FlyerTalk Forums - You’ve been upgraded! (2024)

I did a search, I feel like this can't be the first time this has happened... please merge into an existing thread if one exists!

I was on Sundays Nice -> Newark flight, in E+ with PlusPoints applied to Premium Plus and Polaris. Around #10 on the list for PremPlus and ~#15 for Polaris. So clearly wasn't getting the upgrade. About half an hour before departure, I get the text and email saying I've been upgraded. Which was surprising, and not reflected on the app or my boarding pass. Interestingly, while the text said I was upgraded to Premium Plus, the email seemed to imply I was upgraded to Polaris, though with no assigned seat.

After refreshing the app for a few minutes I asked a gate agent, who checked in their app and very nicely apologized that they didn't think I was upgraded. Which I had assumed. I've forwarded the email and a screenshot of the text to 1kvoice, mainly for them to try and track down the bug and save others the disappointment after the initial excitement!

Which gets me to my question - is this a common or occasional occurrence? This is only my first full year of being a 1k, a status I'm unlikely to ever reach again. So trying to experience it all while I can!

Odd. Has never happened to me.

Did anyone else in your party get upgraded?

Nope, I was flying alone. Only me on the PNR. It didn't look like anyone on the flight got upgraded, at least as of when I gave up refreshing the screen and boarded.

Same thing happened to me last week when I tried sponsoring an upgrade for a friend. I received a text message saying the upgrade cleared, but couldn’t see any change in seat assignments. And I knew there was no way it would clear 2 months out.

After calling it in, they had to investigate with web support. They said it was triggered by an aircraft swap. In the end, they just redeposited my points :tu:

My friend’s flight was changed from B77W to B757 many weeks ago. But the false text message was sent only a few days before the trip began. I do not know what was the trigger.

In my case, my friend’s flight changed from a 787-10 to a 772 domestic (28 Business seats). But I do recall it changing at least a few days before I received the fake upgrade notification. Who knows? :confused:

Over the weekend, I received upgrade messages for two flights (IAD-DUB and DUB-IAD) for later in July. I went to select seats and saw that 1) I was still in economy and 2) that there had been a swap to the old pre-Polaris business seats. I also noticed that I had been moved into YN for both of these. In addition to the notices about my upgrades from United, I got an email from Concur telling me I had a change in itinerary, showing that I had been moved into P. The Plus Points were showing as being removed from my account. I called the 1K line and spent over an hour on hold while she explored it and came back with the answer that somehow when they had swapped to different equipment this was the result for me, but that I had not actually been upgraded. She had to redeposit and reapply my plus points. Two questions: 1) Is this a known issue? I've never encountered it before, and can't recall reading any reports of it happening in the past. 2) Should I have tried to insist they honor the upgrades?

In case this matters, I had booked in Economy (Q, M) and had applied plus points for upgrades to both premium plus and Polaris - so perhaps the lack of premium plus with the equipment swap confused the system?