Definitely to get the upgrade, so will do that. When I do that, will she get put on the upgrade list under my 1K status as well?

Yes, she should. Same priority as you (and may even appear on the standby list ahead of you).

I'm flying Monday to HKG from EWR with a GM member on one res with 2 GPU's. Showing J9 this morning and now down to J7. The way back is J9 with half the seat map showing available. Do I split us now? Does he lose his IK status on the waitlist even though he's using my GPU?

Wait. Only split if you see R1.

So slightly weird experience and not sure if it adds or subtracts from the assumed knowledge.

1K and GM member, IAD-SFO-HKG, 2x GPU applied. Checked In at T-24 IAD flight. Auto-split PNR. 1K member listed first, GM immediately next on SFO-HKG upgrade waitlist. GM maintains BG1, E+, and TSA Pre. We bounce between #1 &2 and #4&5 on waitlist for 33 hours (always right next to each other) before finally getting one battlefield upgrade. Told the GA at T-90 min we would take 1 upgrade rather than sit together.

HKG-SFO-IAD return flight now with a split PNR. 2x GPU applied. 1K Checked In at T-24 and appeared #1 on waitlist. GM checked in at T23:59 and jumped to #1 on waitlist, bumping 1K to #2 . GM maintains BG1 and E+ but loses TSA Pre. At T-5, someone gets between us on the waitlist so it now goes: 1. GM (w/1K GPU) 2. Unknown. 3. 1K companion of #1 GM with GPU. 4-28. Unknown combination of GPU, MUA, NRSA. Told the GA we would take one upgrade rather than stay together. Of course, #1 and #2 battlefield clear. On the SFO-IAD leg, GM remains immediately ahead of 1K the entire time.

When speaking with 1K desk, they said that system would clear actual 1K members before non-1Ks traveling on 1K instruments. That makes sense except the non-1K traveling on the 1K instrument cleared first.

Not sure what to make of it all except to only book R=> # of seats you need.

I've been checking for the past week every hour on the hour. Could've snagged 2 R's on the EWR-NRT this morning but he talked me out of spending the extra $1,500 for the change fee and difference in fare. Now I wish I didn't ask!

It seems safe to say given a number of similar reports that the system is buggy in this setting, and that we may not be able to explain prioritization of pax once PNR has been split.

"Clearing actual 1Ks before companions" is definitely false, as you experienced.

I think what's a buggy black box is the actual tiebreak. Your companion should have your status and fare class for the list, and I would bet that #2 was a 1K on the same fare class.

There is no independent variable that I can think of to explain tiebreak priority; I split a similar 1K+GM with GPU PNR and checked in for two segments GUM-TKK-PNI and we were 1&2 on the first and 2&1 on the second. All things I could think of - relative sequence numbers and ticket numbers, pax names, etc. were identical for the two segments.

To make things even more confusing, I cleared TKK-PNI off the invisible list (jumping my companion) and got a form email that looked like a CPU.

I have a reservation of 4: 1 1K and 3 GMs. I'd like to split off the 1K and apply an RPU. However, there is also an outside chance that we will want to do a SDC. By splitting off the 1K, will we lose the free SDC for all; or will a phone agent see that the itinerary was split and be able to waive the fee for everyone?

I have seen posts discussing other perks that a phone agent can carry over, but I'm not sure if anyone has experience with SDC in particular. TIA.

Yes, an agent can see the PNR history and will honor free SDC for your companions.

Sounds like we're now playing blackjack and unfortunately UA is the house...

David

Interestingly, I asked a phone agent today, and she said the opposite--i.e., that UA will NOT honor the free SDC after the split. Sounds like it's going to be a gamble.

I split a PNR at check-in (which is admittedly different in a few subtle ways) and had no trouble getting both PNRs subsequently SDCed. The agent had to process it as two separate SDCs (and managed to drop all my flown segments in the process so I had to get them manually credited..), but was able to do it all on one call to the 1K desk.

The agent can certainly tell that you all used to be on one PNR; perhaps a HUCA situation for an advance split?

I split the reservation because it looked like only one upgrade would clear. After the split the reservation for the companion does not show it is eligible for upgrade and now shows a fee for the companion's checked bag.

It has been 3 years since I split a reservation, and I believe back then after a split it showed the companion was still eligible for upgrade and entitled to the free checked bag.

Is this a new policy that United did not fully disclose and explain?

Once you lose the auto upgrade the seat may go to a person with a lower status.