FlyingHoustonian

Yesterday at IAH term E about to board a 175 for DCA a GS rep came up introduced herself to me (and the other GS on the flight) and escorted us up to pre-board. Had a nice chat. First time that happened in a long while for me.

When I was flying PHL IAH and back twice a week for three years it was common place in PHL with the great GS staff there. Same at LHR, but since COVID this is only the second time at IAH; the other was last year. I also had the staff at SJT escort me to board last summer before UA sadly pulled all the regional flights. Otherwise nada.

uanj

I understand your point about "hooking them when they are young" but anyone having flown millions of miles should be shown good service. Regardless of their future net value they typically are decision makers, in positions of influence and can serve as invaluable brand promoters for UA. It would make no sense to reward people less for their brand loyalty as their patronage increases over the years.

I cannot recall a gate agent, club agent, or FA mention how many million miles I have flown with one notable exception but I recently got one from a phone agent. I made a follow-up call (HUACA) to the GS number and the agent read the notes from the previous agent which included flat out wrong statements about the fare construction. The first agent had put me on hold for 35 minutes to speak with her lead and came back saying I had used up the number of allowed stopovers because I needed to count each international connection as a stopover. Anyway the fare was constructed point to point without using any allowance for stopovers so I hung up and called back. The second agent apologized to me saying that as a someone well beyond qualifying for lifetime GS I deserved better service and accurate information.

The one exception for a FA mentioning the miles I have flown that I can recall is when I had passed 5 million miles some years back. A GS agent boarded the flight to give me a "card" congratulating me on my achievement which did not even include my name. Plus the card was half a card, like a post card, where they had applied a gold sticker saying "5 million million miles" stuck over what was normally printed for the number of miles flown. I appreciated the effort, but it looked cheap. A FA came up and also personally congratulated me on reaching one million miles. I said it is five million, actually. He said "Right, that's a good one! No one would ever fly United that much", laughed and went back to his duties. The service in flight was flawless.

Not sure what FAs and gate agents can see today but I personally do not fly United for recognition of how many miles I have flown. It would be one of their worst service aspects. I fly UA for the network and IROPS recovery when things go awry.

LIH

Agreed (I'm moving to AA/CK for 2023). My point was just that providing better service to GS with more or less BIS is at best misguided and at worst counterproductive.

But I certainly exemplify your point. I'm starting over again at AA basically from a lifetime mile perspective but it's for the sure the right call for me right now after 6 years as GS (and a MP track record that goes back to when I was 1 year old in 1987).

scott56

not sure where you are based out of but CK has been great so far. Unfortunately my experiences of GS is out of ewr for the most part and hasn’t been anything special. Im now based out of fll/mia

bakrgby

CK is so far superior to GS and this thread just shows that

johnsmith

Curious on what the upgrade priority should be. I needed to book me and a family member on 2 sep award tickets (one avail at 30k miles, one higher). This is US to Europe

Higher mileage ticket for the GS passenger showed up on the upgrade list as #1, lower mileage with no status showed up as #6. Flight is tomorrow (Saturday)

ive spent about 3 hrs on the phone with GS agents trying to get the two tickets linked so the lower ticket shows the same status (GS + 40 plus points) and moves to #2 on the list. GS agents attempted to call their ATO support and can’t figure out how to get it done. Ultimately, with EWR GS closed for the night, I got GS to call the Denver airport but Denver said they couldn’t do it bc the flight was originating from EWR.

any recs? Am I right to think both passengers should be linked and show next to each other on the upgrade list (like a GS companion would)?

WineCountryUA

What are you using to support the upgrades, GS Plus Points? And the miles came from the GS account?
On separate tickets, supported with GS PlusPoints, both will be the PN waitlist sort by their individual status. Any other GS on award ticket will be ranked higher than the companion. Any elite using GS miles and GS Plus Points will outrank your companion with no status
If there are no other GS support award tickets, then you could be adjacent
On separate PNRs there is no linkage, only if booked together on the same PNR
You are asking for something well outside the rules

Are you waitlisted for Polaris or PremPlus?

SPN Lifer

However, some of us are geographic captives, or have too much time and money invested in pursuit of UA lifetime status -- and not enough of either to start over with OA (other airline).

So we just have to "grin and bear it", learning to deal as best we can with the rules as they exist.

Knowledge is power. Thank you, FlyerTalkers!

🌴 🎶 ✈️ 💚

johnsmith

yes—all miles and plus points from the GS account.
i hear what you are saying about sep PNRs not pulling status across, but there are lots of examples where UA has the system set up to convey status benefits to the non-elite companion. For example, I book via my corp travel and then book a companion on miles. In that case, Ua documents the companion and upgrades them outside the traditional list.

anyway, just a corner case here. Good to know

WineCountryUA

Yes, there are few cases, E+ access is another. But the case you mentioned, the companion would still be below any GS or any elite on a paid fare but supported by a GS for upgrade. And would not always be adjacent to you on the waitlist.

Off-PNR benefits are not as good as being on the same PNR. This is not new and is key to you present situation.

Your companion, in this case, falls on the off-PNR process and not the common PNR process which would be adjacent to you on the waitlist.

ajhun9

Regarding force-clearing PlusPoints upgrades into Polaris inside of T-72, will they clear the GS plus a same PNR companion or just the GS? I understand at least 2 seats will need to be left available for sale afterwards. Thanks!

johnsmith

Alls well that ends well…with the EWR storms, a handful of people dropped off the upgrade list, my companion moved up to #1 and got a battlefield upgrade

WineCountryUA

congrats, sometime the bed lands butter side up
Also means no non-GS support upgrade was successful

kirkwoodj

Boarded families with kids under 2 first at MKE this morning

GQsuperman

Was listed as 1,2,3 on the polaris upgrade list in the app from Y fare for myself and my family with 2 seats open applying plus points on an international flight last week. GS phone agent day before confirmed were were 1-3. GS agent in DEN calls me on my phone at the gate (rather than the overhead?) while boarding- so i walk up to the desk and ask why she was calling. They upgraded the 2 people at 5,6 to the last 2 polaris seats. She said i wasnt eligible to upgrade from economy to polaris. I indicated that wasnt true and showed i had applied 40pts for each and that were were first on the list in the app. She then said the other passengers were O class and should be upgraded before me since they were in Premium plus…but they were 1k. So, either upgrade list was wrong, prior GS phone agent was wrong, or the gate agent was wrong? The pinned thread seems to indicate GS would be upgraded using plus points over a 1k OAR (upgrade list in app seemed to confirm this)