Boraxo

I have bolded the critical portion. If you don't want to split up then don't check any boxes requesting an upgrade when you checkin. Better yet since BLZ is international maybe checkin at airport and specifically tell the agent you want to be on the list but do not want to split the reservation.

If for some reason you are split and your upgrade clears, the computer will designate your old seat as available, so somebody else may snag it. Good thinking on seat assignment - when traveling with my family I am now placing myself in the middle seat with the view that it would be easier to trade into that seat in the event of SNAFU. But all bets are off if the computer kicks your companions out of E+

dj506

My PNR split for my current trip and no one can tell me why. I booked my hubby and me on the same PNR for a trip from ORD to SYD via SFO. At the time of booking, I applied GPUs to both of us for the round trip. At check in, we were both still on the same PNR. I was not asked if I wanted to be added to the upgrade list - I'm assuming since a GPU had been previously applied. I unchecked the box asking if I wanted Auto Check in for the return.

At the time of check in (T-24), there were 46 seats in BF booked of the 52 available. Between 6 and 8 pm Pacific time, 4 seats disappeared. No changes to the upgrade list, the seats were just gone. I found it a little difficult to believe that 4 people suddenly found the urge to buy BF tickets to Sydney for the next day after business hours. Not inconceivable, but a little hard to believe. So I called the premier line. They couldn't explain why those seats had been taken, but then told me my PNR had split.

Why? Does applying GPUs cause your PNR to split? I tried to do everything right here, but it still split. Do any of you have any insights, because no one at United can explain.

FlyWorld

This.

And this.

And this.

And my endless troubles with the same issue on all of the last 3 flights I've taken with a companion.

I've come to the conclusion it's just not worth it anymore.

How long can we keep struggling like this? How much of our valuable lives should we continue to surrender in exchange for the frustration and disappointment and stress?

Just. Not. Worth. It.

emcampbe

The "some reason" one would be split is if you tell the agent "you want to be on the list." The fact is, you can not be on the list at the airport without being split. You have to pick one or the other, and that's only if you're lucky.

Sometimes, the agent, despite your instructions not to, will split you anyway. On my way to BKK, with a segment on NH, I specifically asked the dense Eagle checkin agent at CVG not to split the record (we were already upgraded to ORD, not that it really matters for the <1 hour flight). I was worried about it screwing up the NH record. Thankfully, it didn't, just split us onto separate NH records, but still.

I've also been lucky that if me and my wife split, and only one of us got the upgrade, that we've easily gotten seats back. I realize it could happen that I won't. Last time though, going CLT-ORD, the agent called me up to the podium for the last F seat, but hadn't cleared me. Perhaps she saw that the records were originally one. I told her unless my wife, who was next on the list, would clear also, that I would stay put. Guess who got called to the podium two seconds later? Probably the best way to manage it (though not necessarily for my mileage balance, as I find that getting cleared and then put back into Y has always given me miles as if it were a full Y fare).

PV_Premier

I just waitlisted an upgrade for me and mrs ddrost -- using RPU. Same PNR. January travel. I assume the system pass us over if R opens one at a time? Can it be pre split so that UGs clear if that's the case?

WineCountryUA

yes and you can even do it online (look for " Separate Traveler(s) ").

Steve M

Perhaps not. But 4 new passengers buying tickets isn't the only explanation. They could easily have been passengers on the previous day's flight that had missed their connections and had been re-accomodated the next day. Or, they could have been passengers originally ticketed to fly though LAX that had an advanced flight cancellation and were re-routed through SFO. Or, they could have been a group that been scheduled for the following day and decided to move up their trip by one day. Or any number of other reasons.

Did you really expect the premiere line to go through all of the BF confirmed passengers on your flight, and manually look through the records to see which ones had been confirmed on the flight in the past 24 hours, and then look further into those records to see the exact circumstances behind it, and then to tell you what they were? Or did you expect there to be computer function that they could hit that would magically do all that work and generate a succinct answer, and that they'd give it to you?

mirage47

I got lucky, ord to IAH ug cleared for us both T48, so no worry, I hope, on splitting at olci. Will repost if they split us. Thanks

PV_Premier

Is my assumption correct that SHARES will skip us over if R=1 before departure? I assume so, we don't travel together often so this is the first go round for me with this stupidity.

jackal

Correct.

Being skipped over if R=1 isn't unique to UA, though. AS does the same thing if U (their upgradeable class) is 1 and a MVPG is on a PNR with another person.

hrdjeepzj

I apologize but I'm having trouble piecing together the suggested approach for my situation in the previous 40 pages so I'd like to confirm.

Me (gold) companion (silver) have previously confirmed upgrades using miles on outbound flights, but not return (did not request).

Try to do online check-in now for outbound I get asked if I want to split itinerary. web check-in says "Select NO and travelers will stay in the original reservation and will not be added to the upgrade standby list".

I am assuming that this prompt only applies to CPU for the un-upgraded return flights, and the consensus here is to not split, since we are already confirmed outbound. However, by choosing not to split, we might (likely?) will not be "eligible" for CPU at T-48 or added to waitlist at T-24 on return, so I will have to call and be made "eligible" again for CPU?

Thanks for the help with this ridiculous mess they've created with upgrades.

slippahs

Wirelessly posted (iPhone-ETOPS: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1_3 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B329 Safari/8536.25)

Yes if you do not split, you will need to call to get the "do not upgrade" block removed from the pnr to make it eligible for CPU on the return segments. Warning though, do not enable auto check in. If so, your return reservation will not be split and you will not be added to the airport waitlist for the return flights (unless this has changed recently--I learned this the hard way late last month). It appears that auto OLCI will remember that you did not want to split.

hrdjeepzj

Thanks for the reply. Ah yes, forgot about the dreaded auto check-in "feature".

Choose to not split on check-in and sure enough my "CPU requested" tag disappeared from my itinerary. I'll see if maybe anyone at the United Club tonight can fix it if they're not busy, otherwise call and hopefully get someone that can take care of it.

Thanks again.

kmfdm91

Good luck with that! The last time that happened to me, my Icons disappeared BEFORE traveling/check-in and I called in in the middle of the reservation (after outbound, before return, some 4 days between) and the phone agent guaranteed me that everything in my itinerary was fine and that I was already on the list. No upgrade for either passenger on any of the four flights, my Icons never returned and when I wrote to '1K' voice, they told me that my itin had been flagged as 'Do Not Upgrade', even though I never requested it once and specifically asked many gate/check-in agents and the phone agent about my upgrade status.

Pathetic for me, but hopefully you get some good luck and a competent agent!

Just to confirm, R could be 9 and no one might be upgraded. Since we're in the world of COdbaUA, the upgrade space is invisible and even if R/RN=9, itins with 1 person might not be upgraded by CPU within the window...and that is the same for PNRs with 2. But, yes, if the <invisible bucket> has 2 or more, you and your companion would be upgraded...

And that's happened to me exactly 1 segment this year, at T-24, as a 1K...with the last two seats in F.

-jeremy

mirage47

Now IAH to BZE UG cleared at T28, prior to olci T24. When I olci I think the message here is to NOT check the box for auto check in, correct? This way the chance of our return PNR splitting is less, right? Thanks!