Upgrade waitlist question
 

I typically fly Delta but I applied for and was granted a status match from United giving me Premier Platinum status. I am still learning the rules and quirks of United's rules and I have a question about an upgrade I am trying to do on an upcoming fright.

My wife and I are are flying LIS-EWR-MSP in Economy Plus, and were offered an upgrade to Polaris Business for a couple of hundred dollars. We took the offer and were wait listed for the upgrade. I now received an email telling me we have been upgraded on the domestic leg, EWR-MSP, but are still wait listed for LIS-EWR. I don't really care about the domestic upgrade and I mistakenly thought the upgrade would be "all or nothing" (an upgrade on both legs or none at all). If the LIS-EWR upgrade doesn't happen I don't want to pay for the domestic upgrade so I called the United help line to see what my options are.

I ended up calling a couple of times because the agents seemed a little unsure about how to go about getting a refund if the LIS-EWR upgrade doesn't go though. It seems that if the TATL upgrade doesn't happen I will still be charged for the domestic upgrade on a prorated basis, with a partial refund. One agent implied I could get mileage credits as some type of refund. Another agent said that if I don't get the TATL upgrade, I could call United within the pre-flight 24 hour window and there's a possibility I "may get a complete refund". (Of course then it would depend on Economy Plus seat availability for us to be "downgraded" back to our original status.) The inability to get a cash refund apparently has something to do with the upgrade I purchased being considered a "mileage upgrade" or a conversion to mileage credits (sorry but I am still learning United terminology) rather than a pure cash-for-upgrade situation even though I paid for the upgrade with credit card. The charge on my credit card shows up as a "Mileageplus Business First Upgrade Fee".

Has anyone else had an experience with this - getting an upgrade on only one leg of an itinerary and not being able to get a cash refund if you don't get the whole upgrade? Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer.

So - a few things are confusing:

When you said "offered a few hundred dollars for upgrade", United does not have a cash-only upgrade waitlist program. It's either buy-up to the next cabin and confirmed, or use miles + copy for upgrade (most likely onto the waitlist).

Also, on buy-up on a connecting itinerary, in general it's done on a segment-by-segment basis, not the entire itinerary.

Review your upgrade purchase receipt and it will show you which exact segment you purchased your upgrade.

I’m pretty sure you’re confused as to what you bought. A “couple of hundreds” dollars is definitely NOT a typical Polaris buy-up or upfare from economy. It sounds like you bought into F for the EWR-MSP leg only. If you look at your reservation, does it say “Waitlist” on the LIS-EWR leg? If not, you didn’t pay for what you think you paid for. UA offers (online/app) the “upgrade cabin” option and prices on a leg by leg basis and you need to select both legs to get the price (and upgrade availability - confirmed or waitlist) for both legs - sounds like you didn’t.

I’ve definitely seen (for example) “Upgrade this itinerary for as low as $79”. That price is definitely not for the whole itinerary - it’s the price for one leg of it. For me, it’s the SFO-LAS portion of a HNL-SFO-LAS itinerary. The HNL-SFO part would be $600 more or whatever.

I’m still confused when I read your post - did you use miles in addition to the upgrade fee? If so, the “couple of hundreds” is the associated fee with a mileage upgrade redemption request.

If this was a mileage plus copay ($$) offer and your TATL Polaris segment waitlist fails (and keep the domestic upgrade), you will get a full refund

If this was a cash only offer, each segment is handled separate -- you don't cash upgrade the entire itin, just individual segments. If the cash upgrade was for the domestic, you will not show waitlisted for the TATL

Need more clarity as what was request before providing more guidance.

We are definitely wait listed on the LIS-EWR leg. The confirmation email I received states the upgrade request is for LIS-MSP, the entire itinerary. My fault for not saving the original offer to be able to say what the actual terminology was. And I did not use miles for the upgrade, only cash, but when I spoke with one of the United reps they implied that somehow my purchase was for some type of miles or miles credit. Sorry I'm not better versed in the United terminology, but I'm on a steep learning curve here.
Here's a copy of the email confirming the upgrade on the one leg (which seems to imply the request was for the entire itinerary) :

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...646474dc33.png

Not really definitive. Can you do a screen shot of from your reservation page that shows the LIS-EWR segment? If you have an upgrade requested, it will show "Waitlist" with that specific segment. Should sort of look like this:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b0f4e5cd59.jpg

I'm not sure what a MileagePlus copy offer means, but it was definitely paid in cash, no miles, and even after the domestic upgrade was confirmed we still show as waitlisted for the TATL segment, which may fall under the scenario you describe first. Again, my fault for not saving the original offer so I could quote the correct terminology, but the best of my recollection was that the offer was for the entire itinerary, not each separate segment.

I have to do several more flights to qualify for true Platinum status, so maybe I'll understand United terminology better by then!

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this question.

"copy" is typo - "Co-pay" is a fee associated with a mileage redemption. Can you post a screenshot of your reservation page showing the specific LIS-EWR segment? Something's not adding up here.

Here it is:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d05609a431.png

What do you see when you click the circled ? on the LIS-EWR flight? It should have info on the upgrade instrument used for upgrade waitlisting.

Looks like you got what you paid for. Don't get too excited about upgrade chances and be pleasantly surprised if it comes through. A T fare is almost the bottom fare bucket, which is one of the criteria for upgrade priority.

Could the waitlist be for PremiumPlus and not Polaris? Just asking - I don't know.

It says: "Your upgrade to United Polaris business has been requested using a MileagePlus Upgrade award."

Sorry for the "copay" type
meaning a miles plus cash

Do you have UA miles? If so did they decrease?

Was the cash amount $550 each? The is the standard copay for T fare upgrade from europe --- plus 20,000 miles -withdrawal can be slow

miles+copay upgrade will be refunded if the Polaris segment does not clear and the domestic segment remain in F

PremPlus from economy is miles only no copay

That confirms a Mileage plus Copay upgrade --- sometimes called MUA

You have provided all info for other to guess your upgrade situation. I have never seen this before. A system glitch might be the best guess. Someone else will chip in.

The upgrade request was definitely for Polaris, not PremiumPlus. I will definitely be pleasantly surprised if this comes through. The only upgrade offers I've ever gotten from Delta for international flights have cost only slightly less than the difference between the fare classes, and never an offer for an upgrade to Delta One, the Polaris equivalent.

WineCountryUA you seem to have nailed it since that was the cash amount, but there were no miles deducted from my account. It's been 2 weeks and nothing was taken out - but as you say, the process may be slow, so I'll have to watch.

Thanks for the insight. I learned more on Flyertalk than I did from the United telephone agents.