SanDiego1K

My husband and I have upcoming flights on LH. These are paid tickets, in C class. Thus, we are attempting to upgrade to F.

This is my understanding of the process.

Upgrade in advance

1. Call UA. Request an upgrade on the flights. Give them our names, flight numbers, and ticket numbers.
2. UA immediately issues 35K upgrade certs for each upgrade request.
3. UA submits the upgrade request to LH. LH has an indetermined length of time to respond. (Reportedly, there is only one person at LH who works on these requests.) We might or might not clear.

Upgrade at the gate

• Call UA in advance. Request a paper copy of a SWU. The paper SWU says on it that it can only be used on LH.
• Present the paper SWU during check in.
• LH checks for available space and to see if sufficient food has been loaded. FT reports say that LH loads F meals in groups of 4. Thus, if would mean the 5th or 9th seat being occupied, it could be rejected.

We successfully upgraded using both techniques earlier this year. In both cases, we turned over the relevant upgrade paper cert when we got our boarding cards.

Now, I am attempting to upgrade August flights. We began the process in May.

1. We made the request to UA. UA immediately withdrew 140K UA miles and sent the paper certificates.
2. UA sent the request to LH. We have called back periodically. We have been told that the request was denied by LH, despite our TA seeing O availability on the flights.
3. We have now asked UA to split the record in hopes of clearing one at a time. UA has given us 2 PNRS.
4. UA tells us they can only resubmit the request once a week. We get very conflicting stories when we call as to when the last request was submitted, and as to whether they have heard from LH in regards to that specific request.
5. Concerned that our mileage requests might not clear in advance, I asked a friend who has given me SWUs before if she would get one converted to paper for me. I'd request the others from my own account. I gave her the necessary flight info for her to do so.
6. She first called reservations, but was told she had to talk to Mileage Plus during their office hours. She has now done so, talking to a number of agents. They have a wide range of stories, but universally have refused to give her a paper SWU. She has been told by some (not all) that we have 35K upgrade certs in our hands, and this is what we should use.

If you’re still with me after that long write up, can I indeed use my 35K mileage certificates on the day at the check in counter if we only clear at check in?

c1mth0g

I have been told that on the day you have to use SWUs to upgrade.
However, I have been successful (twice out of 2 attempts, so 100% success rate) upgrading at check-in with the mileage certs. (btw I don't think they are always 35k miles - I think TATL is 30k).
Also, whenever I've asked for SWUs to be printed, all they have asked me was when my LH flights were (to make sure the SWUs arrive in time) - no one has asked for any details about the flight etc.

Delta3MM

You could always request upgrade paper SWU's to "give to a friend". They should send to you - you keep - send them back if you don't use.

Billy

qasr

Tell your friend that she is upgrading herself on July 28th FRA-BKK and would like a SWU printed. UA can't check and won't know, but always insist on asking for a reason that I can't understand.

The certs, as you probably know, are transferrable and don't have specific flight information on them so there should be no reason why this wouldn't work.

SanDiego1K

qasr, thanks for weighing in.

I've got the 4 35K award certs in hand. Will LH take them on the day of departure if we don't clear in advance, or do I indeed need to have paper SWUs?

I've read everything I can find that's been posted in the last 12 months. There are varying interpretations of the final line in this profile, which is the profile governing the paper upgrade certs:

S*MPI/LH-UPGRADE

VALID:
- TRUE LH OPERATED FLIGHTS/CITYLINE
- C/Y/B/M/H BOOKING CLASSES
- TICKETED ITINERARIES ONLY
- ALL UPGRADES ARE PER SEGMENT AND REQUIRES A
SEPARATE AWARD AND CERTIFICATE
EXAMPLE: ORD LH X/FRA LH PAR REQUIRES TWO AWARDS
ONE FOR EACH SEGMENT
NOT VALID:
- ADOPTION FARES
- GROUP/CONSOLIDATOR/PROMOTIONAL FARES
- ALL RTW FARES
- CODE-SHARE FLIGHTS IE. CONDOR
- BUS/VAN/TRAIN SERVICE WITHIN GERMANY
- DOUBLE UPGRADES ECONOMY TO BUSINESS TO FIRST
- WAITLIST - NOT PERMITTED
- OPEN SEGMENTS - NOT PERMITTED
- STANDBY - NOT PERMITTED

I am very encouraged by c1mth0g's success, but would hate to go unprepared and lose out on a possible upgrade.

seadoc

Am flying Sat SEA to FRA
bought ticket in C
hoping to upgrade with SWU
four seats taken, four seats avail
will i be screwed by meal loading issue?

wendySFO

What you outline is also my understanding - 35K certificate for upgrade in advance and paper SWU for upgrade at the door (standby upgrade). The upgrade in advance need to submit by UA and you have to call to request UA to do so. I have not heard there is a once a week restriction, it is a pain to remember to follow up so it might be I always called longer than one week span.

I don't understand why LH requires two different types of upgrade instruments for the same upgrade. It make sense if they are interchangable but probably good to be fully prepared and you can always send back the un-used certificates to credit back to your account.

nermaljcat

I never knew UA would issue 35K mile certificates for LH upgrades. Is it only for LH? Do you need to be 1K?

.. can you purchase a SWU using miles? (or only trade for them in CC?) what would a SWU be worth in miles?

Erasmus

I just went through this song and dance myself. UA has indeed tightened up on the once-a-week resubmit, although many agents will go ahead and resent it for you anyway. With respect to the certificates, my recent upgrade did not clear until day of departure. I'm not sure what the rules are supposed to be, but I can relay my experience.

I had both a printed SWU and Saver LH Upgrade cert with me (for the previous poster, they can only be used on select, higher-priced fares). When I asked at LH checkin at my origin (not MUC, the departure point for the flight in question), they said that the SWU was "standby" and could only be used at the airport of departure for the flight, so I whipped out the confirmed cert. Upon seeing that, the agent called ahead to MUC, who denied the request to upgrade at the time saying they weren't sure they'd have seats, but indicated I would be put on the list for a standby upgrade.

At the gate in MUC, I inquired and was told my upgrade cleared. I then handed over the SWU (which I'd rather use than the 30K cert) which they happily accepted. So, it appears either instrument would have been accepted, but I was happy to keep the 30K miles and burn the SWU.

FWIW, the flight was far from full in either C or F, so no idea why they wouldn't clear the upgrade a few hours early. Either way, it cleared, but I skipped the lounge in MUC to make sure things were processed at the gate.

c1mth0g

I should add that I had printed SWUs in case they didn't accept the mileage certs but they never raised the issue. The flights were MUC-PEK and PVG-MUC back in 2005.

harryhv

Sounds like a great way to waitlist LH-SWU's !

And yes I have also successfully used UA-35k-certificates to upgrade LH flights on the day, many times, LH hardly ever says yes ahead-of-time.

Doing it on the day needs a lot of remonstration and persuasion if you encounter one of those ICC-rejects that LH-outstations seem to hire, they will always start out saying NO to upgrade-certs because they don't know how to handle them.

Interesting the rules for Y->C upgrades using UA miles require M class or higher and never on any RTW fare but it seems that the agents don't always enforce the RTW exception.

hotelarchitect

When I flew from PHL to FRA, a GS agent advised me to call the ticket counter on the day of departure, and advide them that I would like to upgrade. They can then load the meals accordingly. Amazingly, I was able to get through, and everything worked like clockwork.

SanDiego1K

Yes, it is only for LH. No, you don't need to be 1K. We took the miles from my husband's account who is currently PremEx.

The only way you can get an SWU from United is to be a 1K or UGS flyer or to have crossed the 1MM mark or to have had a service problem for which they have given you a SWU (rare). SWUs are typically valued between 25K and 30K miles.

SanDiego1K

hotelarchitect, I see this is just your 2nd post on FT. It's great to see you posting! How did you get the telephone number for the ticket counter?

In our case, the first flight we want to upgrade is ex-FRA. We will board an earlier flight in Berlin. We'd really like one of us to clear before the gate so that we can use LH's superb First Class Terminal.

Shooter McGavin

Hi Everyone, relatively new around here, great to read so many flying experiences!

I'm flying paid C in late November, LHR-FRA-BKK, and was looking at whether upgrading the FRA-BKK overnight flight to F is a possibility. I'm UA 2P (although this flight will push me to 1P!) and have more than enough miles to hand over.

Now, because I'm a 2P, does this mean I won't have a chance of United allowing the "Upgrade in advance" or "Upgrade at the gate" options as described by the OP?

Thanks!