UA elites can upgrade on CO but not vice versa? [Merged Threads]
 

A United representative will be with you in a moment.You have been connected to Jimmy S.Jimmy S: Welcome to united.com Chat Service.

Customer: Hello, I'm a CO Platinum about to book a phx-sfo-mry and mry-lax-phx flight on UA. Am I eligible for ex plus seating and or F upgrades? Thank you

Jimmy S: Please allow me a moment while I check this information for you.

Jimmy S: There are other benefits for you when you travel United. However, you would not have an access to the Economy Plus seats without paying for these seats.

Jimmy S: It is same for the First class Upgrades too.

Customer: Oh okay, I thought there were reciprocal upgrades for CO platinum members available when flying on UA flights

Jimmy S: These benefits include: Priority check-in, Priority Standby, additional benefits for the checked baggage.

Customer: Okay...thank you

Is this accurate?

What he says is accurate as of right now. But starting sometime in the 2nd quarter (date not certain yet) CO elites will get free E+ and free first class upgrades on UA flights. At the same time UA elites will get preferred seating and free upgrades on CO flights. UA elites do not officially get either of those things on CO right now but it's been reported that a few have gotten preferred seating and upgrades. It's just not supposed to happen until 2Q.

Thanks for the quick info SEA1K4EVR!

Does anyone know if CO will distinguish between 1P and 1K when it comes to UA Elites? I know US shows no distinction - not that they do anything special for UA Elites anyways :)

yes theres a whole thread on this that outlines the pecking order, a 1P on CO is eligible for a free upgrade BUT you're going to behind a lot of folks

ETA: heres the thread from the CO forum by the COInsider that details the order: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/12833185-post6.html

Well US seems to treat me quite well ("nice" seats at the front of the Y cabin).

This is a lot more than I have ever gotten from CO. So my experiences cloud my thinking.

Just flew on CO as a 1K
 

Just flew two flights on CO this week as a United 1k.

I booked my flights on continental.com and entered my UA MP #, and then decided to call CO res to find out what exactly my benefits would be since I honestly didn't know luggage limits, preferred seat policies, etc...

With regards to seating, the res agent was able to assign me exit row seats on both CO flights, but her computer prevented her from ending the record and she had to get a supervisor to complete the transaction. This makes me think that the system isn't yet set up for our elite benefits, although exit row seats (as opposed to other elite/preferred coach seats) often are treated differently by each airline to ensure pax are properly qualified to sit there, etc...

At both airports (IAH hub and one non hub city), I had asked if they knew when upgrades would be permitted and both agents I spoke to said not yet and they hadn't yet been advised when it would start. What was interesting is how both agents explained it further, exactly the same, saying it would take effect when both airlines could offer each others' pax benefits to start at exactly the same time, in fairness to all customers.

I really enjoyed both flights on CO and getting a nice (free) snack on a 2h flight was a great surprise.

Technically right now UA elites are entitled to nothing on CO with respect to seats. If you get something other than nothing (CO 'preferred seating' :rolleyes:, exit rows, etc.), consider yourself "lucky".

Economy Plus as Continental elite on United award
 

I booked an award flight on United which required that I associate my Mileage Plus # to the itinerary at booking. Is it possible to switch that to Continental to allow for my Star status (just silver) to be recognized so that I can choose Economy Plus seats, board early, etc.? I definitely don't see anywhere to do that online at least.

It sure would be nice if there were "alliance accounts".

Thanks for any info!

Yes, but as of yet there is not formal date for CO elite's to get E+ access (and other reciprocal elite privileges). Now the phase is "later in 2010", however some have success at the gate.

On the CO forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...-year-yet.html

Just the reverse:
 

UA 1K traveling on CO 5/26 and 5/29.
Was able to select $39 upgrades for my boss and me in a CO 737 50, and a $79 upgrade for me transcon on a CO 757-200 into an exit row reclining.
I have a lot of useless observations, biased opinions (could they be otherwise?) and impractical comparisons about my first 4 flights on CO metal, may share them as others offer theirs.
But I wouldn't write CO off entirely, and certainly hope for the best if/when a merger happens.;)

This upgrade for your boss? What was the nature of this upgrade for your boss? One of the extra legroom upgrades? Or paid upgrade to F? CO sells a lot of upgrades to F too...

$39 sounds like a 2-3 hr ELR upgrade - no way they're selling an F upgrade for that little (though I bet CO is tempted)

Upgrading CO using UA miles - successful experience
 

Hello All,

There are a number of threads that ask about how to upgrade on CO using UA miles, including this one and this one. I followed the advice in those diligently when attempting to upgrade my own itinerary yesterday. Thought I'd collect some tips for our community.

Backstory: Trying to upgrade the EWR-BOM-EWR portion of a SFO-EWR-BOM-EWR-SFO roundtrip.

0. Important information (mostly already mentioned by mahasamatman, bocastephen and others):
- Itin has to be on CO, not a UA codeshare
- *A Upgrade needs to be used
- Itin needs to be booked in B or Y
- There's no *A Upgrade waitlist. You get the upgrade if it's available, and have to keep calling back if it's not
- *A Upgrade is PER SEGMENT (You'll see why this is important), happens to be 35k each way to India
- You'll need your CO ticket numbers. 6-character confirmation code (PNR) won't cut it
- The upgrade request from UA to CO is handled "computer-to-computer". The CSR doesn't get any info beyond "successful", "denied", "not available" etc.
- If CO website states that upgrade availability is there, it is not just for OnePass upgrades but for any mileage program (barring *net blocking, of course)

1. We'd been monitoring the CO website for ages, and found "R" availability on CO48 / CO49 for Aug 12 outbound, Sep 5 return for three passengers a few weeks ago. Had been checking every day since then, trying to see if the fare would change (and also waiting for the credit card statement closing date, to be honest ;)). There are enough posts on how to find "R" availability, so I won't rehash that. Please post comment if you need the info and I'll respond.

2. Yesterday morning, we finally booked our tix. CO.com said upgrade availability still existed.

3. Called UA immediately after getting the confirmation email. Supplied all the necessary info and the CSR sends the request off. System comes back with "upgrade not available". We have a lengthy discussion with her and she tells us to call CO.

4. Called CO and talked to a very nice lady who went through the whole process and finally told us that we needed to go back to UA (yes we knew this from the FT threads, but was enlightening nevertheless). She indicated that upgrade availability was there, and that this meant it's available to ANYONE, not just CO OnePass accounts.

5. Called UA again, relayed the info we got from CO. The CSR tries the upgrade request again and it failed. At this point I'm thinking *net. Wife is thinking that we should just cancel the tix, because we don't want the uncertainty. Then the CSR (smart guy) asks if the segments are married. When I tell him I have no idea, he explains the concept and asks us to call CO and "unmarry" the segments, because he thinks that even though he is requesting the upgrade only for EWR-BOM (being that *A upgrades are per segment), the system is rejecting it because of the SFO-EWR segment that precedes it.

6. Called CO, relayed the request from UA. CO CSR goes tappity tap and says "done". SFO-EWR is now officially divorced from EWR-BOM, and same holds for the return also.

7. Called UA again, attempted the upgrade request and it goes through on the first try! Hello BusinessFirst, and hopefully the lie-flat seats will be installed by September

Morals of the story:
- Information is power. A number of times we insisted that "others have been able to upgrade, so there must be something we're doing wrong" and kept pushing the CSRs
- If you don't get the answer you are looking for, say "Thank you", hang up and try again. You're bound to find someone who is smart and knows how to get things done (or at least identify the problem for you)
- Share info on FT regarding your experiences - I wouldn't have known how to approach this if not for FT, and I hope somebody gains from my experience

So until the merger is through and we're one big happy family singing Kumbaya around the campfire, hope you have successful upgrades on Continental! Cheers!

Thanks, this is very useful information ^

A while ago I booked a B fare on CO, tried to upgrade with UA miles and failed even though R availability was there (in the end I upgraded using CO miles from a friend). In my case it might have been a married segments issue as well.