Upgrades & Status Changes
 

I know I've seen this somewhere before, but my search skills this morning are drawing a blank.

OK, my status hits 1P soon, and I'm currently waitlisted for an upgrade from an H fare on UA 6 (LAX-JFK) using miles. I talked to MP and asked if having them remove and reenter my MP # when I hit 1P will affect the waitlist.

I know 1P will give me a better shot--too bad I miss 1K for the year, but I couldn't get a SIN trip approved by my company (they require advanced notice of all foreign travel, personal or otherwise) in time to take advantage of MPW124 (oh, well). But my question to MP that I have yet to get an answer for is: will removing and reentering my MP # lose my place on the waitlist, and if so, will it be worth it to get the 1P status reflected?

And should I be going about the upgrade differently (miles vs. SWU vs. 500-milers, etc.)? Just curious--thanks!

I am not sure about your other questions, but I know I would use 500 milers over miles. If you can't be confirmed now, then it is highly likely that you'll go onto the DM list with all the other upgraders. At this point, miles of 500's make no difference (although status does:)).

To me at least, the 15k (or 8k if you are Y/B) is worth much more than 5 500's. Then again, I do mostly international or domestic connections from international, and don't really get to use my 500's that much.

I do not think that reentering your MP number to reflect your new status will require removing you from the waitlist and then adding you back on (but I am not certain). However, even if it does, it is still worth your while to update your status. Consider that you are currently behind all 1Ps and any 2Ps in a higher fare class or in the same fare class who were added to the list before you. At the very least, if you update your status you will be ahead of all 2Ps on the list as well as any 1Ps who are on a lower fare than you are (remember, waitlist order goes: status, fare class, time added to list).

As for currency of upgrade, JFK-LAX, at 2475mi, is one of my favorite uses of 500s.

Anything you do to the record will adjust your waitlist. If your waitlist has not cleared by now, chances are it will only clear on the dept. date.

You say your travel date is soon, how soon? MPW124 has a travel completion date of Dec. 15.

The flight in question is actually in January (lots of personal and company travel in the first week of the new year giving me a good start on 1P requalification and possibly 1K--yay!)

MPW124 actually doesn't matter for me right now. If I could have gotten one of the W-class efares to SIN in prior to the 15th, I would have easily hit 1K, but my problem was that all the quick turnarounds available were within the 30-day notice I had to give my employer for foriegn travel (mid November I believe)

Follow-up: since I wasn't seeing anything about being waitlisted on united.com, I decided to call UA just to confirm that I was indeed on the waitlist for the upgrade. Of course, the first time I tried I was hit by the computer outage...

But the second time I called (after watching the ORD staff finally be able to log into their systems), the helpful res agent looked up my flight; I could tell right away that I was NOT in fact on the waitlist just listening to her.

The good news is, she said, "Oh, you're using miles, right? I can go ahead and confirm you in business on UA 6 ... here's your seat assignment." SO now I will indeed get to try out p.s. business :D Good thing I called back in since the original agent apparently didn't know how to either handle upgrades with miles or even to put me on the waitlist.

One more follow-up: I just checked online to verify that everything was kosher... miles deducted ok, the flight now says "UA 6 Confirmed ... Cabin: Upgraded Business NC" ... and then down at the end of my itinerary, there is ALSO a "UA 6 Confirmed ... Cabin: Upgraded First NF Confirmed" (but no seat listed there) Why is it ALSO listing a first-class cabin confirmation? Not that I would complain if they somehow double-upped me by accident, but I am just curious what's going on.

Flight 6 in Jan is still a 757. Double upgrade is nice, lets hope they don't catch it.

I'll add a variant to the original question :
I paid for a transatlantic economy ticket a couple months back (before getting to 1K) since then I reached 1K and my upgrades to business have cleared (even got a seat assignment) ...

At this point :
1) is there any benefit to call UA to reenter my MP# ? (like having higher status should anything unusual happen , cancel flight/rebook, op-up chance higher ... )
2) are there any risks of loosing my confirmed upgraded seats while doing the reentering the MP# manipulation ? (what do I need to say so that my upgraded seats do not disappear !)

THanks

Pierre

I've been told by helpful agents (as well as knowledgeable flyertalkers) that (before DM) there are 3 levels of waitlist for upgrade: PA, PB, and PD. Usually, PA is for UGS and 1K (as well as anybody using SWU), PB for 1P and 2P using miles, and PD for general members. Therefore, changing status from 2P to 1P does not help, while becoming 1K does.

Please someone correct me if I'm mistaken.

On the other hand, of course, some agents make exceptions or mistakes from time to time - either nice or bad!

You'll have a slightly higher chance of getting the meal you want, although, even as a 1P, that should not be difficult.
I would doubt ti, since the reservation isn't changing, its just a MP number. But who knows, just ask the CSR first, they should be able to tell you.