adcer

Figured I'd add a 2020 data point. I bought an economy ticket (Q) through Concur, and then immediately used the United website to buy the upgrade (via the Reservations page "upgrade flight" link - not the pop-up directly after booking on .com, because I booked through Concur).

This generated a "Receipt for Ancillary Purchase with United" email for a "Premium Cabin Upgrade" and sent a second United eTicket itinerary that reflected that I was now booked in Z, and underneath the original eTicket number was "Premium Cabin Upgrade" with a second eTicket number.

The MP accrual information in the email updated to reflect PQP based on the total cost of the ticket, but the award miles remained the same.

In my MP Activity screen, when the flight posted, it showed the normal (economy) accruals for miles and PQP. Later a second entry, "Day of departure upgrade" was added that added the additional PQP, but no additional award miles.

This was super annoying, because I would've had an additional 12,000 award miles if it'd been booked in Z the whole time (but my job doesn't let me do that). It also is inconsistent with an experience I had last year, where buying up to P/Z resulted in award miles on the entire ticket amount. But... I don't recall in that circumstance if I called in to ask them to pay up to P/Z, or if I did it on the website. I'm betting I called. Accordingly, I'll call the next time I do this and hopefully it'll result in PQP *and* award miles being based on the upgrade.

Customer service, as you can imagine, has been useless:

• called the premier line, they said to use missing miles form, did so, it was instantly rejected b/c flight was already credited
• called the premier line, they said it's never been the policy to credit award miles based on full upgraded ticket cost; I pointed out they'd done this just last year on a ticket, they said to email mileageplus
• emailed mileageplus, they said the same thing, and when I said the bit about last year, they said to call premier line
• called premier line, they yammered on and on about status qualification no matter how many times I said that was irrelevant, they eventually said to email screenshots to mileageplus
• emailed screenshots to mileageplus, they went radio silent; will update when I heard back

edit 3/7: after sending screenshots, got a nice email apologizing for the confusion and awarding the missing miles. Next time I'll try upgrading by phone instead and see if it makes a difference up front.

SAPriorityTag

This was my understanding and has always been my experience. To push for something you're not entitled to by clear policy (but perhaps received as a one-time exception or error) screams DYKWIA and I believe you are pressing your luck here!

adcer

I don't really think calmly asking why this experience doesn't match that experience esp considering the UAInsider post in the wiki highlighting their awareness of inconsistent behavior that they're aiming to resolve is particularly over the top. (I also am not really staying awake at night worrying if a massive international corporation really, really loves me.)

WineCountryUA

In the past, unless you did a true upfare, there were no RDMs for "upgrade fees." The key issue is "upfare" vs "Upgrade fee." Note the fare class you end up in does not tell which was done and you need to look at the receipt for the term "add/collect" which is "upfare" vs terms like "Premium Cabin Upgrade - PCU" which are an "upgrade fee." Nowadays the standard offers are mostly "Upgrade fees", you need to specifically request and do an upfare if that is what is wanted.

findark

And note that these days the odds of upfaring (changing) an agency ticket with any manner of consistency on multiple trips are basically zero.

SAPriorityTag

I would agree - I don't think politely asking is beyond reason. However, I would caution you attracting unnecessary attention to your M+ account especially if the error deposit (from which you benefited) was recent. Speaking from personal experience I have no doubt UA would yank those miles back in a heartbeat. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

TXJeepGuy

Its been 2 weeks and still hasn't posted. I emailed United MP so hopefully it gets resolved.

adcer

Sorry to hear that. In my experience when they've made an error in my favor - even a large one - that they acknowledge was an error they won't repeat, they leave the original error untouched.

Happily here: got a nice note today apologizing for the confusion and awarding the miles, which I appreciated. Will edit post.

LinBros

Curious as to how PP and RDM calculations are affected by TOD UGs.

For example, for a 1K flight segment with PP =175 and RDM = 1,925 which is TOD Upgraded for 189 shouldn't PP = 175 + 189 = 364 and RDM = 4,004?

Also why doesn't UA reflect a changed eticket receipt when TOD UG has been applied?

sannmann

TODs don’t change the underlying fare; so, United has not increased the number of miles earned when purchasing them. United processes the TODs as an adjustment to PQP, added a day or two after the segment posts, to the MP account. Delta posts them the same way.

VRFast

I have personal knowledge of this happening 2 days after completion of flight. Completed flight last Saturday night, saw the credit on Monday (today), two days. Initially a G fare, TOD to P fare.

TXJeepGuy

Follow up on this- I got a response to the email with the PQP posted to my account within 48 hours.

TXJeepGuy

Just to confirm- upgrade cost on this was $179, so 1 point for each dollar spent?

With a last minute business trip I'm going to be 75 points shy of Gold this year.

Deciding if I should pay $174 for 100 PQP's on award accelerator or $69x2 for first class upgrades on that short flight.

mpw81

Correct. $179 upgrade ORD-DEN.

Last flight I took, ugh... that's depressing. Had to use the "forgot my password" function for probably the first time in my life.

TXJeepGuy

Thanks.
Just realized I need one more segment, so I'll be taking a flight to DFW and back instead to hit the requirement. Costs about the same.