Comprehensive Companion CPU Questions [ARCHIVE]
 

Under the old United system everyone on the PNR was upgraded together by UDU. Since we are now on the pss/Continental system - if the old reservation was marked for companion upgrade by PNR will the new system honor that upgrade?

Has anyone seen this happen yet?

Thanks!

Yes my companion and I got UDU upgrade at the same time.

When was your flight, yesterday or today? We're talking about the NEW UA
(3/2/12 & after).

It seems that while the official post-merger upgrade policy on the website (http://pss.united.com/web/en-US/cont.../upgrades.aspx) is consistent with United's policy pre-merger. However, after the switch over, it seems that their computer systems and support representatives are still programmed with Continental's upgrade policy pre-merger. I am traveling with a companion on March 5th. Our itineraries were split. I am 1K and was upgraded. My companion is 2P and was not upgraded. Calling 1K line routes to Continental support and they claim my companion can only be upgraded on day of departure with 2P status...

United needs to get their story straight if you ask me...

Flew on 3/3. Both companion and I were upgraded. (That said, we were upgraded several days prior, so I'd imagine the old system was processing the upgrade.)

If you are on the same PNR then you will be upgraded together, just like the old UA policy. If you are on separate PNRs the companion can be upgraded at the gate, just like the old CO policy.

Status of split-PNR companion entitlement problem post-integration?
 

Posting this since I was bitten by it again yesterday. Note that I don't believe that this is integration-related (or at least not ENTIRELY integration-related) since it's been happening long before this weekend. However, the post-March 3 entitlement policies seem set to make this worse, and CO was never able to resolve the core problem (to my knowledge) even PRE-integration. The last thread I could find on this was from 2010...

In short: If you book a spouse / travel companion on the same PNR as you, the system will (frequently) automatically split the PNRs at the EUA window, and (even more frequently) upon check-in at a kiosk. In the days before E+ (for CO), this was annoying but the agents were able to make exceptions when you told them what was going on.

Some time in the last 96 hours -- pre-, during-, or post- integration, I can't confirm -- they again split my PNR without any action on my part. My (non-elite) wife was shunted off into her own record, and lost her 7D seat. We showed up to check in, and she had no baggage allowance and no seats (automatically assigned to 28E). The agents -- both the UA agent checking us in, and her CO "helper" who was there for the integration weekend -- were unable to do anything about it. 7D was an available seat ("P7D" for Premium seat, in their lingo), but my wife could not be assigned into it. Nor could they waive the baggage charge -- which, fortunately, we were able to work around since I was under my 1K limit. Nor could they get her onto the upgrade list as a companion.

After our first flight, split seating in Y, we tried again at the club in DEN. The CO "helper" there was able to call the help desk, and after ~30 minutes, she came and found us in the club and delivered a boarding pass for 7D. (YAY! Thank you nice agent...) But they were unable to get her onto the upgrade list. I was upgraded (and gave her my BP this time), and ended up sitting in Y as 3 others were upgraded behind us -- the at-gate companion status would have cleared for her had the PNRs not been split.

The big problem is that more often than not, the better seats are taken by someone else before I even notice the PNRs have been split, much less get to an agent who is willing and able to fix it. When traveling to Asia (which we do 3-4 times annually) the baggage allowance is an issue. This is really vexing, particularly when traveling with my wife, since they tout the companion benefits of being upper Premier, but then seem to go out of their way to nuke those benefits 24-96 hours out, and if not then, almost always upon check-in -- leaving companions out in the cold for the return flights.

Has anyone else had success preventing this from happening at the EUA window, or upon check-in, while still remaining upgrade-eligible? I haven't seen this on the list of integration-related issues to be fixed, most likely because the problem long pre-dates the integration.

It's happened to me exactly just like your describe on my flight tomorrow maybe it's time to switch

Companion Upgrade Policy Change?!?
 

I'm flying tomorrow with my wife SFO-OGG. As a 1k I cleared the upgrade list a bit late, after checking in today. However my wife (companion) was not upgraded.

In speaking with customer support they indicated they will follow Continental policy to split reservation and only give the premier member the upgrade. I was told to "go to the ticketing gate and request companion be sitting with you... they won't make it onto the upgrade wait list automatically so this is only way". This seems to be a horrible direction to take splitting spouses up and also conflicts to what is shown on website.

Any ideas how to get my wife upgraded or are we SOL now? Anyone else experienced this lately?

"Companion Upgrade Policy
One companion traveling on a paid ticket on the same reservation as a Premier member is eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades on select flights, and may be confirmed with the same priority as the Premier member, even on the day of departure. If the companion is a Premier member, the upgrade will be processed according to the highest Premier status level in the reservation.

If a reservation includes three or more members, and only one is not a Premier member, the Complimentary Premier Upgrades will be processed according to the lowest Premier status level in the reservation. If a reservation includes more than one non-Premier companion, it will not be processed automatically. In these cases, Premier members should call the Premier Priority Desk to request a separate reservation for themselves and the eligible companion."

You're not SOL but you can only add companions at the airport on day of departure. So depending on availability then she might be SOL.

Edit: Thats assuming the CO policy hasn't changed.

This is NOT true and they have not got this programed into their system yet.
Whoever told the OP that they are following the pmCO way is DEAD WRONG! It has been mentioned in the latest published info that it is the elite and one companion together that are eligible for ug at the highest qualifier's window.

How about a legacy PNR with more than one companion. Under the old UA system all companions were flagged for UDU, any data points on whether the legacy reservations continue to work like that? Otherwise I am thinking of splitting the PNR and then using CR1/SWU's.

Thoughts?

I am flying tomorrow (3/7) with a companion under one PNR (booked on PMCO website), and I am the only one with status (Gold at the moment, will drop to Silver at some point). Since the integration was 3/3, I believe the windows started opening prior to conversion, so I am not sure what will ultimately happen to our reservation.

Of course, there's a good chance we both won't get upgraded, but I'll try and follow up here afterwards.

That's not what happened yesterday to me, or I somehow did it wrong.

Me (2P) +1 on single PNR.

At checking (T-23:45) I was asked if I wanted to be put on the upgrade standby list. Said yes.

This split the PNR and put my companion on the list, but with his GM status. I cleared about 4 hours later, he cleared at the gate.

So we started on one PNR, but checkin forced us to seperate PNR's. From what I gather if we could stay on one PNR the policy is together, but the technology split us if I wanted to be on the waitlist.

Maybe I shouldn't have checked in, but who knows how that would have gone. (I'll ignore the hassle that a split PNR caused when we went to drop bags and I had no idea what PNR he was on, and being 8 he had no credit cards...)

Copa? ?
 

Any idea on how Copa will handle this? I separated myself as Premier 1K, but my wife and daughter, both Premier Plats, are on a combined PNR because there was a lower fare for the child, but she had to be traveling with adult. Will they be upgraded at the Plat window if 2 seats are available? I know on CO, I could not have separated off a minor if the ticket was purchased for a child.

I saw their inflight magazine on 1 March, and it looks like they are 100% on board with mileage plus.

Has anyone actually got this to work post-3/3?

If I split the PNR, will my non-elite companion still get free checked bags?

It may not be the way its "supposed" to be but there are at least 2 reports now of this happening. It sounds to me like the old CO system is still being used or at least partially.

This is what I was thinking, they mentioned there may have not been enough seats to UG everyone so that is why they split the reservation. Now they have split and she isn't on my reservation anymore. Guess it is time to call the 1K line for the third time today.

Mine did. But I'd already checked him in online. Can't remember where in the process (Before upgrade or after) bags came.

I am utterly confused on this topic. I swear I saw something on the new United site that clearly stated you could designate 1 companion (on same res or not) to be upgraded according to your status w/ UDU. Now, it's missing. What's going on here?? 1K desk just told me upgrades for separate records are processed day of departure.

Has anyone else actually done this for the fact?

Still there:
https://pss.united.com/web/en-US/con.../upgrades.aspx

Reality? No so much it seems. Or I happened to be the last 2P upgraded leaving my +1 to wait.

Ok so I just checked myself and my companion in for our flight tomorrow (oddly enough I could only check in using the iPhone app - the website would just send me back to the home page after every attempt). On the first screen it asked if the "eligible customers listed below" would like an upgrade if available, and only my name was listed. So I ticked the box and continued to the next screen. It then listed both of us with the "Added to Upgrade Standby List" notation underneath each of our names. And surely enough, when I check the upgrade standby list both of us are there!

Interestingly, it still split me off to a separate PNR, which I'm guessing it had to do in order to get both of us on the u/g list separately. I'm not sure what that means for the return trip, but at least we're both on the u/g list for tomorrow. All in all, I'm happy considering everything else I've read on here the past few days.

But where is your companion on the list tomorrow? His name should be right next to yours if it is the way it has been published. Splitting the record tells me he's on his own now and if he has no status he's going to be near the bottom.

The pmUA way was that you both upgraded on the highest status and that's the way it's supposed to work from now on!!!

Looks like it hasn't been changed from the pmCo method, but you'll know when you see the wait-list in the morning.

Good luck!!!

Right now we're #1 and #2, but only out of 4 people. HOWEVER, when I go into the check in (I can access it on the website now lol) for his separate PNR and edit bags, it says he is allowed THREE free bags, which is a clue that it is seeing my status.

Cool!!!^

But by splitting the record, what will happen on your return, like you questioned?

Indeed...hopefully since it's still seeing my status in his record it will just carry through. That is, of course, if my shadow of Gold status from last year extends that long ;)

Again good luck!^

I can confirm that the behavior is not as published. I checked in online (using the iPhone app) for both myself and my companion. It split the reservation into two PNR. I could no longer see my companion on united.com. When we went to a kiosk to print boarding passes I could only get my own (and the kiosk couldn't find his reservation using any method we tried other than his new PNR...) Regardless, I was #4 on the upgrade list, companion was 20-something.

Post Merger - Companion Upgrade Success
 

Does anyone know if the new United has kept PMUA's companion upgrade policy?

Continental's made it virtually impossible, regardless of OnePass level to get a companion upgraded, but PMUA allowed you to upgrade everyone on the itinerary at time of check-in.

Not yet. I'll try to remember to report back post-flight.

IIRC, the new system is like UA's before OLCI. After that it's like CO's. Is it better to wait until, say T-3h to OLCI, or should I just check in at T-23h59m and have the res. split?

Friday 3/9 evening, two segment o/w trip with non-elite companion. 5/6 and 3/6 F seats available on the segments.

How about more than one companion on a PNR? Are any of the old-style United all passengers on PNR UDU upgrades going through?

Split PNR explained - maybe
 

Just had the split-PNR-on-checkin happen to me. I checked us in on same PNR at T-23:58, and while I did not notice it at the time, I was given a new PNR on my boarding pass. Both boarding passes showed original seating. MM 1K husband got an email confirming upgrade dated T-23:48 and seat map now has him in First, but I (Prem Plat) remain in E+.

Called (3 min. wait time - woohoo!)TA explains (after double-checking with Service Director) that the PNR was split at the time of check-in because only one of the 3 vacant seats in First was available for upgrade.

She SAYS that I'll still be processed based on his status...we'll see. And who knows what will happen on the return leg(s).

So, it started as a 4-pax PNR. With NF9 PRE-3/3 I split it into 2x2PAX PNR's hoping that both group of 2 will clear inside the elite upgrade window. Post-3/3, I saw R9 inside the 1K upgrade window but nothing happened all the way to now, on the day of travel.

I didn't want to be asked if I want to split my PNR FURTHER for the lousy LAX-SFO upgrade so I skip OLCI. At the airport, check-in agent split us any way without even asking so We are now traveling with 4 PNR's now for 4 of us!

The good news is I myself was cleared at the gate the bad news is the rest are not. I strongly believe that CPU is working like EUA even in the advance elite upgrade window.

This is what splits the PNR. If you don't want to split it you have to deal with an agent at the gate.Yes. If the agent says no have them look up GG BAG 2ND in SHARES.

This issue is seemingly an utter failure, along with a few other things with this system changeover.

I understand that issues can arise, especially when each of these systems are relied as heavily as they are - but this is yet another example of UA simply lying about how the system works.

In my opinion - you cannot run a business where a published benefit or policy is not what is in practice. I use companion upgrades (myself 1K, wife Plat) all the time and strongly preferred PMUAs way of handling them. That said, I was happy to see the new UA policy in place just like PMUA. However, when you cut over to a different system and CLEARLY do not have the new software in place to handle events, there is an inherent and systematic issue with the managers of the technical aspects of the merger...contrary to what Jeff Smisek thinks about the 'finest people in the business'.

-jeremy

[QUOTE=sbm12;18160317]This is what splits the PNR. If you don't want to split it you have to deal with an agent at the gate.
Yes. If the agent says no have them look up GG BAG 2ND in SHARES.[/QUOTE

Thanks for the code.

Now with 4 PNR's and two of them are not elite members, I will see how it goes on the way back in a couple weeks.

The glitch is at check-in on-line. It appears that you can only go on the upgrade list if you are willing to split off your buddy to a separate PNR, apparently even if they are 8.

Only alternative is to say "no" to being put on upgrade list. On a separate thread I have asked if anyone has been CPU'd prior to check-in and checked "no" on the box. You cannot bypass this step in on-line check-in.

so, if I am reading this correctly… if my friend and I are both on the same record, and I am a 1K and he is Gold, we would both clear under my status. However, if there's only one upgrade space available, I would get upgraded and he would be split into separate record? Thanks in advance.

Yes...but he'd be way up on the list.