DaviddesJ

I think there's actually one plane (with one flight number) that flies MEL-SYD-LAX, and a different plane (with a different flight number) that flies SYD-SFO.

I read the GPU thread and the consensus seems to be that, one way or another, if only the short leg clears then you can get the GPU back. I'm willing to risk it.

aacharya

Ah yes. Forgot about the LAX leg and which plane "goes all the way through".

sbm12

The rule, as written, says that if any BF/GF segment clears then the upgrade is consumed. If there is an exemption for this particular route that's great but it isn't in the published rules.

AllesonWonderland

A relative gifted us his award miles for first class seats DEN-HNL. I picked out seats months ago during booking and have the confirmation, but this morning noticed that while those seats are still listed for the return flight, our flight out the assignments are gone and now all the seats except for 1 are grayed out. He called customer service and was told we'll get seat assignments at the airport. Is there any hope of us getting the seats we originally picked out? TIA

aacharya

That is very odd (though not surprising). When is the flight and what happens when you try to pick seats?

Pick seats if you can at OLCI.

WineCountryUA

Was there a change in aircraft type? This may be the underlying issue.

While there is reason to be concerned, there is also reasons not to panic or assume the worst.

AllesonWonderland

It's the 1130a direct flight on 6/5. There hasn't been an aircraft change, as far as I can tell. I went ahead and chose the only available seat for us. (It was what we had picked earlier.) So, now if you look at 'view seats' on United's site like you're buying a new ticket, it shows none available in first class. On our reservation the seat has been assigned to my hubby, and I have the dashes for no seat assignment.

I planned to try to select our seats again at OLCI, also we're flying into DEN the night before, so I could swing by the United counter to see if they can help at that time. It would just be a shame to try and surprise my husband with the upgraded flights and then find out we're not sitting anywhere near each other. (Or, since now I've selected the seat for him, he has a spot and I'll have to hang out in Denver instead of Hawaii. Hahahaha)

BH62

Got disparate answers from two agents; was either one correct? The scenario was this: The BHs need to got to a final destination in the Upper Midwest, say BBB, requiring a mainline flight SEA-ORD then UX to BBB & return. We each had a $250 e-cert (the result of a fiasco earlier this year) & as I understood, we had to book separately to apply the e-certs. Question 1: Was I right about this? So I started: went to expert mode, noticed that SEA-ORD was R0, but all other legs were R>0, applied the e-cert & finalized the booking at which point there was a pop-up offering a buy-up to F which I declined & eventually (once the booking was confirmed) upgraded with miles for which Leg1 was waitlisted, while Legs 2,3,4 were confirmed. Ms. BH (also a 1K & in her "over entitled" mode) wasn't too thrilled about the possibility flying E+ SEA-ORD if a waitlisted upgrade didn't come through, so I offered to see what the buy-up might be. Went through the process as before, but this time opened the pop-up & found that there was a $ value quoted for each leg of which SEA-ORD was $199. Hmmm, the e-cert was enough to cover that, so accepted & then went on the upgrade her remaining legs w/ miles. Well, so far so good. Upon reflection, I thought maybe I'd do the same, so called the 1K Desk to see how that could be done. Agent 1 said something to the effect that I don't see that $199. I'd have to charge you something like $750 plus a $200 change fee. Huh, I said, I just want to apply the e-cert, can I get it back & start over? Answer was, not immediately, might take several(?) days even if you could do it. OK, HUCA, went through the scenario w/ Agent 2 who said that, once applied, the e-cert was not returnable. So reflected a bit more & decided to take chances on the wait-list since a 4 hr flight in domestic E+ "ought" to be tolerable despite being in an A320 w/ a slimline seat, or maybe not. Question2: Was either agent correct since all of this occurred within an hour of the original booking, hence within 24 hrs?

WineCountryUA

In general cert are not automatically returned and some certs are single use only and you we get resistances to return those even within the 24 hour window.


Customer inconvenience certs do require separate PNRs in this case.

A couple of things
Just because 1 person got an upgrade often at a particular prices does not mean another person will get the same offer.
Certain discounted upgrade offers are web site only offers and agents will not see them.

In general (you need to read the specific T&Cs) customer inconvenience certs are one time use only -- not returnable. Occasionally it has been reported some agents might try to re-issue but I suspect that is against policy.

for more (you are not alone), see
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...in-24-hrs.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...to-please.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...in-24-hrs.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...rs-ecerts.html

LynnLou

Can I get a refund of frequent flyer miles on a booked reservation? My husband has a broken kneecap and will be in a cast for 6 weeks and cannot travel.

EmailKid

Sure, but if you are not Plat or higher status there will be fees involved @:-)

sbm12

With a note from a doctor all but $50 of that fee should be refunded after the fact. :-:

EmailKid

Thanks, good to know, may well be dropping to Gold next year

nzchick

After some assistance about what to do in this scenario:

Flying on an NZ issued ticket, originally 2 x pax in booking, PNR has subsequently been split into 2 PNRs.
Itinerary is CHC-AKL-LAX-PIT-LAX-AKL-CHC, with the LAX to PIT (return) segments on UA.

PNR was split due to husband confirming recognition upgrades from E to C for the LAX-AKL segment on NZ. When this occurred I called NZ to pay $ to amend my ticket to business class for that leg so we would be together. As part of that process I have been placed in first PIT-LAX on 24 May, while husband is still in E (as per original ticket).

I called NZ (as the issuing carrier) to ask about paying $ to upfare PIT-LAX for husband. They said can't do it, and to try calling UA. Called UA, they said call NZ, and that the option they could see was to attempt to use miles + copay to upgrade.

No confirmable upgrade space available, and even if it was the united website only shows an option of 30,000 miles + $600 co-pay (it is treating PIT-AKL-CHC as one segment, not the separate portions). So stupid to attempt that given he is already upgraded on the leg to AKL and the request would only be valid on the UA PIT-LAX segment anyway.

So the way I see it the options are:
1. miles + $ upgrade request over phone to see if they can do the required segment only. Not in favour of this as we have no UA status (NZ Gold) and would have to buy most the miles to get the chance of confirming the upgrade (unlikely?).
2. See if a paid upgrade is offered at checkin (web, mobile, kiosk etc). Is this possible on an NZ issued ticket that involves international travel after this leg?
3. Ask if we can share the seat (eg swap half way through flight). Would this even be permitted? It was suggested an an option by NZ.
4. Give up the seat (by offering to one of the 2 people seated next to him in E+) and, in effect, pay for service but not receive it.
5. One of us takes the flight in F and the other sits in E+ (But we generally have a deal not to accept upgrades for only one of us...)

Can anyone help with advice for a way around this? Quite happy to pay the fare difference, but no one seems to want the money at the moment!

EmailKid

OK, since no one chimed in so far, here's what I'd try, with no guarantees

Get UA PNR from NZ, go to UAL, put in your last name and PNR and hope that you will get what I normally get when looking at my reservation, namely ability to request u/g segment by segment.

Hope this helps, buy have zero experience with other carriers