Sort of. You can’t merely redeposit the PPs; however, if you cancel the underlying reservation, the PlusPoints will be refunded automatically unless you used Skip the Waitlist. Since StW is not available on flights to Europe, it isn’t a concern for OP. The intent is to prevent somebody from using the old RPU strategy of applying it in advance, letting it clear, and then removing it prior to departure if CPU odds look good.

Is it possible to have different people request an upgrade for the outbound vs. return? For example, I get Friend 1 to sponsor the upgrade for the outbound flight and then Friend 2 to sponsor the upgrade for the return bound?

Yes, no problem.

All I would have to do is cancel the ORD EWR FRA reservation, right? And (theoretically) the plus points automatically then come back to me, right?

(On paper), I shouldn’t need to call in, as this is a seemingly simple transaction, yes?

Then I’d used that future flight credit to purchase ORD BRU and if still PZ available then apply Plus Points then.

seem right?

This is very helpful to understand reasoning. Thank you.

Question though. My post from a week or so ago in this thread (just a few up from here) where I “messed up” booking EWR FRA and ORD EWR on separate PNRs seemed to have skip the waitlist available from EWR FRA.

Was that not the case? I swear that’s what got me excited/caused me to “mess up” and pull the trigger so quickly without thinking everything through.

If skip the waitlist isn’t available US EU just curious what I thought I saw 😊

you saw positive upgrade space (e.g. PZ). Skip the wait list is submitting additional PlusPoints even when PZ = 0

Yes.

Correct, although, like I said, sometimes it fails and manual intervention is necessary to restore your points.

Yes.

If you'd selected Skip the Waitlist, you'd know it. It's something like 110 PlusPoints per passenger instead of 40/80, and it's only available when there is no PZ space. If there is PZ space, there's no(t supposed to be a) waitlist, so there's nothing to skip. Apart from a very brief experiment in Summer 2021, it's only ever been available for routes to southern South America.

Thank you all! You guys are the best :)

Just wanted to report back and say that I was able to change things up big time in my favor :)

For wife and I, had booked ORD EWR FRA T class fare with 160 PP for upgrade to Polaris THEN booked full fare LH J FRA LHR.

Rebooked ORD EWR LHR Q class (overall net cheaper than destination FRA), used 80 PP for upgrade to Polaris, and refunded LH leg.

Will keep tabs on PZ for ORD LHR, but hey...big win for me as is. Thanks all for this great learning opportunity!

One final question. Because I was able to confirm upgrade with PP for EWR LHR, is there any reason for me to NOT use PP to put in for upgrade for ORD EWR? I could care less about upgrade for that leg but doesn't the system only deduct the "most expense" (in Plus Points) leg?

You will need extra PlusPoints because you didn’t list for both legs at once.

DOH. Good learning experience all around then. Think if I call in within 24 hour window they would manually add it or not worth the hassle/chance something else gets messed up? If so, is there specific buzz word to use or just explain the whole situation?

If your fare still exists, and there is still PZ space on the long-haul, searched separately, then you can cancel your existing trip, book the new one, and apply PlusPoints all the way through. Otherwise, any change risks gong back onto the waitlist.

Thanks Sloan!

I couldn't find this in the search. Has anyone else not had their PPs deducted even after an upgrade cleared? This happened to me last month as well as once back in the days of RPUs.

It has happened to me once. I’ve also had PP points deducted when I was “upgraded” to the bulkhead row; they then moved me back. I called and they reinstated the points.

I did think I was getting away with the crime of the century, when I had one GPU taken for SFO-SIN-LAX. An agent explained to me, which made sense at the time, but I can’t recall what she said. 😞