qukslvr619

Originally booked in saver first EWRLAXSAN with the LAXSAN in Y as its a CRJ. Due to weather in EWR, rerouted EWRSFOSAN; EWRSFO was confirmed in F, SFOSAN was unavailable so booked in Y in XN inventory. Purchased with PresPlus credit card and proceeded to club to have them add me to the upgrade list for SFOSAN. First agent tells me "no upgrades on award tickets", then says "we don't do anything with award tickets call the 1K desk." Call 1K desk they tell me you can't waitlist for IN inventory on day of departure and I explained it was for a CPU and she said that needs to be done at airport. Go back to club desk speak with another agent and she says same line "no upgrades on award tickets", then tells me the issue is that its booked in XN inventory and needs to be in XY (which doesn't exist). So she calls ATO support and 30 mins later I get added to the list and am #1.

Arrive in SFO and now there is saver First inventory on SFOSAN. Talk to club agent and says "we don't work with reward tickets but you'll clear; don't try changing it but if you clear I will call you." Getting close to boarding time and I'm still #1 on the list so I just go to the gate. Watch as my name disappears off the list and thinking I just cleared I went to the gate and the GA tells me you were never on the list. Ok well here's the screenshot that says otherwise....she types and says "there is some note in your PNR here that you aren't eligible for upgrade, but not sure why." I persisted and finally was able to get the last seat in F but the GA made me seem like I was just making the whole thing up.

My questions are:
1) Why do agents at the airport refuse to work with award tickets, and then Res says it can be handled at the airport? What's the real story?

2) I get that the automated CPU's may not always add a cardholder to an upgrade list and calls to Res have proved fruitless with the line of "only done at the airport." I understand the not waitlisting for F award travel on day of departure, but XN is valid for a CPU upgrade waitlist isn't it?

3) Why would I be on the list for 6+ hours and then drop off as the upgrade list is being cleared? Seems like someone was screwing around with my PNR.

mherdeg

If you want to follow up here, I would ask UA to find out the name of the person who wrote "this ticket is not eligible for an upgrade" on your PNR and ask UA to have that person review the relevant rules which do, in fact, make award tickets eligible for CPU under certain circumstances. Somewhere out there is an agent who is misinformed about the UA product, which is hurting he customer experience.

Under the circumstances (paid for saver F, was unavailable at time of ticketing), you were actually a displaced F passenger and should have been able to waitlist for F in any event.

Doc Savage

SFO - SAN.....

Don't know how hard I would press about 90 min in F that you got anyway....

Weird that someone sneaked a note into your file, though. For that, I might send a letter or email.

Kacee

I don't know what all this talk about an "upgrade" is - you were on a saver F award and (per mherdeg's comment) should have cleared to F as soon as saver F inventory opened.

It's confusing to talk about this as an "upgrade" and that probably did not help you with the agents.

qukslvr619

The flight was originally booked full and I was hoping for a misconnect; and yes while some might argue what the value of F for a short flight was it's the fact that no one seems to really know the policy.


The only reason I brought the "upgrade" into the scenario is that I had to keep going back and forth between the 1K desk and the UA Club. 1K desk was telling me they couldn't waitlist for an award ticket and the UA Club wouldn't modify the reservation. So it seemed the only way to push forward was trying to be added to the waitlist for an upgrade as a CPU.

sfoboy85

Just another (sad) example for agents not knowing what they suppose to do... And the worst thing is that this happens to many people a thousand times every single day...

Doc Savage

I was looking at it in terms of whether it is worth your time. The possibly retaliatory note appended by someone to the ticket, though, might make me follow up.

jgsx

I've seen the not eligible for upgrade note on many award tickets, and I'm a GS. It seems to be something automatically entered.

Often1

I would not use the words UG and CPU. They have nothing to do with OP's situation. He was a F pax, not booked into F due to lack of availability. When that availability came about, this was a seat change.

UA can see who did what at what time and can easily determine the name of the employee who noted the PNR. Send a short webform comlaint (2-3 sentences is all that's necessary).

What's most interesting is UA's increasingly-used notation of PNR's. Going to another agent simply doesn't work once you've got such a note.

qukslvr619

Do you have a Chase credit card that would make you eligible for upgrades on award tickets for CPU markets?


I agree with all of the above; what I am scratching my head is that regardless of whether I should have been waitlisted because of displaced F or on the upgrade list because of a CPU, it just makes no sense that I was on the list up until the GA cleared the list and then just disappeared. I hate to even use the word shena... but something doesn't add up. It's an entry to begin clearing the upgrade standby list at the gate but it would involve manually going into the record and removing the request for F. The GA "says" she never saw my name and that there was the "note". But I physically watched her begin clearing the list while watching the departure management screen where my name just disappeared.

In the end yes I got the seat; I'm waiting for the "why bother complaining" crowd to chime in. However crap like this happens all the time and if UA is claiming to be flier "friendly" this is a weird way of showing it.

sannmann

If someone else got a CPU at the gate, wouldn't OP have effectively been involuntarily downgraded here? Shouldn't a displaced F passenger come before any more CPUs? $200 voucher for a flight of this duration, if I recall correctly.

fjfv19

I'm of the mindset that it is worth the time because if it takes everyone complaining every time it happens to have any shot at changing the current state of affairs, it is worth it for the greater good.

sbm12

Part of the problem is describing it as an upgrade. You were a displaced F passenger, not someone seeking an upgrade.

TommyC80

I still find it asinine that you have to be so specific with these gate agents. Unless you know their rules better than they do, you're going to be SOL in these situations.

Instead of defaulting to "NO" they should actually take a look at the record and use their brains to figure out what it is that the passenger actually means.

qukslvr619

Again the first time I tried to explain to the agent in EWR that I was on a F reward ticket and downgraded on the last segment I merely got the you're booked in coach too bad call MileagePlus. MileagePlus wouldn't waitlist me for F because the agent said that there was no point because waitlist would expire since its day of departure. So for point of future reference if you're on a F reward ticket where only one segment is available in F in an irrops situation what should happen on the day of departure? Is it really a displaced passenger if you're flying XYZ and only XY is available in F and YZ isn't? I just see it as UA would say you flew in F on at least one segment so it doesn't matter.