I really needed it.