daron4000

Backstory- used miles to upgrade a domestic itinerary for a RT in January and cleared into R. Today I took advantage of UA's offer to extend my GPUs expiring on 12/31 to 1/31 and would like to use those instruments in place of the miles for this trip. Prior to 3/3, this was an easy change with PMUA. Apparently this is not the case anymore and I wanted any feedback/suggestions for any way to go about doing this without causing the entire trip to refare.

My understanding from speaking to a supervisor in HNL is that Shares requires the upgraded passenger to be placed back in Y in the original ticketed fare class and then re-listed for the upgrade (and losing out if R is no longer available). The problem is that my original ticketed fare classes (L and S) are no longer available and they want to charge an add/collect and a change fee in order to refare the itinerary. It's important to note that R is available for my flights, so the practical impact is that I'm being charged to use my GPUs and redeposit my miles.

I asked if they could request IM open up a seat in the original fare class but was told this was not possible. I asked if customer service would be willing to issue a travel credit or a voucher as a means of compensation but was told I'd have to call back on Monday since they aren't open on weekends. If anyone has any experience or advice, I'd really appreciate it. I would love to save the miles and use the GPUs but feel that the principle of being charged to do this is absurd.

DavidRS4

My understanding is that you can cancel the upgrade with miles and you will be placed back into the fare class you purchased. You can then try to upgrade with the GPU although you may not get the upgrade as your place in the upgrade list will change.

WineCountryUA

but the OP's original fare class is no longer available, so that becomes a problem

but OP wanted to keep the upgrade, not go on the waitlist

In PMUA days, this exchange without losing the upgrade was possible, but even among the 1K agents, you needed to vet the agent to make sure they know how to do this --- many did not.

Boghopper

I thought the the GPUS for this year expire on 12/31, and that going forward they would expire on 1/31 of the following year. That's what my account shows at the moment.

MillionMilerMan

Slightly different situation, but I'm only a 1K and you're GS, so I'd think you could make some progress:

I'm booked in B from ORD to NRT in a few months. At the time I booked I was out of GPUs, so I used 30K miles. Last week, I got 6 new GPUs and called to swap out the miles for one GPU. As others have said, in the old PMUA environment, this could have been done by a knowledgeable 1K agent in 3-4 minutes.

Not surprisingly, I was told yesterday that I could return the miles and, if space was still available in R, I could then use the GPU. The space in R was not available for an additional seat, and we all know the likelihood that my mileage seat would pop back into inventory and be available for my GPU---slim to nil! Otherwise, I'd have to wait-list with the GPU. So, one can encounter the same problem based on either the original fare class not being available (your case) or the R space not being available (my case).

In any event, I'm fairly certain that we were both told the correct new "rule". Still, I politely pushed the issue and asked for the agent to check with a supervisor. After 10-15 minutes and nicely explaining the situation to the supervisor, she agreed to handle it directly with Mileage Plus whereby they would redeposit the miles and then apply the GPU against the same R seat. She said it might take 24 hours to process. Sure enough, earlier this afternoon 30K miles reappeared in my account and a GPU disappeared.

This probably isn't policy, but persistence and politeness may pay off occasionally. So, it does seem that what you're wanting to do is still "possible", just not usual and customary.

rudling

The MP desk has apparently been routinely extending GPUs expiring on 12/31/12 to 1/31/13 if you call to make the request. There are reports that an automatic sweep is scheduled for the coming weekend to do this automatically.

Discussed at length in this thread.

garykung

Find another agent.

They can open up a class even it is not available.

fltg

Where do you find your fare class? (UA C/S have given me conflicting info as to what mine is.)

WineCountryUA

Welcome to FT!,fltg
Your simple one letter fare class appears in Flight Details when looking online at your resevation at united.com -- select the desired resevation, select "view" and on the right side for each segement will be something like "Fare Class: United Economy (G)" -- G is the fare class. There are a few exceptions, such as if Upgraded or -UP fares. In that case, if booked on united.com you will need to go back to the original resevation confirmation e-mail.

What is the conflicting info you are being told?

fltg

For my last flight with UA, I was told that it's always the 3rd letter of my confirmation code. This time, at booking, I was told [a] the departure was S and the return was W (neither letter was in the confirmation code, but I didn't notice while I still had the CS rep on the phone.); [b] next, (after cancelling the departure), that the departure was P; and [c] last, that the whole flight is T.

I'll check the flight detail info. Thank you.

sbm12

Bwahahahahaha. No.


The fare basis is in the receipt or even on the itinerary if you look online at the details. But it absolutely is not in the PNR.

fltg

sbm12,

It's even funnier than you know, b/c when I found the list of fare classes, if the 3rd letter really did indicate class, i would have been in first!

born sleepy

They can create an R seat when R=0? Something tells me this is not the case.

garykung

That's not what I mean.

If OP can find a competent agent, the agent can request IM to open up the inventory of his original booking class, downgrade, and apply GPUs again.

1k-all-the-way

I have an upgrade on a PS flight in January using a Regional upgrade, that I'd like to change to a Global upgrade since the Global will expire in January, and not the Regional. Will I be able to do this or will I lose the upgrade? I hate to have the Global just go to waste.