CPU and gate upgrade questions
 

Hello All,

I'm a fairly new 1k and hit that status from gold fairly quickly last year. As such, I didn't receive very many upgrades at all and they were a real treat when I did.

I am having a little trouble with a reservation I have tomorrow. I booked both my wife and I on separate reservations. I am explorer card holder and I didn't realize that this allowed my wife's reservation to be booked under the same status as me. I'm wondering why she got a CPU upgrade 96 hours out and now I am not even on the upgrade standby list after check-in.

Here are the facts:

Me:
1k
Mileageplus Explorer card holder

Spouse:
no status
not primary card holder

So 96 hours out she gets upgraded to Business class for SFO->HNL. I patiently await my upgrade which never comes. I check in and don't even see myself on the standy list and am a little spooked because I would like to sit by my wife with our lap child (in business of course).

I called the reservations desk and was basically told they could do nothing. The only thing she found was that wife was booked under XN and I was booked under X. My reservation was booked over the phone with united reservations. The person on the line thought this would make a difference since X was not eligible for upgrades. I did a serious double take. I asked for an upgrade then and there and they wouldn't/couldn't do it. She transferred me to someone at the 1k desk who was even more unhelpful and told me my wife wasn't even eligible for an upgrade at all.

Should I be pushing this more? It sounds like United messed up my reservation and now am unlikely to get an upgrade.

IIRC...
X is an award ticket for non-elite members (not eligible for upgrade)
XN is an award ticket for elite members (eligible for upgrade)

Means they somehow dropped your status when booking you - I would absolutely push this as they are not providing you with your elite benefits.

Thanks that's what I saw online. I just refreshed and found that I am on the upgrade list for flights now.

Who should I ask to talk to? Should I be asking for a CPU upgraded to be pushed through? Do people have success with this?

You should be upgraded on next sweep if seat available. If your wife got upgraded ( and the system worked correctly), it means GS, and revenue 1ks have been upgraded. You should be next on list, unless GS or 1k buys ticket in meantime. Also, seat could be held until last minute for misconnects, last minute purchasers, the dreaded ToDs, etc. By most reports, your CPU cannot be "pushed through" - the system handles it.

The spouse should not have been upgraded at all. Only you, as the primary card holder would get the upgrade. If you get the upgrade, consider yourselves pretty darn lucky. There will be someone who didn't get an upgrade who should have. If the system worked correctly, your wife would be in coach with no chance of upgrade.

Thanks, I will cross my fingers. First is entirely unsold on the SFO-HNL flight and there are like 15 seats available in Business class.

My wife told me the funniest thing this morning. She said "I will whine at the ticket counter about having to sit apart from her husband with the baby. " I said good luck if there aren't any seats available.

I hate being difficult and I'm trying not to act entitled, but I wish there was a little bit more consistency in how this stuff was handled. Having one agent tell me my wife wasn't even eligible for an upgrade and making it sound like she was doing us a favor by not revoking it really ground my gears.

Yeah, I was surprised that she was eligible but with all the screw ups on United's side since the merger it doesn't surprise me. She is booked XN all the way through so I wouldn't be surprised if she gets bumped when she comes home as well.

Edit: She's never flown business/first anyways so I was planning to give her my seat if I got upgraded. I will take kid duty in Economy as part of an early Valentine's day gift.

OP - your wife got the upgrade you should've gotten.

You can ask to convert X to XN now but unlikely this late in the game.

The first agent on the phone converted my fare to XN. She apologised and said it was United's mess-up during booking but said she couldn't push the upgrade through. She didn't see me show up on the upgrade list so she transfered me to the 1k desk. She was nice. The second person on the other hand didn't really help much despite being on the phone for 30 minutes plus. Fortunately I lost that call before I flipped my lid. Surprisingly enough I got about 4 emails from united after that with my boarding pass. Wonder why....

Is XN really eligible for upgrade? Isn't XN for Economy Award ticket?

Yes and yes, but only if the person buying the ticket is an elite member and he/she paid for the fees on the award ticket with the Explorer card, which is what the OP did.

Would MP+ Chase Visa (Signature) Card count as an Explorer card (and eligible for upgrade)? or it has to be a specific ("Explore") card?

United's website has a list of eligible cards

https://www.theexplorercard.com/ECMpage.aspx

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...x#awardupgrade

My understanding is that ONLY the Premier status cardholder is eligible for an upgrade on a reward ticket, not companion. Under the system, you were the only person eligible for the upgrade. You said your intent was to give the upgrade to your wife if you got it. Instead, she got it.
Be happy. If you get lucky and the system also upgrades you, be even happier. But don't count on such luck on the return.

Indeed, that's what it says

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...x#awardupgrade

Complimentary Premier Upgrades on award tickets will be sorted as indicated in the "Upgrade Confirmation Priority" section above, and prioritized after the lowest paid fare class within each Premier level. This benefit does not apply to companions traveling on award tickets.

This is true but if you book a ticket separately for someone out of your account, the benefits (including Premier Access and upgrade for award tickets) transfers to that ticket as well. It's a loophole since the CO days.

Hence why the wife got upgraded.

However, if you book award over the phone (which I do sometimes), I get constantly ticketed in X / I / J / etc instead of XN / IN/ JN. If I'm after a CPU eligible award ticket, I would do it online myself now.

Well, your wife is lucky she is sitting up front to begin with. It is an error on UA's part that she. She ought to be ecstatic, not whining. Switching seats once on plane is usually pretty easy. Other passenger will be accomodating. It's not that big of a deal.

As for not revoking - there may be someone who was actually entitled to the seat your wife is occupying, so it is a favor. You're benefitting from UA's mistake and now you're annoyed at them? You'd rather the system had work correctly and your wife be in coach? I bet you won't tell your wife that. At worst, you're coming out even on this. At best, you're getting an undeserved if you both end up front.