Canceled the PP request, and called GS line to get an agent to apply the PP.

Her position moved from No. 18 to No. 3.

Since she is only a silver, I think No. 1 and 2 are GS sponsored pax Gold or higher.

But this is annoying for unsuspected GS people trying to upgrade a family member or a colleague.

This happened to me as well: GS sponsored upgrade is waitlisted for PZ instead of PN.

I did cancel the PP request, and called GS line to get an agent to apply the PP. The passenger's position on the WL moved up from No. 18 to No.3.

This could be the difference between upgrade clearance and failure.

It is just annoying for unsuspected GS people trying to upgrade a family member or a colleague. You have to baby sit on it and watch any unusual behavior of the upgrade list.

Yes, exactly. I wish I didn't have to bother my sister to call the GS desk to put the upgrade through properly.

Yes, this is a known but rare glitch, was the upgrade applied online or by a call??

Sorry - I’m pretty sure you’re confused on multiple points. If a 1K applies PPs to a Gold’s reservation, the Gold does not inherit 1K status. End of story. If a 1K applies PPs to a Gold waiting for a CPU, yes, that would be a bump in priority due to PPs being applied, not because a 1K applied them.

She did it either on the website or through the united app.

I'll hijack this thread to a describe a similar odd situation that I had last week.

I'm a GS (for 2 more weeks. sigh), and my wife is currently also a GS as my companion; our daughter is Silver. The three of us were flying together, ORD-MSP. Originally we were on the same PNR, but then I realized that this would cause both my wife and I to inherit our daughter's status for upgrade priority purposes. So, I called in and had me carved into a different PNR. I then applied expiring PPs to the other PNR, covering my wife and daughter. I did not apply PPs to my own PNR.

Based on this, my expectation was that my wife & daughter would be above me on the upgrade list. However, when the list became visible around T-72, I was at #1 while they were at #4 & 5.

I have trouble understanding how a GS with PPs applied can be behind a GS without PPs applied, when both tickets have the same fare class and purchase date.

1) either you applied PPs or they didn’t
2) 2 GS+1 silver would have you as GS level for all three of you for CPUs.

A quick update. My sister removed the plus points and reapplied them. It didn't help. Went right back to 13 on the waitlist in PZ. Seems the only way to fix this is to call the GS desk.

Scenario 1: Website glitch, United will fix and change it back to waitlist any traveller for PN when pluspoints/instrument comes from GS account.
Scenario 2: Intentional policy change, only GS travelers using GS instruments get a waitlist for PN, will eventually filter down to phone agents as well.

Website hasn't changed yet so scenario 1 is probably most likely. As someone that's unlikely to ever get GS, scenario 2 would be interesting.

https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/mil.../upgrades.html

It has happened to me and/or people I'm traveling with multiple times that GS PPs occasionally improperly waitlist for PZ rather than PN. And this is reflected in the waitlist order, at least at T-72. 80% of agents will tell you they can't do anything about this and that you need to remove and re-waitlist the PPs, but they CAN, they just don't know how. HUCA. Every time this happened I was able to eventually get an agent that knew how to do it.

One other exception to the rule that PPs waitlist by passenger status rather than PP source status is that if a GS is waitlisted with 1K PPs, the PPs will only be waitlisted for PZ, as if the pax had the lower 1K status. Also seen this happen multiple times, and in this case the passenger was told by every agent that this was the expected behavior, so it might be true. Any GS looking to e.g. give PPs to a 1K and get them back later should be aware of this.

But let's be clear, the GS on a PZ instrument is ahead of all other 1k and below, behind only the PN instruments. Which, if we go by this particular big, may include only GS+companions...

Not a super demotion. But a demotion nevertheless

On the battlefield, does the PN/PZ play a role at all?

I don't think that's true. It may be the case that pax on OAR fares will be ahead if available and the GS is upgrading from Y, for example. The PZ upgrade list is not purely status based.

It's a huge demotion.

For economy to Polaris upgrade, GS on PZ list is behind all pax in premium economy, even without status. waitlisted for Polaris. Also behind all pax in economy, even without status, but waitlisted to PN.

GS on PN list would be near the top.

2nd update. I was able to get my issue fixed without my sister having to phone the GS desk. I finally got a rep who reached out to tech. I did have to authenticate my sister's account. After that they were able to manually put us in PN. I had dropped to 14 on the list in PZ. I'm now #1 on the wait list.