pixelator30

I am a current United Premier 1K member. I currently have 1 global upgrade and 1 regional upgrade available. I am flying with my girlfriend from LAX to Hawaii in a few days, and tried using them to upgrade both of us. United flatly refused. They said that if I had 2 regional upgrade awards, or 2 global upgrade awards, that they'd do it, but not with 1 of each. Which makes no sense. They said that if I want to do it with one each that they need to split our reservation -- which of course would cause my girlfriend to never get upgraded, as her status is low. What a bummer. Why are you making your awards so difficult to use?

Also, a related piece of customer experience. I called the dedicated 1K phone line to sort this out. I explained the problem, and was told no. So then I suggested to the rep to provide this feedback to others at United, at which point the rep became terse and hanged up on me. Great customer service. :-(

getagb

You have a few options:

• Split the PNR, waitlist both, and if only one clears let your girlfriend have it
• Wait for R availability to open, and if/when it does, split the PNR, upgrade your girlfriend, then waitlist yourself
• Try to find a solution in Coupon Connection

garykung

What you have said don't make sense either.

IT issues. If you have tried online, it will result the same issue as well.


It depends on the R space availability of your flight. Some upgrades can actually be confirmed immediately.


They are always difficult to use if you don't know how to properly use it.

steaminer

Your girlfriend's status shouldn't matter - the upgrade instrument is waitlisted based on the status of the sponsor (you)

jsloan

That is not true for instruments applied after a reservation is split, unless the instrument came from a GS account.

garykung

OP is correct on this. Priority is based on the pax, not the instrument used.

Kacee

I'm pretty sure this is just an unfortunate system limitation. Not UA being intentionally difficult.

That was the old rule. No longer so.

bigwings8

You should ask them to convert your GPU to an RPU. RPUs are strictly less value to the flyer (i.e. cheaper to United) than GPUs. But...United doesn't think logically so I imagine this wouldn't work anyway.

TerryK

Didn't know that's possible. Is it 1GPU=2RPU? Does conversion go both ways?

laxmillenial

No. The value of a GPU is greater than that of an RPU, so the poster is assuming that UA would be 'willing' to convert 1 GPU to 1 RPU. There is no such thing as 1GPU -> 2RPU or 3RPU or vice versa. The poster is suggesting that the OP ask UA to take away the GPU and give him an RPU just for this 'waitlisting situation'.
Some of us wish there was some conversion, others don't care, others have no opinion

Kacee

No official conversion, but 2:1 would not be uncommon on coupon connection.

Kmxu

It is worth to call MileagePlus service center to switch out of a RPU (cleared in an early trip) with a GPU. Now, you will have two RPUs to apply to your new trip. If the upgrade does not clear, do another switch out to get GPU back.
good luck.

ryman554

Wow. That's a good idea.

jsloan

GPUs do not clear before RPUs.

mike2003242

you sure are right, nevermind!! I was almost certain GPUs cleared before RPUs but apparently not!!