fare rule says companion upgrade not allowed but....
 

when i called mileage plus to upgrade the portion that is upgradeable, the agent upgraded the whole thing. i wasn't really thinking about it at the time but now i feel a little guilty, and also a little nervous if at checkin the upgrade is disallowed.

specifically the rule of the fare basis on one of the portions is only upgradeable for 1k members, companion not permitted.

so does anyone have any experience with this sort of situation where mileage plus upgaded u but at the airport you were sent back to coach? should i risk it? i can live with having "cheated" united over this, chalk it up to good karma for a bad past experience, but if i get busted and am sent to the back of the bus middle seat i will not be too thrilled. what do y'all think?

adam

You didn't mention precisely how you are planning to "support" the upgrade. If this is a domestic US flight and you have used 500s or HK49s for the upgrade, I would suggest making use of an E-checkin kiosk, presuming your departure airport has them deployed. Also, do not call UA for any reason regarding this itinerary in the interim. Under the circumstances, the fewer humanoids that handle the record, the better.

By the way, are you sure "Mileage Plus" did the upgrade and not reservations?

larry,

i guess i am paranoid but i wanted to be as light on the details as possible in case these boards are monitored by god.

it is an international itinerary, using 2 systemwide upgrade certs, one for me one for my friend.

and yes it probably was reservations i talked to, i called the 800-538-2929 number.

adam

I'd definitely stick with your current situation...although they do check this sort of thing. Last year I was flying LAX-ORD, and I changed to an earlier flight. I was originally upgraded to seat 2A on a 757, but the flight change put me in 2A on a 744! This is double-upgrading! My boarding pass for the 744 flight said 2A...yippee! I was getting a first suite instead of biz. Not so lucky. I was called at the gate and reissued a biz boarding pass. I was also 2P...so maybe with a 1K they would have let it slide???

Sounds like this is one of those fares to LHR, aren't some of the UA agents at LHR pretty bad?

My general experience is that if Reservations approved it, that the check-in agents just collect whatever it says to collect.

I rarely see or hear of check-in agents browsing through the fare rules to see what's what unless they are looking for re-routing, change fee, and other stuff.

That said, if it's SOP not to upgrade companions in a particular market (like London), those agents there might be more aware of things.

I'd just go ahead with it, and if a check-in agent tries to deny your companion's upgrade, I'd just stick to my guns (and play dumb) and say "Well United approved it. And they gladly took their upgrade coming here. Plus how am I supposed to know they shouldn't have."

If that doesn't work, as to speak to a supervisor or Station Manager.

Good Luck!