SnowAndSun

I didn't see anything that said "Upgrade with paper".

SnowAndSun

When I went to do OLCI, it said something along the lines of "You must use 500 mile certificates to apply towards your upgrade" It showed that there were 0 certificates in my account. There was a link near where it said that I had 0 certificates that said "click here to purchase certificates". When I clicked on that, it said that I could buy a 4 pack of them for $325.

SnowAndSun

I always hate it when I demonstrate the fact that I am a human being by making a mistake.

jan_az

I have no idea what your X_Y was , but the $325 is for a 4 pack of 500 milers for general members. MOst of us who click on upgrade have 500's in our account.

CPMaverick

Yes that option is now gone.

What you did is try to upgrade electronically. I can see that someone might do this knowing that they don't have any banked electronic upgrades, and figure the website should know this.

The reason they allow it though, is so people can request upgrades when they are certain they will have earned those upgrades before the flight, or are willing to pay for them, only if the upgrade clears.

SnowAndSun

I'm glad that your situation had a happy ending.

I wish there was a way to easily un-request an upgrade for 2 reasons. One, for people like me who have made a mistake, but also because I don't want my mistake to prevent someone who comes along later, deserving of an upgrade, who doesn't get one due to my mistake. I made a mistake, and while I was very unhappy about it, I was prepared to live with the consequences. Exacerbating my bad feelings, however, was the knowledge that my mistake could have negatively impacted someone else. Additionally, like you said, what if I made a request for the upgrade, had a certificate, and then changed my mind shortly after hitting "yes", with a desire to save the certificate for another time. My understanding is that if I purchase an airline ticket, I have a 24 hour window where I can change my mind. I don't understand why a similar rule couldn't apply here.

In response to this post there will be a firestorm of flames, I'm sure... :-/

SnowAndSun

Yup, I was just answering the question of where the $325 figure came from.

SnowAndSun

I'm glad that at least a few people on this thread can see that it's normal for humans to make mistakes from time to time.

I would have LOVED it if there was some simple text on the upgrade page that said specifically that. If it said "By clicking upgrade, you are liable for paying $325 if you do not have the correct certificates by the time your flight departs, otherwise you may be denied boarding." I would have left that page very much alone. The whole reason I was there was becuase I'm a rare United flyer. I have about 9,000 miles banked now. Many years ago, on NWA, you were able to apply banked miles towards upgrades to first class. I believe the number of miles on NWA used to be 5000 or so, if I'm not mistaken. As I rarely fly on United, I was curious if they had a similar program. That's how I got myself into trouble. I wasn't trying to "cheat" anything.