Personally, I've never tried to purchase 500's at the gate, but FT conventional wisdom has it that the GA's don't have the time (or aren't willing to spend it) to process payments for 500's at the gate. Every account I've read has indicated that the GA's basically say you have to have the certs already in your account or you can't get the upgrade. Some FT'ers have suggested that you can purchase them by phone before claiming your upgraded seat, but I don't know what the success rate is with that approach.

As for the boarding pass question, if your IAD-SFO upgrade has cleared by the time you check in at BDL, it's a no brainer: you purchase the 500's at that time and get your BP for your upgraded seat. However, if your IAD-SFO upgrade hasn't cleared by that time, you'll get the BP for your regular E+ seat, along with a Departure Management (DM) card for the waitlisted upgrade.

The problem is that IME, if they upgrade you, they give away your seat to someone else before you confirm & provide the 500's for your upgraded seat. That means that if you decline the upgrade, they've already put someone else in your seat and the fact that you hold a (now obsolete) BP for that seat won't matter. They'll still put you in whatever seat is available and give you a new BP.

As a side note, it works this way for OpUp's, too. Several times, I've been on a different PNR from Mrs. hockeyguy and they've OpUp'd me without her. By the time I've declined my single upgraded seat, they've already put someone else in my original seat next to my wife which has made it very complicated to get us reseated together again, parciularly if we want to keep the good seats we originally selected and not get sent back to E-. As a result, we always try to travel on the same PNR now.

I too have had trouble buying e ugrades over the past
six weeks. I applied for paper cert upgrade's on line. Of the Six segments attempted, all cleared at the gate, but have been charged for only two segemnts flown. I alway's explained to the GA about the united .bomb
experience, several smiled in apperant agreement. I tried to pay with
credit card but MP visa has only been charged 200.00 for one pachage.
I may have just had a lucky streak, but maybe the take home message
is to always hit paper cert's on the website, get to the gate early and try to buy cert's there. Some of these may have been discretionary up ups by the GA BUT I am only a lowly 2p heading toward 1p.

I just did OLCI for tomorrow night's LIH-LAX redeye. I wanted to buy certs after my upgrade cleared, but couldn't. I declined the upgrade and luckily E+ is wide open. I sure hope LIH1K or some other high roller walks up and pays a good fare for what could have been my seat.

OLCI offered me a buy-up for $400...

Why couldn't you buy the certs? From your post, it sounds like your upgrade cleared somewhat in advance. Did you have the same trouble trying to purcahsed them on-line as others have reported?

I am hoping someone can help me with this. I normally fly US, but sometimes fly UA as *Gold. When I purchased my last block of upgrades, I asked what happens if the upgrades expire - as I did not expect to be flying UA very much going forward. The agent told me that PURCHASED upgrades will be reissued with a new expiration date???? I called the service center and was told that they would be converted to miles automatically (which they were not). Has anyone else been told this when purchasing e-upgrades?

I typically purchase a few sets of 500s each year. I've never heard of this claim before. The story is that 500s expire after 1 year in your account and they become regular miles. Never heard anything about reissuing or seen anything in writing.

I belive if you are a US Airways elite and you purchase upgrades on United, the ones you do not use are not put back in a bank or anything.. you immediately loose them.

See here: http://usairways.com/awa/content/div...dupgrades.aspx

"I belive if you are a US Airways elite and you purchase upgrades on United, the ones you do not use are not put back in a bank or anything.. you immediately loose them.

See here: http://usairways.com/awa/content/di...edupgrades.aspx"

Grrr.....I have two kits. I never would have bought them under these circumstances. I remember saying to the agent, "but they expire." She said to just turn them in and they will be reissued! I have a United account as well, so I guess the worst case scenario is that I can get them deposited. They are paper upgrades, so I am sure that it will not happen automatically, as the United phone agent told me today.

If they're paper upgrade certificates you're holding in your hand right now, I wouldn't imagine you would have a problem at all trying to use them again. I assumed you meant you bought a kit of 4 e-upgrades... I didn't know getting them in paper was a possibility.

For anyone wanting to buy e-upgrades--just purchased some online and it took seconds! Now is the time! Good luck!

Slighty OT, but related.
I'm a 2p, my SO is a GM. If we book flights on the same PNR, I can just request the upgrade for both of us with e-500s online? What if we book seperately? Is there any way I can sponsor her?

Same PNR -- no problem. You can request upgrades for both of you at the same time, and if seats are available, you'll both clear based on your status. If it goes to airport control, you'll be at two different spots on the waitlist.

Different PNR's -- possible, but a bit tricky. Some reports have it that you're not allowed to use 500's for someone on a different PNR, but I'm pretty sure it's possible as long as you're on the same flight. You may have to sweet-talk the TA or GA a bit, though.

My advice: for many reasons, it's much easier if you're on the same PNR. Try to keep it that way if you can, but if you can't, it's worth a call to see if they'll let you "sponsor" the upgrade for your SO.