stevenshev

Domestic or international? If domestic, would drop the lap infant and just re-add at olci since that is likely the problem.

jay526

Good suggestion, but unfortunately this is an intl fare. I guess I'll just eat the upgrade cost and count my blessings that at least we get a slightly better situation with the kid.

Aussienarelle

No. Based on my flights in December 2023.

wanderingshi

Tried this today and like jay526 it didn't seem to work.

Interestingly enough, it worked on Jan 27th on a different flight when I did it.

Maybe they did patch it? Any other data points?

jay526

Giving an update to provide a data point. Following the call with an agent who said she could not get farther with the system to process the upgrade despite positive PZ space, I noticed that I was put on the upgrade list regardless - #1. An hour before scheduled departure, the upgrade was cleared by the gate agent. I saw that the passenger name was misspelled for some reason, so I wonder if the name misspelling was the actual cause behind this the system blocking it out? I'm not sure what happened in the background but at the end of the day I ended up getting the upgrade after all.

That said, I am curious to see more data points suggest that this quasi-loophole is closing.

wanderingshi

Fascinating and congrats. You think the agent on the phone was able to get you through? Or do you think the gate agent did something? I'm guessing you never checked the upgrade list until departure?

jay526

No, the phone agent didn't seem to know how to do this beyond "the system won't let me go any further" but it's clear that she somehow had managed to add the record and the passenger's misspelled name to the waitlist. I also saw PlusPoints get deducted after the call was done.

With all this being done T-72 hours prior to departure, I could see that I was added to the waitlist but was not expecting it to go through given what the phone agent had told me ("can't upgrade an award ticket"). But it's clear that the gate agent just went down the list and upgraded me, despite there being a name misspelling.

I could tell that there was a misspelling based on the PlusPoints deduction activity in my MP account history that listed the misspelled name, hence my suspicion that the error that the phone agent was seeing was because of the name mismatch.

wanderingshi

Was there much pushback from the agent? So it sounds like the phone agent said no/was reluctant but still did it anyway as probably an exception?

wanderingshi

Tried calling in, wouldn't budge, probably closed for good

jay526

Yes, there was pushback from the agent but I asked her to try to get it through which is when she got stuck (possibly because of the name misspelling she had).

boat stuck

Aww, it's unfortunate that this no longer works.

oaktreee

Just as another data point: Booked EWR-BER on points, cash upgraded to Premium Plus (fare class changed from XN to R), unable to apply Plus Points

I did this successfully in January for HND-IAD without issue in the app. This time, there is no option to use miles or Plus Points to upgrade, only cash. Agents also refuse to apply points, saying the base ticket is an award and therefore cannot be upgraded with Plus Points

As a side note, I used ETC to pay for the Premium Plus upgrade. Agents said I could only use cash to pay for the upgrade, as did the upgrade section in the app. I was eventually able to use the credit by going through the change seat option, which then allowed other payment options, including travel credits

EWR764

I can confirm this loophole closed some time in mid-February for non-GS PlusPoints.

The website logic will not allow an award ticket to upgrade using non-GS PP, and I believe a memo (with training module) went to res agents to address this issue.

Kmxu

Another loophole is closed. What is next? Unable to upgrade paid economy fare using Pluspoints after buying up to Premium Plus?

jsloan

Oh, pretty-please? One can only dream.

The fewer ways there are to cheat the waitlist, the better it is for everyone else.