Have economy tickets booked EWR-PMI for the fall. The plane was upgraded to high J with Premium Plus in line with United's 767 refurbishments. However, I'm unable to waitlist Plus Point (nor miles) upgrade to Premium Plus, only Polaris. I'm able to upgrade with cash. Is this a situation where I should call in, or that it will eventually open up, or just never work?

Call in is the best solution.
Did you request for Polaris already before trying to request for Premium Plus due to aircraft change? If so, you will have to call United to add Premium Plus upgrade request.
Good luck.

Cleared PP upgrade on an United domestic flight. However, I had to change to a different flight.

I didn't think I would be getting the 20PP back for the voluntary change, however, the website displayed refund of PP after the change. Unfortunately, the website was buggy, and I couldn't complete the transaction, so had to call in.

What is the current protocol?

Yes, you get the +P back if you change the flight. The only reasons you wouldn't get them back were if you changed into PZ (requires agent, as far as I know), or if you used skip waitlist (although some reports of people getting them back anyway then).

Just to close this out.

Online actually ended up being the best route though only because LHR - IAD - RDU opened up with PZ for the 440pm flight on the same day. The agents were never able to figure out how to keep PZ on my original booking without charging me an arm and a leg (because pricing kept trying to re-price the LHR - RDU leg into either O/A or Y/B instead of keeping it in M).

I ended up doing a change flight forcing it into A for the RDU - BUD flight and then U for the return LHR - IAD - RDU. It came back as an even exchange (as I expected), processed the upgrade refund, and then re-issued the ticket.

I then just reapplied for the upgrade on LHR - RDU and it cleared all the way through and now I'll just keep an eye on the earlier flights opening back to up to either make a full change or do a SDC on LHR - RDU (by that point in the ticket it will be just UA flights left so might be doable).

Morale of the story it was a mess and they weren't able to preserve the original PZ but thankfully PZ opened up on a different flight on the same day so I was able to just process the whole thing myself and will just monitor in case I can get back onto the early morning LHR - IAD/EWR - RDU flight

Glad it worked out for you in the end. I just had a similar issue and spoke to a seasoned agent. She said that anytime there is a change to the outbound segment things get messy and it may be impossible to keep the fare (even if the inventory is there) or upgrades on the return. The opposite is much easier for them, e.g. changing the return without changing the outbound. FWIW.

Weird one yesterday. Sponsored non status wife and gold sister in law on separate PNRs on the same flight using my GS PP. Sister in law ticketed in YN. Wife in W. Sister in law not surprisingly number 1 in list from two days iut until sometime well after check in when they flipped and my wife went to number 1 and she dropped to number 2. Why would it switch like that?

No one cleared of course.

When dealing with an out of sync upgrade request (and subsequently dying on the list at #1) an agent remarked having a United branded credit card is a minor tie break for PP list ranking, wondering if anyone else had heard that same fact.

Yes, #5. It's not just "a united branded" though (unless yoiu're putting 25k in spend on it). It is the club infinite card
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bf71a44e56.png

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...-priority.html

I have 300 Plus Points that will expire in January of 24. I am 1K this year, but maybe at best will only be Platinum next year. We are planning on flying from IAH to HNL in February of 24. Do you think there is any chance that United will extent the use of those Plus Point to Feb of 24?

Virtually none -- but if it makes you feel any better, your chances of clearing IAH to HNL in February as a Plat are near zero anyway. :(

If you qualify for 2024 Plat, you'll get some PPs for that trip, but you'll be waitlisted at 1K only until January 31st, then at Plat after January 31. Your chances of clearing are about zero, regardless of extended PPs or newly-earned PPs, especially since UA isn't likely to clear upgrades for a February 24 flight until after your 1K status expires.

As for extensions, pre-pandemic, some upgrade certificates were extended as long as you attained the same status in the next year. During the pandemic, UA was extending PPs. All that's gone away - UA thinks flying habits are in the new normal..

Your options beyond the expiring PPs are using newly-earned PPs, using miles to request upgrade (same instrument weight as PPs), redeeming miles for F, or just buying F. Latter two are guaranteed. Former two are far more likely to leave you in coach than in F.

Yeah that's kinda what I figured. Last time I just used awards on E and I was able to pay I think $450ish per seat day of check in to upgrade to Business Class (this was early 2020 and the IAH to HNL flight has three seating classes). Now it looks like there is just E and First. No idea if I would be able to pay cash day of for an upgrade or what the actual cost would be. We are a total of four traveling so the cash cost of just booking F or the award cost of F is astronomical compared to E+. Its only 200k total miles for all four of us to sit E+ (or $4000 cash) and ultimately I would be fine for the savings just sitting E+ and hopefully be able to pay a reasonable cost day of for an upgrade.

During Covid recovery period, UA had a lot of Polaris a/c sitting around due to int'l travel restrictions and low demand, so they were using them out of DEN, ORD, and IAH instead of the previously utilized 777HDs. With int'l travel recovering (and therefore the need for the Polaris-equipped a/c), UA's restored the 777HDs to the mid-continent-HI routes, resulting in no PremPlus seats and significantly fewer F seats. That's part of the reason upgrades are going to be difficult going forward. The potential for buy-ups will be reduced and the cost of them will likely be much higher due to the reduction in available seats.

What's funny about that Hawaii trip was that it was Feb of 2020, so basically one month from the world being flipped upside down. At the time of the trip it was just internet rumors of some weird virus in China.