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.