Gerenmicol

I've just encountered a week long saga that culminates with hours of time spent between Lufthansa and united and a lot if ill informed staff...i am united 1k and I'm on Lufthansa business d class and have no way to upgrade even though there are seats avail. No one can call, or do anything. After speaking to 6 separate united people and 4 Lufthansa I am beside myself with frustration and aghast at the idea that from day to day the story changes, that there is no customer communication to us that all star alliance upgrades are held, and that ieven have to fly Lufthansa to start...all because of a computer glitch in their system....seriously!

escapefromphl

If you can still transfer miles to CO or if you have enough miles there anyway I think you can still use the CO website to upgrade any eligible (non code share) star alliance flight. Is that an option?

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...rdUpgrade.aspx

I last successfully used this in January, so I don't have very recent experience.

To transfer miles:
https://secure.unitedmileageplus.com/MP1101OPTM2.jsp

global happy traveller

As I understand, star alliance upgrade award is booked into the award redemption booking classes O (first) and I (business).

In your case if there are no O availability then there won't be redemption available.

dvs7310

This is a grievance I'd take a lot more seriously if the OP was in coach and had expected to upgrade, but a ride in LH C is hardly the end of the world. Save your miles for next time. We all knew there would be a lot of kinks in the system for a while. I remember a few years ago when *A upgrades were new, UA took the whole systme down for quite some time becuase they couldn't manage to get their act together... at least this is only a few weeks during the integration.

Groucho

I've been trying to secure (or at least request) some upgrades on some Thai airlines and SQ flights I'm taking starting March 16th. All booked Y class so space permitting it should be possible but it's just not possible to make the requests.

The web site is useless... and the 1K desk give a different answer each time you talk to them. First lady I spoke to (last week) said "call back Thursday, it should be available". Person I spoke to Friday said "the 20th" - which ties in with the thread title.

Because I don't entirely trust what I am being told I phoned again today and spoke to another agent.. very helpful but she consulted collegues who basically said "they have stopped doing Star Alliance upgrades and MAY start again after the end of the month".

Incidentally the first lady I spoke to said that last week they were even struggling to deal with committing upgrades for SWUs / CR1s on UA hardware... and award tix were causing issues also.

"Uninterrupted access to benefits during the merger" was the promise. Not from my perspective...

escapefromphl

If you have any miles in another program that participates in star you can use them.

RPRocket

I finally completed a 1hr 40 min hold to reach the Star Alliance desk. They informed that they are unable to process any requests for Star Alliance Upgrade awards until at least April 1 - due to "systems integration"

Has anyone else been told this?

Is it worth my calling back and spending more unproductive hours on hold in hopes of getting a better answer?

At least I can recite the entire UAL "hold" script verbatim - so I've got that going for me - which is nice

WineCountryUA

This was announced early on -- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...hread-pss.html

River in Sight

"Wherever you're going, we're there... and there... and THERE.... and THERE!!!!!!"

That guy drives me crazy...

hchb

I had roundtrip upgrades on Swiss from Y to C from Africa to the U.S., but had to rebook my return flight for a later date. Unfortunately I could have rebooked before March 3, but relied on the official United statements and assurances from agents that the transition would be a smooth one. No one indicated that the ability to upgrade would be suspended. KVS indicates that there are upgrades available, the miles have already been transferred to Swiss, but I can't get an upgrade or much of a straight answer. I even called Swiss to see if they could move the upgrades to the new flights but they advised I have to call United. I booked a higher fare in order to be able to get an upgrade, and am extremely frustrated that there are upgrades sitting there that I can't access. I have gotten inconsistent information from agents (first telling me to call back in 2 days, than 2 more days, and then when I called on the specified date I got an agent who said angrily "don't you realize that there has been a merger?") I definitely realize that there has been a merger. I have spent hours and hours on the phone and have not been upgraded; pre merger it would have been a simple process. Does anyone have information about when star alliance upgrade availability will be restored? One agent told me March 20th, as another post indicated, but I had also heard that they would be available March 11th.

ainternational

Was told the same thing tonight. No can do until end of March. This is truly unbelievable. How could they integrate the IT systems with something like this still not working, or even planned to be supported, for weeks after the integration...

hchb

It is now the end of March for Star Alliance upgrades? This is a constantly moving target - moving toward later and later dates. First I was told two or three days from March 8. Then I was told March 20. Now end of March? Looks like I will be sitting in coach on the way back from Africa despite paying more for an upgradeable fare and KVS showing availability.

UA_Flyer

I had LH F seats for the taking on A380 and A343 in the past week, but United couldn't process my *A upgrade request!

ainternational

Indeed I was told last night it's now end of March, and likely to slip further.

Too bad the flight I wanted to upgrade is on April 1st, and just past midnight. No hope there.

yneris

WOW!
I can't believe it takes so long for system integrations,etc...:/