trini19

This am my wife was on the early morning IAH-PHL UA flight. When checking in, I asked the GA for assistance in how I can use one of my RPU's to upgrade her (I never used one before and last night the 1K line checked, said there were no upgradeable seats and to check at the gate before the flight).

On explaining that I wanted to know if I could use a RPU, the GA proceeded to show us how to check in. Thanks for that help but I know how to check in ma'am but my question is how do I use a RPU? On finishing checking my wife in, GA shows us on BP where it states she has been added to the upgrade list (wife is *A/UA gold). Thanks again and I know she is on the list, but my question is how do I use a RPU?

Agent: "A what?"

Me: "A RPU. Regional Premier Upgrades"

Agent: "Oh one of those global things?"

Me: Knowing it was not a GPU but she obviously isnt fully informed about RPUs and CPUs. "Yes, one of those ma'am"

Agent: "You have to call those in"

I walk away laughing and did call 1K where an extremely nice agent helped get her upgraded and of course we had to recheck in to get proper boarding pass.

GA was very nice and pleasant, and I have nothing against her at all, my point is how could UA have someone on the ground at the Premier Desk who does not know what their own product - Premier Upgrades - are? Are they not taught all of these things beforehand?

Bonehead

New waitlist requests for MileagePlus Upgrade Awards, Regional Premier Upgrades and Global Premier Upgrades can be made until 24 hours prior to departure.

GAs therefore likely never have to deal with RPUs and GPUs.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

It's not a "Premier Desk", it's a check-in counter. As previously mentioned, they can't be used at the check-in counter. And gate agents staff the gates, not the check-in counters. And yes, you have to call in or use them online. If you are 24 hours or more out, they can also help you at a service desk or the United Club, if you need help. At least you got her the upgrade.

IAH, among others, has only a few UA employees at the check-in counters (including thePremier check-in counter), the rest are contracted taggers/handlers. If the few UA check-in agents remaining had to answer answers about upgrades, the whole check-in system would bog down even more than it does sometimes. Upgrades are handled via phone/gate agents/online/dedicated service counters/United Clubs.

trini19

Thanks for the replies IAH and Bonehead. I made a mistake when saying GA instead of counter agent so thanks for correcting me on that. :-)

I guess I assumed the counter agents would be able to answer more than just check in questions at the counter or at least direct me to where I can get an answer before following through with the check in process since that was more of what I was looking for.

As I was saying, she was very pleasant but just had no clue on how to respond to my question so I guess she went through the actions of what she does which is check in assistance.

From your above answers, guess it comes down to the person themself as to how they handle a question from a customer.

All in all, everything worked out so happy wife.....happy life ;-)

Scott6067

The LA (Lobby Agent) is the main person that can put someone on the list at the airport. Best done there as sponsored person will get on the list sooner than other options. Sorry for the challenges.

The UC and Service desk can help as well but by calling in and having the ticket adjusted one can risk not being checked in by cut off and thus lose all seats on the plane. Glad it worked out though.

mherdeg

Certain things are in fact out of scope for the counter agents. Another is ticketing — the ticket counters don't do ticketing.

The best-trained answer you're likely to get for "how do I do X thing to my itinerary" (apply an RPU or instrument-sponsored upgrade) is "call the Reservations line to do this kind of thing to your itinerary". That sounds like, roughly, the answer you got. That's roughly right, yes.

This is an area where UA frequent flyers often "know more" than agents — I bet that if you asked "how many frequent-flyer miles will I earn for a codeshare flight operated by ANA from SFO-NRT", you would get better answers from certain FlyerTalk users than from a randomly chosen UA airport check-in agent. That's sort of by design. On the flip side, ask a randomly chosen FlyerTalk user how to interline bags to another carrier on an OAL ticket or how to do a 2-for-1 coupon exchange to rebook a pax during irrops and you'll probably get worse answers than you would from a UA check-in agent.

FlyGirl001

Wouldn't it be a good idea for any agent to know about RPUs and GPUs? Not having a clue (or perhaps a concern) about how their company operates at the level of the paying customer seems to be a root problem with customer satisfaction.

mduell

Note he didn't want to waitlist for an upgrade with an RPU, he wanted to upgrade with an RPU, so the waitlist restrictions don't matter:

But the checkin agents still don't know how to do them.

mgcsinc

Indeed. Don't the kiosks even let you use instruments.

All the agents should plainly know about the basics of the program, including what RPUs and GPUs are. Just as airport agents should really, really be retrained about the fact that SDC can span multiple calendar days.

And I think it is perfectly reasonable to refer to the premier check-in area as the premier desk.

channa

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Upgrade requests with miles or instruments by airport agents is new to CO staff as of a couple years ago.

Combine that with the CO blow off culture which is the worst at IAH, IME, you're not likely to find someone who knows how to do it.

Bonehead

I've never seen the option to apply an RPU inside of 24 hours on United.com. Seems to me the 'Upgrade Reservation" link goes away at T-24.

Maybe I've missed something. Can an agent do it? I've never tried calling and asking. I thought that all bets were off w/r/t RPUs that close to flight time.

Kacee

A phone agent can clear an instrument into open R/PN until the flight goes to gate control, somewhere around T-1 hour or later. At that point, the instrument technically becomes irrelevant, because they switch to the standby list, and that list gives instruments no priority (just status and fare class).

Bonehead

Would that be a newly applied RPU, one that had been applied > 24 hours before flight time, or either?

WineCountryUA

Too many aspects of the whole operation for all agents to know about all programs.

Should a GA also know about routing restrictions on awards?
Benefits for MillionMilers?
1K fee $60 fee waiver for Chase cards?
PQD rules? Elite qualification rules?

Kacee

Not sure I understand the question.

An RPU can technically only be "newly applied" within T-24 if there is open R/PN such that it clears immediately. If it's within T-24, they are not supposed to add you to the waitlist.

Once the flight switches to gate control, upgrades are cleared off the standby list. UA's published priority rules give no priority to instruments on that list:*

Priority within 24 hours
New waitlist requests for MileagePlus Upgrade Awards, Regional Premier Upgrades and Global Premier Upgrades can be made until 24 hours prior to departure. At 24 hours from departure, waitlists will expire and automatic processing of upgrades, per the priority listed above, will continue. As customers check in, they will be placed on an airport upgrade standby list. This standby list will clear after check-in is closed, and is based on Premier status and fare class.

* noting that this interpretation is not universally accepted.