Update to Lufthansa (LH) GPU Certificate Request Process
 

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to let you know about some upcoming adjustments to the way you request Global Premier Upgrades (GPU) on Lufthansa.

As many of you know, the current process involves requesting a generic printed certificate from the MileagePlus Service Center, and then presenting it to Lufthansa on the day of departure. The lack of unique information has made it difficult for Lufthansa to track usage of these certificates, so United and Lufthansa have agreed to certain modifications that will allow us to better understand where this product is most used. Ultimately, this information will enable us to strive for a more reliable, secure and seamless product experience in the future.

Starting March 1, when you request a GPU certificate for use on Lufthansa, we’ll ask you to provide some additional information:
This information, with the exception of flight date, will be printed on the certificate before it is mailed to you. After that, the redemption process with Lufthansa remains the same.

Lastly, we understand that travel plans can change, and so long as the name of the traveler and the flight segment remain the same, the certificates will be honored by Lufthansa (on a space-available basis). However, it will be at Lufthansa’s discretion to honor the upgrade should any other flight details change. Since this remains a per-segment upgrade product, we do recommend printing certificates specific to each LH segment you might which to upgrade on your full itinerary.

Thanks as always for your feedback, and if you have any questions I’ll do my best to answer them. We've posted additional details on the GPU information page as well as the Lufthansa partner page on united.com

Aaron Goldberg
Sr. Manager – Customer Experience Planning
United Airlines

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This is a horrible change given the fact that the certificates remain printed on paper. Getting an upgrade on LH flights is far from certain and having to redeposit the GPU before being able to use it again practically renders them unusable in most cases. Think of families that have multiple members traveling at different times on LH flights (as in my case).

Maybe LH can cut to the chase and print "Upgrade Denied" right on the certificate too. That way we can save time and mail it right back. :-)

Agreed. Maybe we should order a few of these LH Paper SWUs prior to March 1st so that they don't have the date/name/info printed on them...

This printing of especially the flight information on there could also potentially drive up shipping costs and re-shipping, especially for those of us who have last minute trips (i.e., the SWU needs to be FedEx'd)

Thanks for the update Aaron. Not shooting the messenger, but this just is not as well thought out as UA/LH thought.

Consider the high likelihood of a paper certificate NOT clearing for the specific flight, and now the flight information is printed on it; and it will be at the DISCRETION of LH agents to honor it for another segment in the future? What happens if you have another flight where there isn't enough time to send the unused one back, and/or there isn't enough GPU's left in the account to issue another one while the unused one is being sent back?

I can understand, to a certain extent, the name being assigned to the certificate. It's annoying, but it doesn't make it next to impossible to salvage a future LH flight the way all the details need to be filled in.

For some of us who like to be seen as their savior amongst their business colleagues, having a couple spare certificates to upgrade colleagues on flights have definitely made a good impression; which by this process, will make impossible.

Not a widely used feature, but a heck of a devaluation.

Requesting paper certificates is already a nuisance. Having to get a certificate re-issued if the upgrade failed to clear only adds insult to the injury.

Somehow I get a feeling that UA & LH do not want me to use the upgrades.

Aaron, this is absurd
 

Just do away with this option and stop the charade.

Update to Lufthansa GPU Certificate Request Process
 

Would be helpful if UA Insider could clarify how the above mentioned problems will be addressed before a change is made. Many thanks.

Exactly. If you're going to cut benefits, just go ahead and cut them. Don't half ... it.

I'm actually fine with this, I was planning on using 4 for my partner traveling solo. I think I read that there were occasionally issues before, if the sponsor wasn't present at check in. So now with her name on it there should be no issues...

Now if LH could just stop the nonsense of not upgrading because of meals not being catered, will LH get any advance notice from UA of passengers intent to upgrade?

Hopefully this is a just a change on the way to this being completely electronic, paper anything in this day and age is somewhat backward.

Would be helpful to have an explanation of the actual problem that UA and LH believe needs to be solved. Why was it hard to track usage on the old system? Someone just needed to type in the info.
Seeing as the Germans are known for being "by the book", the odds of being able to re-use failed certs seems low.
So here is another change which (somehow) benefits UA at the expense of the customer. Another example of how (not) to run a customer-centric business.

How exactly does it benefit UA? It seems to me that LH insisted on these changes - I'm sure UA was fine with the old paradigm.

Aaron, I thing this is a terrible change; I'm curious if you guys included any SWU-users in the change discussions.

Since LH upgrades can't be confirmed in advance, its basically a guessing game if its going to work. Someone might have been flying BOS-FRA-DXB, they have only one SWU, if you tie it to the flight O/D and date, say, BOS-FRA, you don't get it, then FRA-DXB you can't roll the dice there.

Actually, there's a GREAT way you can make this work better. You can work with LH to have CONFIRMABLE e-upgrades. Those you can track easily, no mailing, no mess. Its better for us and its better for you.

Speak for yourself... last year I was 120K+ miles, almost half of which were on LH segments.

This is the only reason I was kept on UA vs. jumping ship to AA with their status match.