Can anyone tell my why United will not let me upgrade from Business to First on a United flight operated by Lufthansa? Yet, I can request an upgrade if I'm flying on a Lufthansa flight?

The argument goes that you cannot upgrade on Code-Shares that bear the code share number because United has paid for seats which are code-shared - I think.

I was also unsuccessful in upgrading a code-share flight with Varig.

Just Made: Where are you flying from and to?

To Merry:

I'm flying from San Francisco to Frankfurt.

San Francisco / Frankfurt> you can upgrade only if your ticket shows a LH flight number (and then you can use UA miles to upgrade).

Only during StarAlliance promotion time (ended 98 per nov-30) you were able to upgrade using StarAlliance vouchers.

The code-share thing leads to some weird paradoxes. Last week I flew SFO-YYZ. The flight was operated by Air Canada. My ticket was issued by United and showed the United code-share flight number. Since I'm an Aeroplan Elite, I have AC-issued North American upgrade certificates.

So, 48 hours before, I called AC to wait-list for an upgrade - and I was told they couldn't since "officially" I was considered a UA customer. I then called UA to wait-list - and was told they couldn't upgrade me since the flight was a code-share operated by AC!

Anyways, the gate agent was quite friendly and had no trouble accepting my certs - and I think an upgrade on a red-eye is something we can all appreciate !


[This message has been edited by megamiles (edited 01-22-99).]

it is bizarre trying to upgrade any more on codeshares. Last Feb. flying TPA/YYZ/ORD/TPA. TPA/YYZ flying AC, ticketed AC, was allowed to upgrade for $55 (about the same price as certificates). YYZ/ORD/TPA, ticketed UA, flying AC to ORD then UA to tpa, could do nothing with UA certs in YYZ, had to run to the gate at ORD, and to add insult to injury, guess which segment I haven't gotten credit for yet---YYZ/ORD!