United will begin selling Premium Plus on some domestic routes from 2 Oct. 2019.
Oct 9, 2019, 9:53 am
#211
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Frozen in Carbonite
Programs: UA Aluminum 0.6MM, Bonvoy Life Sentence, Hyatt Eliteist, AA Super Plutonium
Posts: 2,878
On my disaster of a seventeen hour delayed flight yesterday, I tried to upgrade from pp to j so my nine year old could sleep since we’d spent the evening in the airport and he had school in the morning. I was told, in a not so nice manner, that the RN ticketed fare I’d bought was not upgradeable. I asked why that was since I had been offered an upgrade several weeks ago and the customer service agent snapped “then you should have taken it then”. I tried asking several different people why the rn fare was not upgradeable and got numerous answers ranging from “ I don’t know anything about fare buckets” from the ga to “this is a basic economy fare” from customer service. I even tweeted customer service and got “your flight is delayed here’s a hundred dollars”
the flight went out with about 80 people in a 787, half of those in j. My son and I were the only customers in pp and there were two business class seats empty. I am so angry I will never fly ua again despite my vouchers.
the flight went out with about 80 people in a 787, half of those in j. My son and I were the only customers in pp and there were two business class seats empty. I am so angry I will never fly ua again despite my vouchers.
The answers you received are pretty lame. Knowing fare buckets is a large part of the customer service role, and I’m shocked that anyone would think someone with a basic economy fare could be seated in PP to begin with.
That said - I will try sending angry tweets and collecting 100 Oscar bucks next time I have a delay!
Oct 9, 2019, 10:06 am
#212
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,359
On my disaster of a seventeen hour delayed flight yesterday, I tried to upgrade from pp to j so my nine year old could sleep since we’d spent the evening in the airport and he had school in the morning. I was told, in a not so nice manner, that the RN ticketed fare I’d bought was not upgradeable. I asked why that was since I had been offered an upgrade several weeks ago and the customer service agent snapped “then you should have taken it then”. I tried asking several different people why the rn fare was not upgradeable and got numerous answers ranging from “ I don’t know anything about fare buckets” from the ga to “this is a basic economy fare” from customer service. I even tweeted customer service and got “your flight is delayed here’s a hundred dollars”
the flight went out with about 80 people in a 787, half of those in j. My son and I were the only customers in pp and there were two business class seats empty. I am so angry I will never fly ua again despite my vouchers.
the flight went out with about 80 people in a 787, half of those in j. My son and I were the only customers in pp and there were two business class seats empty. I am so angry I will never fly ua again despite my vouchers.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."
Every airline I've flown has had incompetent agents that don't know the fare rules never mind how to process an upgrade. The mistake you made here was talking to the wrong people. Never talk to a gate agent first off. That's just a recipe for disaster, they're busy as it is having to worry about boarding future flights and dealing with the manifests there, never mind arguing with angry passengers for all sorts of reasons.
Your first stop should be the customer service desk who often have trained agents who know what they're doing (not always though see below). If you aren't satisfied with the answer you get there, your next stop would be the lounge (i.e. United Club or Polaris Lounge in the case of UA). The agents there tend to know a thing or two about booking with some of them being trained reservationists who know the fare rules better than some on the 1K Desk. If that still doesn't work, your next stop would be calling the airline (hopefully you got Premier status to use the special line). If that fails, your next stop is to exit airside and speak to ticketing which is generally land side beside the check in desks for UA.
To give you a recent example of incompetent airlines, I was flying YXU to YSJ on United partner Air Canada, connecting in YUL. I left myself a 3 hour layover in YUL but due to ATC issues that buffer was burnt up and I missed the last flight of the day over to YSJ. My first stop was the customer service desk. I explained the situation and that I'm UA*Gold. They printed me a boarding pass for the next day and that was it. When I asked whether I could get a hotel and meal voucher, I was told in no uncertain terms to pound sand. I could've lashed out at the agent for saying that to me but I kept my composure and went to the Air Canada lounge and spoke with the agent there: "Yeah, I think you're entitled to a hotel and meal voucher as a * Gold. Unfortunately I can't print those off for you from the lounge. You'll need to go to ticketing." head to ticketing, "Hey Mr. Simpson, sorry to see you mis-connected here's your hotel, meal voucher and $10 airport voucher for your troubles. The hotel shuttle takes off from door 14"
2 years ago I had a similar upgrade conundrum as you which was ultimately resolved by calling the Premier desk no less than 4 times over the span of 2 weeks. Ultimately I managed to get myself and my colleague upgraded to BusinessFirst (passengers last) on the sector SFO > AKL.
Safe Travels,
James
Oct 9, 2019, 10:11 am
#213
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,393
On my disaster of a seventeen hour delayed flight yesterday, I tried to upgrade from pp to j so my nine year old could sleep since we’d spent the evening in the airport and he had school in the morning. I was told, in a not so nice manner, that the RN ticketed fare I’d bought was not upgradeable. I asked why that was since I had been offered an upgrade several weeks ago and the customer service agent snapped “then you should have taken it then”. I tried asking several different people why the rn fare was not upgradeable and got numerous answers ranging from “ I don’t know anything about fare buckets” from the ga to “this is a basic economy fare” from customer service. I even tweeted customer service and got “your flight is delayed here’s a hundred dollars”
the flight went out with about 80 people in a 787, half of those in j. My son and I were the only customers in pp and there were two business class seats empty. I am so angry I will never fly ua again despite my vouchers.
the flight went out with about 80 people in a 787, half of those in j. My son and I were the only customers in pp and there were two business class seats empty. I am so angry I will never fly ua again despite my vouchers.
RN is upgrade inventory space for PP. It doesn’t surprise me that you’re having trouble upgrading from that. How did you get into PP in the first place?
The answers you received are pretty lame. Knowing fare buckets is a large part of the customer service role, and I’m shocked that anyone would think someone with a basic economy fare could be seated in PP to begin with.
The answers you received are pretty lame. Knowing fare buckets is a large part of the customer service role, and I’m shocked that anyone would think someone with a basic economy fare could be seated in PP to begin with.
Oct 9, 2019, 10:34 am
#214
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 153
Take it easy! This would happen to you on any airline to quote the Corlloary to Smisek's razor, Hanlon's razor:
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."
Every airline I've flown has had incompetent agents that don't know the fare rules never mind how to process an upgrade. The mistake you made here was talking to the wrong people. Never talk to a gate agent first off. That's just a recipe for disaster, they're busy as it is having to worry about boarding future flights and dealing with the manifests there, never mind arguing with angry passengers for all sorts of reasons.
Your first stop should be the customer service desk who often have trained agents who know what they're doing (not always though see below). If you aren't satisfied with the answer you get there, your next stop would be the lounge (i.e. United Club or Polaris Lounge in the case of UA). The agents there tend to know a thing or two about booking with some of them being trained reservationists who know the fare rules better than some on the 1K Desk. If that still doesn't work, your next stop would be calling the airline (hopefully you got Premier status to use the special line). If that fails, your next stop is to exit airside and speak to ticketing which is generally land side beside the check in desks for UA.
To give you a recent example of incompetent airlines, I was flying YXU to YSJ on United partner Air Canada, connecting in YUL. I left myself a 3 hour layover in YUL but due to ATC issues that buffer was burnt up and I missed the last flight of the day over to YSJ. My first stop was the customer service desk. I explained the situation and that I'm UA*Gold. They printed me a boarding pass for the next day and that was it. When I asked whether I could get a hotel and meal voucher, I was told in no uncertain terms to pound sand. I could've lashed out at the agent for saying that to me but I kept my composure and went to the Air Canada lounge and spoke with the agent there: "Yeah, I think you're entitled to a hotel and meal voucher as a * Gold. Unfortunately I can't print those off for you from the lounge. You'll need to go to ticketing." head to ticketing, "Hey Mr. Simpson, sorry to see you mis-connected here's your hotel, meal voucher and $10 airport voucher for your troubles. The hotel shuttle takes off from door 14"
2 years ago I had a similar upgrade conundrum as you which was ultimately resolved by calling the Premier desk no less than 4 times over the span of 2 weeks. Ultimately I managed to get myself and my colleague upgraded to BusinessFirst (passengers last) on the sector SFO > AKL.
Safe Travels,
James
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."
Every airline I've flown has had incompetent agents that don't know the fare rules never mind how to process an upgrade. The mistake you made here was talking to the wrong people. Never talk to a gate agent first off. That's just a recipe for disaster, they're busy as it is having to worry about boarding future flights and dealing with the manifests there, never mind arguing with angry passengers for all sorts of reasons.
Your first stop should be the customer service desk who often have trained agents who know what they're doing (not always though see below). If you aren't satisfied with the answer you get there, your next stop would be the lounge (i.e. United Club or Polaris Lounge in the case of UA). The agents there tend to know a thing or two about booking with some of them being trained reservationists who know the fare rules better than some on the 1K Desk. If that still doesn't work, your next stop would be calling the airline (hopefully you got Premier status to use the special line). If that fails, your next stop is to exit airside and speak to ticketing which is generally land side beside the check in desks for UA.
To give you a recent example of incompetent airlines, I was flying YXU to YSJ on United partner Air Canada, connecting in YUL. I left myself a 3 hour layover in YUL but due to ATC issues that buffer was burnt up and I missed the last flight of the day over to YSJ. My first stop was the customer service desk. I explained the situation and that I'm UA*Gold. They printed me a boarding pass for the next day and that was it. When I asked whether I could get a hotel and meal voucher, I was told in no uncertain terms to pound sand. I could've lashed out at the agent for saying that to me but I kept my composure and went to the Air Canada lounge and spoke with the agent there: "Yeah, I think you're entitled to a hotel and meal voucher as a * Gold. Unfortunately I can't print those off for you from the lounge. You'll need to go to ticketing." head to ticketing, "Hey Mr. Simpson, sorry to see you mis-connected here's your hotel, meal voucher and $10 airport voucher for your troubles. The hotel shuttle takes off from door 14"
2 years ago I had a similar upgrade conundrum as you which was ultimately resolved by calling the Premier desk no less than 4 times over the span of 2 weeks. Ultimately I managed to get myself and my colleague upgraded to BusinessFirst (passengers last) on the sector SFO > AKL.
Safe Travels,
James
i should clarify I was trying to pay to upgrade to j, not ask for a freebie.
RN is upgrade inventory space for PP. It doesn’t surprise me that you’re having trouble upgrading from that. How did you get into PP in the first place?
The answers you received are pretty lame. Knowing fare buckets is a large part of the customer service role, and I’m shocked that anyone would think someone with a basic economy fare could be seated in PP to begin with.
That said - I will try sending angry tweets and collecting 100 Oscar bucks next time I have a delay!
The answers you received are pretty lame. Knowing fare buckets is a large part of the customer service role, and I’m shocked that anyone would think someone with a basic economy fare could be seated in PP to begin with.
That said - I will try sending angry tweets and collecting 100 Oscar bucks next time I have a delay!
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Oct 9, 2019 at 2:46 pm Reason: merged consecutive posts by same member
Oct 9, 2019, 11:06 am
#215
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: UA MM
Posts: 4,104
I’m not following... if your fare class was RN, then it means you were upgraded from Y to PP already. What I gather you actually paid for was not a class upgrade but rather a seat upgrade (E- to E+). Does that make sense?
Oct 9, 2019, 11:14 am
#216
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: AS 75K, DL Silver, UA Platinum, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Platinum + LT Gold
Posts: 10,462
???
Yesterday as in October 8, 2019? 17-hour delay? A quick glance of flights ex-EWR to LAX and SFO showed mostly on-time departures, and only one flight with more than an hour of departure delay (UA751) - at 1.5 hours.
Yesterday as in October 8, 2019? 17-hour delay? A quick glance of flights ex-EWR to LAX and SFO showed mostly on-time departures, and only one flight with more than an hour of departure delay (UA751) - at 1.5 hours.
Oct 9, 2019, 11:27 am
#217
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 153
I booked the seats before they were sold as pp and paid to select my seats. Later, United prompted me to take a two hundred dollar “business class upgrade” which of course I took. I discovered this was an upgrade to keep my seats in pp and not a j upgrade later. I was never upgraded for free if that’s what you mean.
Oct 9, 2019, 11:28 am
#218
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 153
Oct 9, 2019, 11:36 am
#219
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: UA MM
Posts: 4,104
I booked the seats before they were sold as pp and paid to select my seats. Later, United prompted me to take a two hundred dollar “business class upgrade” which of course I took. I discovered this was an upgrade to keep my seats in pp and not a j upgrade later. I was never upgraded for free if that’s what you mean.
Oct 9, 2019, 11:40 am
#220
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Frozen in Carbonite
Programs: UA Aluminum 0.6MM, Bonvoy Life Sentence, Hyatt Eliteist, AA Super Plutonium
Posts: 2,878
Unfortunately, sounds like a normal day in EWR.
Pax who had selected E+ seats in rows 20-22 on the 78J were given complimentary upgrades to PE for a limited time after the change, and these booked into RN. Unsurprising it messed with the system, but agree the response is silly.
Pax who had selected E+ seats in rows 20-22 on the 78J were given complimentary upgrades to PE for a limited time after the change, and these booked into RN. Unsurprising it messed with the system, but agree the response is silly.
The way they handled this domestic rollout of PP has been a disaster. I can’t wait until they start swapping aircraft on these routes and you have a bunch of people in PP fare classes that don’t map to the new aircraft.
Oct 9, 2019, 11:46 am
#221
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 153
Ah that makes a lot of sense. It also accounts for the confusion on why the OP couldn’t upgrade to J. As far as they knew, they were on an economy ticket in a fare class that would be upgradable.
The way they handled this domestic rollout of PP has been a disaster. I can’t wait until they start swapping aircraft on these routes and you have a bunch of people in PP fare classes that don’t map to the new aircraft.
The way they handled this domestic rollout of PP has been a disaster. I can’t wait until they start swapping aircraft on these routes and you have a bunch of people in PP fare classes that don’t map to the new aircraft.
Oct 14, 2019, 11:42 am
#222
Join Date: May 2007
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 5,447
Just checked in for my LAX-EWR tomorrow, on an R fare with RPU applied, which I figure should get me close to the top (3 or lower) on the UG list. Checked in and turns out I'm fifth. Tweeted at UA and the clueless agent responds saying that the UG list is based on status first, ignoring the mentions on the UA website that:
All four folks above me show as having cleared the UG into P+, though I also (weirdly) show as having cleared that UG. However, when I bought the flight two weeks ago, inventory was O1, and there doesn't appear to have been much, if any, O opening up since then, leading me to believe that I should be the only one (or maybe two or three) on O/A/R fares sitting in P+.
Any insights? Would calling in help, or am I out of luck here?
On flights equipped with United Premium Plus, we will process requests to upgrade to business class for customers ticketed in United Premium Plus (fare classes O, A, R) before processing requests for customers ticketed in economy.
On aircraft with United Premium Plus, we’ll first process United Polaris business class or United Business waitlists for all members who have purchased United Premium Plus seats, using the same priority order that applies to all upgrades. We’ll then process waitlists for members with United Economy seats.
Any insights? Would calling in help, or am I out of luck here?
Oct 14, 2019, 12:11 pm
#223
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,393
All four folks above me show as having cleared the UG into P+, though I also (weirdly) show as having cleared that UG. However, when I bought the flight two weeks ago, inventory was O1, and there doesn't appear to have been much, if any, O opening up since then, leading me to believe that I should be the only one (or maybe two or three) on O/A/R fares sitting in P+.
Oct 14, 2019, 12:14 pm
#224
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: CT/NY
Programs: UA 1K/1MM, AA EXP, Marriott LT Titanium, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Plat Amb
Posts: 6,013
On my disaster of a seventeen hour delayed flight yesterday, I tried to upgrade from pp to j so my nine year old could sleep since we’d spent the evening in the airport and he had school in the morning. I was told, in a not so nice manner, that the RN ticketed fare I’d bought was not upgradeable. I asked why that was since I had been offered an upgrade several weeks ago and the customer service agent snapped “then you should have taken it then”. I tried asking several different people why the rn fare was not upgradeable and got numerous answers ranging from “ I don’t know anything about fare buckets” from the ga to “this is a basic economy fare” from customer service. I even tweeted customer service and got “your flight is delayed here’s a hundred dollars”
the flight went out with about 80 people in a 787, half of those in j. My son and I were the only customers in pp and there were two business class seats empty. I am so angry I will never fly ua again despite my vouchers.
the flight went out with about 80 people in a 787, half of those in j. My son and I were the only customers in pp and there were two business class seats empty. I am so angry I will never fly ua again despite my vouchers.
Oct 14, 2019, 12:21 pm
#225
Join Date: May 2007
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 5,447
Twitter agent has now added the following:
However, the passengers who were upgraded are now ticketed in Premium Plus, as well, and have a higher status.