If it's under 24 hours on an international itinerary it's not a stopover, it's a connection, so it doesn't matter what the fare rules say about stopovers.

UA phone agents have always been hit or miss, with so many of the decent ones now gone, it's mostly miss these days.

Back in the pmUA time, the max break for GPU usages was 12 hours, not 24 lhours and reportedly the break for Mileage Upgrades was > 24 hours. There has been little published info from UA on this -- pre or post merger

What the agent said is wrong. For fare construction any stop on an international itinerary less than 24 hours is considered a connection and not a stopover. Domestic connections are limited to 4 hours. I have run into this several times this year and really don't recall this being an issue before. Chalk it up to poor training. Ask to speak to a supervisor. I don't complain to United about the normal bumps in the road but you are making me think maybe this time I should. I have wasted too much time explaining this to agents this year. My question was not even about upgrades, it was about test report date which had to be taken x hours before the start of all travel. The agent was telling me that because I had a connection over 4 hours it was really not a connection and I had to start the countdown clock from the next flight.

Fo now, it is still published on united.com:

PlusPoints

• Each PlusPoints upgrade is valid for a single one-way upgrade into a premium seat.
• PlusPoints are earned based on flights taken between January 1 and December 31 of the same calendar year.
• Members must fly at least four flights on United or United Express during a calendar year in order to be eligible to earn PlusPoints.
• PlusPoints will be deposited at the time when they are earned, and will be valid for travel through the end of the following program year. For example, PlusPoints earned in June 2020 will be valid for PlusPoints upgrades for travel through January 2022.
• PlusPoints in certain types of sales accounts may have different expiration policies.
• PlusPoints may be redeemed at united.com, through the United mobile app, or by calling the United Customer Contact Center.
• PlusPoints are valid on United- and United Express- operated flights.
• Stopovers require additional PlusPoints. A stopover for a single, one-way trip within the U.S. or between the U.S. and Canada is defined as longer than 4 hours in the connecting city. A stopover for a single, one-way trip to or from all other destinations is defined as longer than 24 hours in the connecting city.

Let's hope this is just confusion on the part of new agents.

We're seeing this in all sorts of situations unfortunately, UA agents totally unfamiliar with the rules, and applying instead an uninformed culture of "no." UA is the Marriott of airlines.

I think the main issue here is that the system is recognizing a 4-24hr layover as a stopover and asking for separate +Ps.

The supervisor probably got confused as earlier frontline agents added that "ATTN" line onto the PNR so when she looked up the international stopover definition, she was trying to use the "different fare rules allow free stopovers" to justify it, which is obviously incorrect. But the system is wrong in the first place....

Of course, the correct course of action would've been recognizing a 7 hour layover is not a stopover and manually adding me to the upgrade list on the original flight

I am planning a one-way trip from NRT to TLV via EWR,
the flight will be NRT - EWR - TLV (6 hrs connection at EWR).

Will it cost 40 plus points or 80 plus points to upgrade NRT - EWR - TLV ?
Normally it cost 40 plus points for 1-way POLARIS BUSINESS upgrade, but since both are international
segments, just wondering whether UA will charge 80 pts (instead of 40 pts).

To me the system seems not deterministic, or alternatively very complex. This year, I have had a 4.5 hour layover break the +P request, and a 7.5 hour layover carry the +P request. Obviously underlying this is what the system thinks is a connection and what it thinks is a stopover, but at least per the fare construction both cases were layovers/connections, not stopovers.

Overall my more typical experience going back to GPU days is for >4 hours to break the upgrade request, so other behaviour is surprising to me. But yes, the way the policy is written, upgrade requests should only be split by stopovers.

actually it could've been a date change issue since the first leg departs and 9pm and arrives 12:30am and the second leg departs 8am.

otherwise, whoever wrote the non-deterministic program should be fired lol

For me both break / no-break were same date. Sometimes I marvel at the randomness UA have created with their implementation of their own rules.

Exactly. it's definitely way harder to write a non-deterministic program unless they add in a random generator :D But I have to give UA credit for having better digital capabilities than most airlines

40 pts if the connection at EWR is less than 24 hours and the fares are W or higher.
As a one-way fare, this may be a high fare class and a mileage upgrade may be reasonable.

Want to double check that the system is right.
Planning a Manila to Guam to Honolulu to Denver flight in K class and using pluspoints the system is allowing me to select Manila to Guam for 20 and guam to Honolulu for 20 (immediate clear into PremPlus and waitlist business) and Honolulu to Denver for 20. When I click all 3, the total charge is 20 total due now (because of the PremPlus availability). One ticket 2 hour connections in Guam and Honolulu. If all clears, it’s just a total of 20 points, right? Seems like a good deal on a cheap K fare.

Yes, it appears to be a total of 20 PlusPoints to upgrade that itinerary, whether GUM-HNL in PE or business. (!). I’m surprised, because GUM-HNL used to require a GPU, not an RPU, but GUM-HNL is pretty clearly spelled out as “short-haul” in the rules.

I recently booked a trip from NAS-IAH-LAX for two in Y. Saw that there was PZ space for NAS-IAH so I applied PP and let the IAH-LAX segment get waitlisted(not expecting it to clear).

UA cancelled the NAS-IAH segment and changed us to a NAS-ORD-LAX routing with NAS-ORD still in PZ. I do not like connecting in ORD and it was on a 753 for the LAX segment. Booked the ticket through AmEx so my attempts to change the routing back to an earlier flight to IAH or DEN failed and I had to call AmEx. Finally got the booking switched to NAS-DEN-LAX but there was no PZ space available. I just paid for the upgrade on the NAS-DEN segment and am not too worried about sitting in E+ for DEN-LAX.

I noticed that my PP are still showing as deducted and not available. Changed the routing earlier this week. Will those PPs show back up eventually or will I need to call in to have them redeposited? Any help here appreciated.