Giving friend permission to Use Continental SystemWide upgrade on United flight
 

I gave my continental one pass number and pin to the agent booking a united flight for my friend so that they could access my continental system wide upgrade. It has been"taken" out of my account.

What do I need to do to give United permission for my system wide upgrade to be used for my friend. I have received several different answers depending upon who I talk to on the phone. My friend is currently waitlisted for the upgrade.

I have both a one pass number and a mileage plus number.

These are the things I've been told
(a) I need to go to the airport- any time prior to the flight- in person to a United ticket counter (any airport) and sign something giving my permission to use the system wide upgrade.
(Note-the airport is not close to my house so I don't want to do this unless it's necessary. My concern is that I'd get to the airport and the agent wouldn't know what I was talking about)

(b)Once my friend's upgrade clears, I can call United and tell them my mileage plus number-and that would be sufficient to prove I'm providing permission.
(note-this seems to be potentially risky as I know that upgrades don't clear many times until the plane is about to board-and I won't be there to know that and to call immediately).

Can someone please advise what the proper way to handle this is? I want to make sure that my SWU can be used but it's not clear to me how to do so.

thanks

Welcome to Flyertalk!

Trying to understand the situation - are you trying to upgrade a Continental or United itinerary with a Continental systemwide upgrade? For United, you'll need to go to the airport and sign the blue form (or affectionately called bluey - which is probably white now) confirming that you're not selling it - that would be the extent of granting permission. No need to call again to provide permission after upgrade clears.

http://mileageplusmergerupdates.com/...landSWUpgrades

No need to go to airport or anything. Just look at the chart and call the correct number. You can expedite the process by knowing that youll need to be transferred to an integration desk, and they'll handle the upgrade transfer and sponsorship.

Did this exact process two days ago, took five minutes.

For sponsoring another person with UA SWUs, the SWUs need to be in your UA account. If there are there this can be done online, the matter is finish. If you require a phone agent, then you will need to go to any airport prior to flight time and authorize the sponsorship.

Sounds like you are applying a CO SWU to an UA flight, which will require an agent and the authorization (but the integration desk may be able to handle that).

My experience has been as follows:

• Ask a CO reservations agent to help transfer a systemwide upgrade from your CO account to your UA account.
• They'll loop in the Integration Desk, who will get things going (you'll need to supply your OnePass number and PIN and also your Mileage Plus number). Now you have a UA upgrade in your UA account and you want to upgrade a UA flight.
• The Integration Desk will now actually try to apply the upgrade to the UA flight you're interested in. You don't actually have to have them do this if you're sponsoring an upgrade on a UA flight for a friend. Indeed, if you try to apply the upgrade over the phone you'll end up being told that you need to go to the airport in person to authorize the sponsorship or that you need to do something magical on the phone (e.g. verifying that you are who you say you are.)
• A good Integration Desk agent will advise you of the preferred method to apply your new UA upgrade certificate to a UA flight. The entire method: (1) visit http://united.com/upgradebalance ; (2) log in to your Mileage Plus account; (3) click "Sponsor Upgrade" and type in your friend's PNR and last name; (4) done.
• I have actually had phone agents walk me through these steps, which adorable. "Oh no, you probably don't want us to apply this upgrade ... you can go ahead and do it online."
• This silly trick is not necessary when sponsoring a friend's upgrade on CO metal flights (which you can sometimes, but not always, do online).