Was likely always going to be academic for the situation you describe. Even as a 1K I don't recall a companion upgrade in several years. Personally in such situations I decline the upgrade unless a one way or last segment of itinerary as not worth it splitting the PNR, as may create unnecessary hassle downstream.

In the app, the next screen should give you the same flow as the kiosk (select companion for each traveler with a tick box in the screenshot).

My 3 year-old daughter got CPU'ed on LAX-HNL last week (as did my wife and I, both 1Ks), so it can happen. Too bad we were flying on a 753 and not a widebody! That said, it did split the PNR at check-in, and my wife got upgraded before my daughter did. Not sure why UA's IT decided it would be great to leave a (what it looks like in the system) an unaccompanied minor alone on the UL.

That's probably related to getting the CPU! :p

Actually, as Gold I had one companion upgrade just miss (TUS - ORD) and the second clear (ORD - BOS) on the 24th. I'd attribute this to the lack of business / status travel, as the boarding group 1 lines were pretty short as well.

UL = Upgrade Lottery

Cf. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/glos...tterSelected=U

#3 on my (delayed) and re-boarded flight 12-22 DEN-SAT hit the UL when I declined a single seat so as no to leave my wife in the back and she's pretty indifferent to F if she's going to be alone. 2 hour flight so no biggie and I got my snackle box and Buffalo Trace anyway. Of course, I shared (the box).

Ha ha ha.

(1) Booked a 4-passenger ticket for me (Plat), my wife (Plat), and my two kids (no status), CLE-IAD-BOS.
(2) Checked in online via the web app. This allows us to put all 4 pax on the upgrade waitlist! We say that all pax want to be upgraded and that my companion is my kid, my wife's companion is the other kid.
(3) Now we show up online as #1 (me), #2 (first kid), #3 (wife), #4 (second kid) on the upgrade waitlist.

Overnight:

(4) I clear into PZ on CLE-IAD. The PNR splits -- now the original PNR has my wife and two kids, and the new PNR has me.
(5) The upgrade list for CLE-IAD now has
#1 first kid
#2 second kid
(6) The upgrade list for IAD-BOS now has
#1 second kid
#2 me
#3 first kid

My wife has vanished from the upgrade list altogether. ?!.

So I think the lesson here is that with a complicated CPU-eligible multi-pax PNR you should not check in in advance, because the auto-splitting for advance clearance will randomly throw people off the waitlist.

As usual, I should know this, but it has been a while. I am trying UA again after a bit of a hiatus for domestic flights.

Booked LAX-BWI-LAX

• Two pax, both Gold (I'm MM, spouse is my designated gold)
• Outbound Q fare, return S
• Both flights showed us on the CPU list
• Figured WTH, just added us to the outbound miles upgrade waitlist (worth 15k miles each pax for a sucky redeye)

Questions:

1. Confirming the miles + $0 charge should put us above regular CPUs?
2. Either way, for two golds, should I request a split to increase the odds of one of us clearing on the outbound? Wait and split for return only?
3. As a rule, if we were just CPU and no miles pay, is the best strategy to split?
4. If we do split, we are both Gold, I'm MM, will I be above my spouse on the list or is it random? (The reservation is me as pax 1 and her as pax 2 if that matters, but now after submitting the miles pay upgrade request she is listed first, weird.

Thanks.

1. Yes
2. In theory, your odds are better if you split. In practice, I suspect your odds are nearly zero.
3. It matters less for CPU, but, I suppose. But your chances of CPU are even closer to zero.
4. No way to tell.

Thanks, jsloan ! It is a redeye that looks totally empty in F right now and really light in economy, but I know how that goes.so don't have my hopes up. Worth a shot to burn some miles. I've forgotten how much fun it is to play the upgrade lottery :-)

Wow, shocked. I ended up putting us both in for miles upgrades on the redeye, then did one paid upgrade which split the reservation. Figured I would give my wife the first class seat if the upgrade didn't clear. Surprised to find her upgrade cleared -- we were 4/5 on list and she was then 4. Watched as the three front of her cleared. The person after her cleared. So, theoretically, we both would have made it even if I hadn't paid for one upgrade. At boarding it read 18/20 checked in, with her as number one on list. She and number two made it. Friendly gentleman swapped w me so we got to sit together.

So a positive data point. And I got to bore her with explanations of seat swap etiquette, battlefield upgrades, upgrade rules and process, how to approach a gate agent and when to inquire... so there's that. :-).

(as an aside, just after doors closed and ramp pulled away, two people ran to the front engaged in conversation w the crew... ramp came back, doors opened, more discussions, they went back to their seats and our 10 minute early flight turned into on time flight. No clue what their issue was. Never seen that before)

Hypothetical question. Let's suppose I book a flight for me and a companion in the same PNR and select seats based on my status. Now let's suppose that I have our PNRs split and void my ticket within 24 hours. My companion would keep the seat selection and I would be refunded my ticket, right?

So me (1k) and SO (no status) have a ticket that is UA (stopover) WN (stopover) UA (was booked through a corp TA, don't ask :o). UA legs both have PP requests in. I just checked in for the first leg still while still waitlisted. Subsequently I got a text letting me know the upgrade cleared. When I looked, it only cleared me. SO is now no.1. That all makes sense. What I didn't realize that also happened is that it split the PNR.

1) Does anyone know if that will affect the WN leg? It already had a different locator number (though same ticket).
2) For the UA flight back will SO's UG request still be tied to me or will she now be deprioritized?
3) If we need to change seats will she be able to get a new E+ seat? I did sort of a screwbally seat selection on the HD 772.

Want to see if I'm understanding this correctly...

If we have 3 passengers on the same PNR that are GS, GS, and no status, then it sounds like all three of us would be on the upgrade list with GS priority, I did not know that.

So, what happens when the no status passenger makes Silver? I know that if we book it as 2 PNRs, one that is GS/Silver and another that is GS only, then all three of us would be on the upgrade list with GS priority, at least until we get to T-24. But if we were to book 1 PNR that is GS/GS/Silver, do we all get Silver priority or do we all get GS priority?

That is standard for post checkin upgrades

Same ticket or same PNR separate tickets. WN does not interline tickets with other carriers. Note being on separate tickets (UA/WN) you have less protections -- should really read your TA the riot act.

When UA splits the ticket they seem to maintain the original inherit status, but this it is not perfect.
You still can guest 1 companion into E+, but you will need to call.

Weirder. I noticed that miles for my on of the upgrades for my wife (20k) and for me (15k which I later just paid cash for) had not been redeposited. I waited. Just called in 3 weeks later and ended up on a LONG hold because they can't access past itins, got mi+ desk on other line and had me wait. Comes back to tell me that instead of miles I would get cash back for my outbound upgrade because the mileage upgrade had cleared first. So they refunded my cash upgrade. I thought paying cash was locking in by paying for F? I guess I was still on a list and somehow my cash upgrade was behind my miles upgrade request? In the end they also found my wife's info and refunded the 20k miles. So, I paid miles one way and cash for the return upgrade, for my wife miles one way (the return did not clear).

Moral... while you may have to wait a few days to see if the redeposit happens, don't wait "too long" (2 weeks) or they won't be able to find your info.

Learning... paid upgrades can be behind mileage upgrades? That is just counter to everything I assumed.

No that is a mis-interpretation of what happened. Cash is an immediate confirmed upgrade, miles are not unless PZ exists.. Since that were having an issue refunding the miles, the agent refunded the cash and kept the miles. It was easier for the agent, that is the only lesson of what happened.

The applying of miles and then doing a cash upgrade does confuse the record.

The answer to this question is yes.

Thanks. What you say makes much more sense. The whole reason I used cash was to guarantee the upgrade -- and that appeared to work, I was able to select a seat in F and a meal. In retrospect, I recall getting an email or text the day before or of travel saying my upgrade had cleared and just ignoring it.

All good by me. I'll take the significant cash refund over 15k UA miles. And if it was easier for the agent then win win? :-)

Maybe, between the time you do this and departure, certain aircraft changes may cause a seating sweep and the companion would be sent back to E-. You will be far from the first to have done this and not the first to learn it does not work at times. Not a good thing to do frequently, it could be noticed, UA is quite aware of this abuse of elite benefits.

I checked in at T-24 with my family (I am premier silver, they are no status) and declined to split PNR during check-in, so I am not on the upgrade list. Can I "change my mind" now and call or text to split and be added to list? There is a decent shot with a short list and a few open seats up front.

I'm Premier Silver. Once I had a flight with 3 family members on same PNR - none of them have status. We chose 2 free E+ seats at check-in and left the other two in their regular economy seats. There was an equipment swap and they put all 4 of us together in E+ without asking or telling us. That was nice of them.

I'm a platinum elite, first time flying with family after becoming elite.

Booked me plus 4 other family members on same PNR. Grabbed 5 E+ seat assignments. At checkin for the outbound flight I was able to get myself and one companion into the CPU list. Luckily for us they both cleared! But this split the reservation into THREE different PNRs. This is very confusing.

Is there a way I can get these THREE PNRs combined back into one PNR before the return flight? It's extremely difficult to manage this reservation now, and I was hoping to select different seats as things move around closer to departure. But not sure I can even manage to do that with all these different PNRs on the united app.

Also, with these split PNRs, is it possible to still get one on my companions added to the CPU list with me on the return flight?

Should be you on one PNR, the upgraded companion on a second PNR, and the rest of the family on the third PNR. That would be normal.

Nope. Once split, they are split forever.

The gate agent should be able to add one companion to the CPU list with you for your return flight.

Yep, those are the 3 PNRs. I guess it's normal, but still very confusing for a first timer!

Everyone on a PNR must be in the same cabin, Once you got upgraded, that required you would have to be on a different PNR. Same think when the companion was upgraded. At the gate they upgrade one person at a time.

I have a one way ticket booked for my husband and me. I am 1K and he has no status. I attached PlusPoints to our reservation and are #6 and #7 on the upgrade list with six seats open. If I separate our reservations, am I more likely to get upgraded? We are fine if only one of us gets upgraded…

The chance that either of you gets upgraded is less than 10% unless the flight is departing in the next 45 minutes.

Splitting your PNR would increase your chances minutely if a whole bunch of people cancel. It's not likely to matter otherwise.

Thanks jsloan. Flight is Friday so guessing less than 5% chance since more people will probably buy 1st. Surprised how many people are using PlusPoints on the flight since it is short. Must be because they are expiring soon.

I'm sure that's part of it. Also, you're within the GS CPU window, and GS CPUs are ahead of non-GS PlusPoints on CPU-eligible routes, so that might be adding to the trouble. :(

Lots of talk about CPU but I don't see hardly anything about pluspoints. Is there a thread about companions and pluspoints being split up?

Here's my situation:
I'm 1k, traveling with wife and 2 kids who have no status, all on same PNR, and we are all in e+ due to my status. I requested pluspoints upgrades for us at booking (months ago).
Flight is IAD-GCM in less than 2 weeks and showing 4 seats in First remaining.
questions: 1) how likely we will all get upgraded, and 2) will they split us up with partial upgrades? (And if yes they will split us up, can we decline after a partial upgrade and get our e+ sears back?)

1) Extremely unlikely
2) Yes
2a) If the seats are still available, yes.

To avoid being split up on a PlusPoints reservation, you’d need to remove the PlusPoints prior to the time the automated process takes over, around 24 hours prior to departure.

Thanks. So the plan should be to keep the pluspoints active until within the 72 hour upgrade window to see if I get lucky, but don't let it get closer than T-25 when we may get split up and also lose the ability to withdraw pluspoints?

Yes, and decline CPU at checkin

Thanks. Good to know they won't do a partial upgrade before checkin.

I've never flown with companions before. I asked in another CPU thread what happens if I checkin and don't opt out. Would I be split immediately? and the answer was Yes.

However reading some reports above, this does not seem to be the case so I am confused.

The PNR has two 1K and one GM. If I do not opt out, at what point might the reservation get split? at checkin? If one or two but not three gets upgraded (after checkin)?

From skimming the thread, It sounds like the best move usually is to wait and check in as late as possible and opt out if it looks like the chances are low (since you risk the GM's chances on the return)

Apologies if I've missed a prior post (tried to read thru this whole thing).

I have applied plus points to an entire round trip itinerary that has a domestic leg and then an international leg (and vice versa). First leg (domestic) only has 3 seats open and I have a group of 5. Second leg (international) has 7 seats open so I'm just waiting for PP to clear (hopefully). I don't want the reservation to get split since no one has status but me and there's chance of IRROPs coming up due to weather as well as upgrade/luggage issues on the return leg. Is there any way to block upgrades on the first leg only but still allow the 2nd? I'm worried if I reject upgrades for the first leg, it will also remove my upgrade for the 2nd leg...

Just another data point for others. 4 pax on same PNR one-way IAD-RSW. 1K, no-status, & 2 minors. PP applied to all. About two months before departure, upgrade space reaches PZ2. I call and split to one adult and one minor each on two different PNRs. 1K and one minor clear that night. About three weeks later, space reaches PZ2 again and no status adult and other minor clear. All 1K benefits carried to both adults and both minors on the flight.

I don't know that it ever would have reached PZ4 so we may well have been in the back without the split. Being on a one-way helped with decision as well since there were no concerns about privilege loss on the return.

You could drop your upgrade request and re-request for the long leg only.

Your PNR will be split automatically if the upgrade hasn't been cleared by ~T-24 prior to your first flight.

When are you flying? Trying to clear 5 with 7 seats available seems problematic unless the flight leaves very soon.