Looks this is a no but curious on experiences getting PP refunded if I applied an upgrade, cleared, and then changed the flight voluntarily. UA gave option to change flight since it was going to be full and wouldn't have cleared second leg; moved to different origin and cleared normal CPU since upgrade was not applied. Any chance I'll get the upgrade refunded?

Per policy, yes, but it may be a struggle if it doesn't come back automatically, because an agent may see that you got upgraded and not look closely enough to see that it wasn't an instrument-supported upgrade,

Did you actually have +P deducted?

The request doesn't transfer automatically, so it shouldn't have applied any points to the new flight. If your profile still says '20 requested', that should go away within a few days.

edit: misread the timeline. I think jsloan's answer is correct.

Question: I will be flying IAH-EWR-MBJ on a paid "L" fare (three persons). The EWR-MBJ segment had upgrade space available so I used 60 PlusPoints to upgrade all three of us. However, the system said I had to use additional 60 PlusPoints to upgrade the IAH-EWR segment (and only the waitlist is available). Am I wrong that I should be put on the waitlist for "free" on the IAH-EWR segment because I already redeemed PlusPoints for the EWR-MBJ segment? Thanks so much.

An observation and a question:

The web display isn't always the most clear in the one-works-one-waited scenario essentially showing the price for individual legs but telling you only the highest of all legs cleared will be deducted. There's a possibility this is what you are/were seeing

My question is is EWR a true connection/stop (<4 hours domestic, <24 hours most international) or are you stopping over at EWR (>=4 hours domestic >=24 hours most INTL...unless you're departing on the first available flight after arriving) -- if it is a stopover I believe that does trigger the requirement for additional PP

Thanks. I am not sure if it is a stopover or not. I bought it as a single ticket but the layover in EWR is an overnight (about 11 hours). Is this the issue?

The computer is seeing it as a stopover which is why they want to charge you additional PlusPoints for IAH-EWR. However, *if* EWR-MBJ is the first flight available after you take your IAH-EWR leg then it's not technically a stopover because you are taking the first international flight out after you arrive in EWR, regardless of the fact that it forces you to overnight there. That's the easy part.

The problem is PlusPoints are not able to be cancelled once your upgrade clears. So unless you were to cancel your tickets and then rebook them and then hope that EWR-MBJ still has PlusPoint upgrade space available you're in a quandary. A phone agent may be willing to help you but if they go by the book then you aren't likely to get what you want.

Call United and ask them to put you on the waitlist for IAH-EWR explaining that you do not expect any additional PlusPoints to be used for those upgrades since you are not technically stopping over. (Assuming, again, it's the first flight out of EWR after your connection). If that fails then you could always cancel your reservation for free and apply the value to a new itinerary (hopefully it's the same price as what you already booked at, or lower) and re-apply the PlusPoints via phone explaining to the agent you want it applied to both segments for all travelers. They should be able to manually do this, I think. Of course when you cancel EWR-MBJ the upgrade seats you hold now are not guaranteed to go back into the upgrade inventory.

Let us know how the calls go.

-RM

OK, I called 1K Desk and they manually added me to the upgrade list on the IAH-EWR segment. No need to cancel and rebook. Apparently, the system was looking at the EWR layover as a stopover but the agent manually overrode this. Thanks for the advice.

MBJ = Montego Bay, Jamaica

Does anybody know if pluspoints can be applied within 24 hours of a flight? I know you couldn't do this with RPU's/GPU's in the old days but didn't know if the rules have changed.

For example, if I'm flying XXX-YYY with an upgrade request pending but looking very unlikely, can I same day change to XXX-ZZZ-YYY within 24 hours, and have the upgrade request carry forward (or apply a new request) to hopefully clear the segment ZZZ-YYY?

I believe you can. I used PP to upgrade myself and a companion the night before a flight and we were confirmed. Turns out I didn't need to use them...but we did get to sit next to each other and we were not subjected to someone else's will to move.

An easy way to figure this out would be to make a dummy booking for tomorrow and attempt to apply PP. Then cancel.

Yes, UA changed this a couple years ago

what's the right way to do this? If I same day change the reservation will the plus points request automatically follow? or do I need to cancel the request, and re-apply it after I change to the new flights?

No
You will have to re-request after the SDC

Thank you!