Bear96

I am Premier Gold with UA. I booked a trip for my (no-status) partner traveling alone using my miles. I can book him into E+ for no extra charge on united.com for this itin, which is making me suspicious.

I always understood the rule to be that it is the status of the traveling passenger (and not that of the person making the booking) which determines E+ eligibility. Plus, in the past when we have done this we have only been able to reserve seats in E- for him (unless we are traveling together).

Has there been a change with the merger; was I wrong about The Way Things Used To Be; or should we expect his E+ seats to be changed to E- during some upcoming sweep? (I made the booking ~10 days ago so the sweeps have not caught this yet.)

We are willing to pay the extra fee for E+ if necessary but of course do not want to if we do not have to.

Thanks!

nycvisitor

It was a well know 'glitch' with pmCO and now with UA. Miles came from your Gold account and the passenger will receive your benefits during this trip - baggage allowance and complimentary E+ seating.

Bear96

Cool, thanks NYCV!

So we don't have to worry about him being bumped to a middle seat in the back of E- on (or close to) the day of departure?

bmw303

if the system behaves properly, then no he should not be bumped from his seat. That is an unofficial (but also acknowledged) benefit of pmCO, and now UA.

epiding

this happened to my wife too, and she has no status. she got E+ and my 1k baggage benefits. Additionally, on her boarding card, it even said '1k'!!!

she later also few Air Canada on the return, and even on AC, they recognized her as a 'Star Gold', even though she doesnt have any status.

that said, not sure if this always works or not. Another factoid to my story is that we were originally booked on same PNR together, but later i was split off the itinerary.

Regardless which was the cause of the glitch (miles coming from my 1K account, or her originally being on my PNR before i got split off) - its cool our friends/family can get this benefit cuz of the glitch. not sure how long it'll last though.

Bear96

OK, thanks all!

It was quite an ordeal to manage the SO's expectations from F to E+. Going all the way back to middle-seat E- would not be a happy transition . . .

Often1

It seems that the current system extends the benefits to people you book. That is not a published benefit and may either be an intentional move on UA's part or may be a system glitch. If it's the former, you are safe. If it's a glitch and it gets fixed, your SO may lose the E+ seat in a sweep.

One way to up your odds of not having this get messed up is to leave the record alone. If you make any changes, there is the risk that she loses the E+ assignment.

NiceLanding

Does it make a difference if you insert the other person's non-status MP number? I've set up profiles for my family members that include that information when I book flights for them.

Often1

It's unclear. I suspect that this is an unintended "benefit" of merging the two systems because it permits *G to book a non-companion non-elite into E+ at booking when a *S can't do that. You will have to let us know if that makes a difference. Also, please let us know after the flight if the E+ assignment "stuck."

cordelli

I think if enough people keep posting about it, somebody at United will say hey, perhaps we should look into this loophole.

But until that happens I wouldn't worry that much. Keep checking the seat reservation, and should they end up moved, try for a better seat if needed.

UAzip

My recall is that under CO, CO Insider (now UA Insider) was aware of the glitch and even said it was a glitch that wasn't a high priority to fix. While UA Insider is now two people, they are probably still aware of it but have bigger fish to fry.

Interestingly, last year I booked an award on US with my CO miles for a friend and my status showed on his BP and he was able to receive my baggage benefits on US through Star Alliance. At least then, the glitch even carried over to other airlines. (A US phone agent told me that indeed my CO number should stay in the reservation because it was booked with my miles; then at check-in my status traveled with him. I wonder if it works the other way--if a US Preferred would have their status travel with someone else, even on another Star carrier.)

Landice

Does the person receiving the award also have to have a MP account in order for this "glitched benefit" to apply? My SO doesn't travel much and doesn't have an MP account.

NiceLanding

Just tried it and was still able to select a free E+ seat with no-status MP number included. This is actually a nice and somewhat logical benefit, even though it may have been unintended. It always annoyed me to have to pay various surcharges for family members when using my own miles, just as it annoyed me that my hard-earned SWUs rarely worked for people not traveling with me. Since UA isn't very good at fixing bugs, they might as well tout this as a benefit.

fivesixseven

Does this also happen when E- is full and only E+ seats are available? Can customers then get a seat in E+ without charge if they book a ticket?

exerda

Not typically; they just won't be able to get a seat assignment until at the gate, at which point they could end up in E+ or E- depending on how things go.