Ticket exchange with miles not pulled
 

I recently exchange a ticket from LHR ORD PHL to LHR IAD PHL (due to a schedule change, I had another issue about connection time on this ticket and here is the thread about that :http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=485245)

I am on a B fare and had a confirmed upgrade to C for my LHR ORD leg. When I call them to fix my ticket, I made sure that there is confirmable upgrade seats for the LHR IAD flight. The res agent confirmed me the upgrade and I can see that in "My Initineraries" page (row 15!!). But, when I check my mileage balance this morning, I found out that the res agent only refunded my miles but did not take them out again. So, I called back and asked what is going on. I was then informed that I will have to call back to get my miles pulled once the ticket exchanged is completed.

So, is this abnormal? I am more than happy to call back and have them to pull my miles. but, I am just curious why the miles have not been pulled yet. And, of course, there is always the question of: Is my upgrade safe?

THANKS!

There have ben various reports here of miles not being pulled for upgrades when they should have been. I made one of them :)

It seems to be a fairly common oversight and from what I can tell it's not immediately apparent to the res agents that the lift hasn't happened. In my case miles were pulled for the outbound and not the return. I talked to numerous res agents between the time that I requested the upgrade and flight time and none of them noticed. It wasn't until I called the day before the flight to get a seat assignment change that a sharp agent noticed the mistake and lifted the proper number of miles.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. If the check-in agent notices the problem he/she will ask the "how would you like to support your upgrade" question and can lift the proper number of miles on the spot.

Same thing happened to me.

Miles were pulled for outbound but not return. Flew in confirmed upgraded seat with no problem.

A couple of days after my return, I noticed that the miles for the return were lifted from my account.

My guess is that this was caught by the auditors, and rectified post-flight.