dhuey

The situation: a friend of mine with no status on United (I have no status, either), was planning on being on my flight in September, BOS-SFO. I already have a mileage award in F on that flight. I've got lots of miles, and I had silver status earlier this year, so I put in for the mileage upgrade for her: 15,000 miles and no co-pay since I had status at the time.

The problem: my friend won't be able to make this trip.

The choice: according to a CSA I spoke with, I can withdraw this upgrade request (which is still pending) for $200 and get the miles back. Or I can hope that it never goes through, in which case I get the 15,000 miles back for free.

My guess on the odds: 60/40 in my favor that this does not go though, and I get my miles back for free.

Your thoughts? Thanks for any you'd like to share.

bmwe92fan

I might be missing something - but if she cancels the reservation you should get back your miles free...

Kacee

Is she going to let the ticket value go away? Because if she wants to save any of the ticket value, she'll have to cancel it before departure (unless it's a refundable ticket), which means no chance to let the upgrade definitively fail, and a redeposit fee to return the miles.

In fact, since a no-show will cancel the ticket, I don't see any way to avoid the redeposit fee unless (i) she flies and misses the upgrade, or (ii) you find an agent who's willing to waive the fee.

$200 for 15,000 miles is 1.3 cpm, which is less than UA sells them for.

dhuey

Thanks, folks. Looks like you have conflicting understandings of whether I get the miles back for free if she cancels the reservation before departure. Anyone have personal experience with this?

Kacee

If you want the miles back, policy is to assess the redeposit fee.

If you cancel your MileagePlus Upgrade Award, miles and co-pay may be refunded for the applicable redeposit fee.

Upgrade Award Terms & Conditions

Doc Savage

I think your friend owes you dinner next time she is in town.

WineCountryUA

Cancelling the upgrade is different from canceling the flight. Cancel the flight and I bevel miles are returned for no fee.

WineCountryUA

Cancelling the upgrade is different from canceling the flight. Cancel the flight and I believe the miles are returned for no fee.

Kacee

That would be a pleasant surprise. Perhaps OP could report back on his result.

stevenshev

That's my understanding as well. No flight, no upgrade.

sbm12

My recollection is that the upgrade "cert" is still issued and can be applied to a different itinerary or it can be redeposited for the appropriate fee. But maybe that's changed.

Garten

If you're still on the waitlist and the underlying reservation itself is canceled then it has to be the case that you get your miles back for no fee. I can't provide a reference but I would be astounded with any other result.

I would expect this even if the upgrade had cleared, but I'd be less certain.

If the friend is definitely canceling the reservation then why not do it now and see what happens?

dhuey

Epilogue: my friend cancelled the reservation, but the miles did not revert back to my account. They just sat there in the canceled reservation along with the $. I called in and the CSA told me that I'd have to pay the redeposit fee of $200 to get them back. I did that.

And BTW, I was mistaken about 15K miles -- it was actually 20K miles, which made it an easier decision to pay the redeposit fee.

Thanks for the advice, folks.

StingWest

... and thanks for reporting the outcome. So few people do that!

Kacee

Yup, at 1 cpm, that's the right call if you have future use for them.

Still just a terrible policy to charge a redeposit fee when the upgrade was never confirmed.