Rookie question, and not sure if this is right forum...but here goes..... I applied points for all in my party to be waitlisted for a short haul (domestic) upgrade. Will this only go through if all four of us are upgraded, or might one or two in the party get upgraded and split us up? I'd only want the upgrade if all of us were bumped up- otherwise I'd like to stay together in the back. thx

It's all-or-none until you check in. At that point, if the upgrade is still applied, your PNR will be split four ways and you will each be on your own.

If you don't want that to happen you need to call and remove the upgrade well in advance of check in (I would recommend a day, just to be safe).

Above, findark has described the general answer.

An additional nuance is that you may wish to delay your check-in as late as possible, in the corner case that F has around six seats remaining free and you all are at the top of the list, because there can sometimes be last minute cancellations or changes that will prompt your upgrade to clear.

But you should still call, rather than ask an airport agent, to get the upgrade request removed if you have not cleared, so you should also factor in time to do that.

Unnecessary. You can self-remove online (not on the app) today. Simple click of a button.

Thanks all!

Where does it show the button? I poked around on the reservation summary page and the PlusPoints activity tab, but I can't find it for any of my waitlisted requests. [edit add: Maybe that is because they have partially cleared already.]

Out of curiosity, does it work for MUA also?

You cannot cancel PlusPoints awards that have cleared, except by changing the underlying reservation.

Just booked an award reso for christmas for myself and a non-status passenger. Was able to apply +P as a GS (online!). Cleared this morning and was notified by email. Even assigned seats together. ^

Would it show in the recent activity PlusPoints tab if they had not cleared?

oops accidental post

Ended up having to call to get the system to fix the return leg where we were already upgraded to Premium Plus and that worked because we were able to upgrade to Polaris for the return leg! The problem ended up being the outbound leg. After the upgrade to Polaris, I only had 40 points left so I just wanted to be put on the upgrade wait list for the domestic leg and Premium Plus for the international leg for both myself and my wife, that turned out to be impossible.

During 3 hours on the phone with customer service I was told by 3 different agents that I didn't have enough points because it required 20 per segment and a total of 40 per person which was incorrect. Eventually I gave up and told them just to put us on the waitlist for the international segment and that worked for my wife but it would never show me waitlisted for the flight. Finally a supervisor told me that it was a website mistake and that they showed me on the waitlist on their side, and I finally accepted that because it wasn't worth spending more time, but of course when I get to the airport and check with the GA, I'm not on the upgrade list at all.

And then to top it off, the flight status showed that the flight went out with only 20/21 in Premium Plus with my wife #1 on the upgrade list, but interestingly all the seats on the flight were occupied. :rolleyes:

It is always tougher to get multiple upgrades for companions on the same PNR. In many cases (on the same PNR) as a 1K, my companion and I appeared apart on the upgrade list (one or multiple people between myself and my companion on the list).

My recommendation if you are happy splitting up between cabins is to immediately split the reservation into individual PNRs for each traveler.

Waiting until check-in could cost you an upgrade seat, especially if PZ is available and someone else in a lower fare class decides to apply an upgrade instrument (MUA or someone else's certificate) and confirm that inventory immediately since it is showing.

That's my thought on this, and typically when I fly with my Mrs., we always book into separate records for this reason.

Hope this helps.

Question: I have an itinerary LAX – EWR and EWR-ZRH End of January 2020. I just upgraded both flights but only requested upgrades straight into business on the domestic portion, and then into Polaris On the over the water portion. I did not make the selections for premium plus. Is that a good strategy? Or is it better to try to get into premium plus and then make your way into business? Both aircraft have premium plus seating and new Polaris cabins.

Bear in mind I’m upgrading from K Economy using 80+ points.

Thanks in advance, and happy holidays!

Ignoring that everything seems broken at the moment, listing for PE should have no effect on your chances of getting into J. The only question is whether you would like to sit in PE if that's the only upgrade that were available.

I would do it, partly because Y is horrible and partly because if EWR-ZRH clears you're spending 40 points anyway.

While there is no clear definitive statement from UA, there have not been any suggestions if also selecting PP that changes your Polaris chances.
However, would you prefer a chance at PP or just stay in E+ if the Polaris upgrade fails to appear?