I have seen two of these now in one week:
1. The pax buys a ticket on the UA web site for an itinerary which includes 1 or more originating US code share flights operated by US;
2. The pax goes to check in at
http://webcheckin.usairways.com
They use this shortcut since its an East/Sabre PNR;
3. US OLCI pulls up a message that the res is in the system but it is not an e-ticket;
4. The pax calls US res and they confirm the segments are HK1 in the Sabre PNR but when they do the etkt display no etkt displays as if the pnr is not ticketed;

Scenario 1: Had to call 2 UA and 2 US res agents, both in the preferred USA call centers, and finally apparently UA pushed control of the e-ticket coupon to US and then web check in worked.

Scenario 2 (ongoing): I call UA directly and ask them to push control of the e-ticket coupon to US. They say it already shows "oa" for other airline under the e-ticket but UA pushes control and ends the record. However, still get same error on US East OLCI.
I will next call US and see if indeed it appears to them in Sabre like there is no e-ticket.

Coincidentally on the first itin earlier in the week all the miles posted except the 1 US operated segment. On this trip the miles were going in a UA account.

Anyone else seing this in the wild or know what is going on?

So I am working this live scenario again. I have this pax confirmed on a US operated flight with a UA code-share flight number and a 016 ticket. UA has supposedly pushed control of the e-ticket coupon over to US. However, web check in doesn't work.

I call the Chairman's Preferred Desk. Mind you I'm Chairman's. Here's what they do:
1. First they try to pass the buck by attempting to transfer the call to "general sales," which probably routes it to India, and somehow not familiar with normal let alone wierd situations;
2. I tell the agent that obviously a general sales agent is not going to be able to handle a wierd situation and that since I'm CP the desk should handle it;
3. The agent checks with a res supervisor. The supv seems completely clueless They suggest that I call back to United and get the UA 016 ticket number;
4. I say great, ok, so what happens once I call over to UA and get you this 016 ticket number. They don't know. No idea. No idea who to call once I have this number;
5. They then go on about how this is a UA ticket, a UA fare, etc. etc. and how they (US Airways) have nothing to do with it. They say all US Airways does is issue seat assignments and board passengers on UA tickets;
6. I explain to the agent that I am trying to get this straightened out so that the pax will not have a problem at the airport, and also advise the pax may not have a lot of time at the airport. The agent also does not seem to be able to tell in their computer who (in this case United Air) booked the ticket. E.g. they say to go back to the travel agency but there is no travel agency. Remember, this is the Chairman's Preferred desk not general sales.

I suppose the next action is to call UA and get the 016 ticket number, and hopefully call US and hopefully get someone who knows what they are doing and who knows how to fix a problem like this.

Perhaps I should call right in to US Customer Relations as obviously its beyond 9 out of 10 res agents. So much for going the extra mile and the US agent calling United.

This is absolutely the most pathetic airline service. I have worked in the travel industry, and I can't imagine how a less experienced traveler would wind their way through US's bureaucracy.

This is an airline to airline problem and should be resolved by the airline, not the customer! It is obviously some kind of snafu in between UA's and US's computer system.

I think I will file a complaint with
http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov
not because the problem happened but because US res agents are so incompitent and unwilling to resolve their own code share ticketing computer glitches and just keep trying to pass the buck evry chance they get.

So I get the ticket number from UA, and I have that phone. At this time, UA is trying to ccall a res supervisor.

Then on my cell phone I call back to US Chairman's Desk. The agent says she will check with the ticketing department. She puts me on hold, and comes back and says ticketing told her there is nothing they can do since its not a US ticket. She still cannot see any ticket in the US Sabre PNR.

She does not even want the UA 016 ticket number because she advises that there is nothing US can do with a 016 ticket number.

Just as I'm trying to explain for the third or so time that she needs to get the 016 ticket number associated with the Sabre PNR the cell phone cuts out.

I also ask for a US supv but the Chairman's rep says it is just after 5 and all supvs are gone home. Since when was res a 9 to 5 operation?
I am still waiting on the line with UA res the 1K desk, and they are in turn waiting on hold for "support," which I imagine is some kind of back office reservations help desk.

The UA rep comes to the line periodically to advise still watiing for support to pick up. I tell her that essentially US said it was a UA problem and that there was nothing US could do.

The UA rep now comes back and says that support says it looks to them as though the flight coupons have been transferred to US and there is no reason why US cannot see them.

I ask if UA can call US and they say they need to take care of their own calls.

I am still on hold as the UA res rep relates again to support that US still cannot find this itinerary.

UA comes back and says to call and ask for a US supv.

After about 3-5 minutes I get a CP supv. Sounds very confused. Says they see the ticket and the PNR but they cannot associate them. He says for the pax to go to UA but it is a US flight. Again this is trivial for us, but saying this to the inexperienced traveler they would actually go to UA even though its a US operated flight. Supv again says because its not a 037 ticket there is nothing they can do. Says UA needs to associate it to the Sabre PNR. I don't think beyond pushing control over to US that UA can actually associate to a particular PNR in US Sabre.

Supv has put me on hold to check one more thing..
waiting..

I have the web check in on another browser tab so I can test it if supv comes back with something.

Presto!

Apparently the CP supv spoke to the US ticketing department. The ticketing department first did not know what to do but once the CP supv explained the situation, apparently the ticketing department was able to associate the 016 number to the PNR, and it checked in with olci.

I related to the supv I had spent at least an hour on this!

I believe that the airport agents are trained on whatever this Sabre entry is because I think in a 120.20 reroute this is commonly done.

Does anyone know the Sabre entry that is used so in the future at least an FT pax can walk the CP Desk through applicable Sabre procedures to handle such a situation?


It is really something that the pax knows more of the inner workings of the system than the airline agents. I literally had to tell them for an hour that basically this needed to be done, and even at the beginning of the phone call where the issue got resolved the supv was just trying to send us to the airport.

Let me go print the bp before the screen times out!

I've had the reverse. Bought a US-ticketed (US East 037) itinerary that had originating legs on US metal/US#. No major problems checking in at US site.

Return was on UA metal with US codeshare#. Of course I went to check in at united.com. My MP# was already in there so I'd been able to see the reservation for weeks at united. However at e-checkin on United, I got an error "this is not an e-ticket". After numerous calls to the 1P line at United and to the general line at US, they all agreed that US had not kept the e-ticket in synch with the PNR at UA. UA had done a trivial (8 minute) schedule change so I was departing BOS at 5:18pm instead of 5:10pm. However the US e-ticket somehow got detached so UA's schedule change didn't get on to the ticket. Thus there was no valid e-ticket at UA.

According to UA, this was a simple thing for US to fix. According to US, it was like I was asking them to find out why fish can't ride a bicycle - the comment didn't even make any sense.

I finally gave up and went to the airport. The agent at UA's Premier/First check-in counter had my BP printed before I even finished explaining the problem.

Everyone agreed it was US's fault, not UA's.

My wife and I are traveling PHL-PHX on the day after Christmas. We are on a nonstop US flight, both of us are on UA (016) tickets. Given the issues described here, do I need to (and can I somehow) verify with US that they have the correct ticketing information from UA? Given that we will be trying to do OLCI on Christmas day, I have visions of having a problem and not being able to get help because of the holiday.

You can call US reservations and just ask them if they see an e-ticket associated with your reservation. When you call you should refer to the actual US flight numbers not the UA code share flight numbers. And also US will not be able to retrieve the reservation using the UA PNR (record locator) as that is in the Appollo CRS and US uses the Sabre (east) and Shares (west) CRS. A UA or US res agent should be able to give you the corresponding Sabre or Shares record locator (PNR) for your itinerary. As long as your UA 016 ticket is associated with US in their res system, barring something else, OLCI should work for you.

I believe this problem is random, and that most itineraries do not experience this.

Also as you see from my story the help you get today might not be any worse than the help you might get with a problem like this on Xmas Day.

If you do find that US does not have your 016 ticket you will have to get that 016 number and have them associate it with your Sabre or Shares PNR.

On a related note I never see the real benefit of code-shares. Partnerships sure, but code-shares no! Here's the intro of a good column by JB on the topic:
".The Brancatelli File

joe
LEARNING FROM SAM,
THE FROOT LOOPS TOUCAN

BY JOE BRANCATELLI

January 23, 2003 -- Dazed and confused by this week's astonishing news that Continental, Delta and Northwest will defy the Transportation Department and
create an outlaw code-share alliance, I inadvertently turned down Aisle 412 of my local SuperDuperMonstroGiganticHyperMart and found myself communing with
Tony the Tiger and the other demented denizens of the cereal world.

It turned out to be a fortuitous diversion. You can learn a lot about the cupidity of the major airlines from Sam, the Froot Loops toucan.

Once I got over the sticker shock--at $4.67 for a 16-ounce box, I'm thinking Cap'n Crunch must have once done a tour of duty in an airline pricing department--I
got to wondering about the major carriers' obsession with code-sharing. As a bagel-for-breakfast guy, I don't know much about cereal, so I didn't know
whether I could buy a box of Cheerios and find Wheaties inside.

So I grabbed a box of Cheerios and examined it carefully. It didn't say it was code-sharing with another cereal, but, you know, I'm a frequent flyer so
I don't believe everything I don't read.

Then I flagged down a passing stock boy. "Hey, fella, is it possible that there are really Froot Loops in this box of Cheerios?"

"Excuse me, sir?" he answered.

"Well," I said, "how do I know there really are Cheerios inside this box of Cheerios?"

"What else would there be inside a box of Cheerios?" the stock boy asked.

"I don't know," I responded. "Maybe Wheaties or Raisin Bran. You know, like airline code-sharing, where one carrier puts its name on the flights of another
carrier."

The stock boy looked panicked, like maybe he'd need to call security. Finally, he said, "You'll have to see the manager, sir."

Trying to find a manager in a SuperDuperMonstroGiganticHyperMart is like trying to find an airline executive who doesn't blame $35,000-a-year flight attendants
for his carrier's multi-billion dollar losses. So I went home and called the customer-service lines of the big cereal makers.

First I called General Mills (800-328-1144), which makes Cheerios. I asked the polite telemarketing lady whether General Mills would ever code-share and
put Wheaties in a box of Cheerios.

"That could never happen, sir," she replied. "we're very careful to maintain the integrity of our brands."

I called Post (800-431-POST) and Quaker (800-234-6281) and got the same answer. And Kellogg's (800-962-1413) said Froot Loops would never share its name
with Rice Krispies or Special K or Frosted Flakes--or any other Kellogg's brand.

"Have you ever heard of Froot Loops being packed inside a box of Kellogg's Special K?" I asked the Kellogg's lady.

"No, I never have," she said, "and I'm sure I would have heard. Besides, that sounds like consumer fraud. I'm sure that's not allowed.""
Full column (probably needs subscription)
http://joe.biztravelife.com/03/012303.htm
The point of the article is largely that it seems airline executives don't have much pride in their own brand given how much they code share. The "average traveler" believes if they buy a United ticket its a United flight, or a US Airways ticket its a US Airways plane. I see people at the wrong terminal all the time due to code sharing. I see absolutely no consumer benefit and a lot of trickery with regard to code sharing especially for infrequent travelers or travelers outside their own country. There is no benefit to me that United makes up their own flight number for a US flight when US already has a flight number. And it does rraise some real questions about airline brand integrity.