To UG or not UG, and should I use Premier Executive or Gold Elite Number?

I used the extension of the CO travel waiver to adjust the routing of my upcoming ICN mileage run. Was flying ICN-NRT-EWR-DFW, am now flying ICN-NRT-HNL-ORD-DFW (whew!). Of course, this raises a few questions:

1. Can I upgrade the return with UA miles given my outbound was upgraded with a CO SWU?

2. Even if possible, should I do a mileage upgrade for the HNL-ORD-DFW portion?

3. Assuming I rely on UDU, should I use my 1P number on the itinerary for higher UDU placement and potentially "forfeit" the CO MM BIS miles or use my Onepass number and risk losing out on an upgrade as UA 1Ps and CO PEs get auto-upgraded ahead of me? I can try to switch the number mid-trip, but that carries considerable risk of screwup, and UA does considers time added to UDU list as a factor. I'm also thinking that Mileage Plus will likely relent at some point and include 2011 CO flights in the Million-Miler BIS equation.

 

1. I don't see how this would be a problem. I used a CO SWU on a combined CO and UA Itinerary earlier this year. (outbound on UA - sat in Y, return on CO - SWUed to BF. CO tkt stock) It should be the same the other way around, wether you use miles or a SWU.

2. That's entirely up to you. I have no idea how hard a UDU is on this market.

3. On my UA portion of the above example, I was UDUed on a CO number (this was before the status match), and at check in, they asked me what number I wanted to accrue my miles on. You could switch your accrual to CO at check in. This would only be a problem if you do not receive a UDU at the 72h mark.

But you will still get CO MM EQMs by flying UA, so why the worry? I find it hard to believe that the combined program will only honor CO BIS miles. This would mean a lot of people losing MM status, or otherwise upsetting lots of costumers that will be close to a MM milestone.

Even if the above turned out to be true, that's a long way to sit in Y for 5 or so thousand miles that may or may not credit towards MM status.

 

The issue is twofold:

1. Mileage Plus only counts miles actually flown on UA for lifetime purposes, while CO counts all EQMs towards million miler status. Thus, crediting CO flights to Mileage Plus yields 0 MM miles, but nets 12K towards MM in OnePass.

My pure gut speculation is that mileage plus will fold in 2011 CO flights for MM counting purposes, but that's only my opinion, and since I'm at about 525k lifetime EQMs with OnePass, the potential non-counting of 12K EQMs is significant.

2. For UDU purposes, Premier Executive ranks above CO Platinum AND CO Gold Elites. For 27MAY, the HNL-ORD E+ section is packed, and there are at least 7 people waitlisted for upgrades -- F is already half full, meaning that the choice of program could prove outcome-determinative on getting the upgrade.

 

1. I know that. Credit CO segments to CO, UA segments to UA. You can do this ahead of time by calling them. When the programs combine, those MM EQMs will be added together. Am I missing something?

 

Yes -- the UDU window for the return UA flights will open up before I've completed most of the outbound CO flights.

What I'm thinking is that it might be best to simply put in the UA number now and then get the crediting of the CO flights switched out of MP into OP post-trip. Painful, to be sure, but possible and avoids the screwup factor.

 

What I am trying to tell you is that you can have, on a sigle reservation, CO segments credited to CO, and UA segments credited to UA. Ahead of time.

When you bought your ticket, you should have gotten two PNRs. One was a CO, which should show all segments (if it was a CO tkt), and the the other PNR is a UA PNR, for the UA segments(so you can go on UA.bomb and select seats on UA flights). Last time I called UA and gave them the UA PNR, that PNR was only showing the UA segments.

I think you are over complicating this. Or I am crazy?

 

To me, these sound like flights where you might want to try to guarantee the upgrade in advance by using miles or SWUs (if you can get some) rather than hoping for UDU to upgrade you close to flight time. It would be painful to sit in coach on such a long and crowded flight. Personally, I would not want to take the risk.

 

Is this still the case? I have a trip in a few weeks, with my wife, going IAH-LAX on CO, so I want my Plat status on the reservation for our (unlikely) upgrades. The return is xxx-SFO-IAH all on UA, so I'd like to have my 1P status on the reservation to hopefully clear the SFO-IAH (it's a Saturday, so maybe a chance of clearing) at the same time in advance, instead of playing gate-roulette.

Can I call in advance and have this done, or should I call after the outbound half of the trip and get it changed? Thanks for the advice.

theBOAT

 

I don't think you can do this any longer, but I don't have any CO/UA mixed itineraries coming up. If your return is on UA, and the outbound and return are more than 3 days appart, just call UA after you fly the outbound, and ask them to make sure your MP number is on the itinerary.