BigTallTree

https://goo.gl/flights/ET6D

This will arrive in HGH Sat night and leave PVG the next morning. Is the HKG-HGH connection too tight if SFO-HKG is delayed? I can have a cheap YVR-SFO on the Monday morning to finish this off. I don't have to drop segments with this and I'm fine with the extra YVR-SFO leg.

Kmxu

Do not buy this ticket. You will not have enough time to get to PVG from HGH if the flights are on time. It is only possible if you hire a taxi to drive you from HGH to PVG (about 500 RMB or $75). The train does not run 24 h a day between these two cities. You need two hours from Shanghai Hongqiao train station to PVG. If you leave from HGH to Japan, it will help. Good luck.

Quinlanty

SQ credited 6915 for SFO-HKG lol

Kmxu

SQ uses the new location while UA still uses the location of the old airport. Or the other way. Here is the thread.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1847730-ua-still-uses-location-kai-tak-calculating-sfo-hkg-miles-3.html#post28819030

BigTallTree

Google Flights didn't show this, but I see it on United.
Same outbound: Oct 27 SFO-(UA869)-HKG-(KA622)-HGH
Return Oct 30 1:45AM PVG-(NH968)-HND-(UA876)-SFO-YVR(throwaway)
$327.26
If I miss the tight connection to HGH, the one the next morning will get me there Oct 29 in the morning, giving me the whole day to get to PVG. Not a fan of the long layover in HND either but given my time constraints, it's probably my best bet.

Kmxu

Yes, the extra day between HGH and PVG helps. If you miss HKG-HGH，you can call UA to switch to HKG-PVG. See NPei's post earlier. Good luck.

BigTallTree

After looking carefully, United was showing the return flight with a date change when I sorted by price. It departs on Oct 31 instead of Oct 30. No dice

985X

UA869 is delayed by appx. 2.5h due to "maintenance issue", gonna miss KA622. UA agrees to give me a free hotel and food voucher in HKG, but did not allow me to reroute SFO-FRA-PVG on LH as "United's flight is still going". Asked for a reroute UA891 directly to shanghai, UA agreed but without hotels as "shanghai is your final destination". Then I asked whether I can get rebooked to HGH on NH or UA's PVG nonstop with an addition of Air China's PVG-PEK-HGH, but UA agent couldn't find any. That being said, I wanna a free hotel in shanghai, but UA didn't give me one cuz they couldn't flight any flights from PVG to HGH (sure they couldn't). When I said I can take bullet train at my own expense, UA said the system doesn't allow free hotel with a self-purchased train connection, has to be air connection. So right now I'm sitting in SFO and waiting for further announcements. It's sad that all non-UA star alliance Asian pm flights leave before UA869 so it's impossible for you to rebook on those flights.

pushmyredbutton

There are no such flights anymore, on any airline. United was not lying.

IMHO, while creative reroutes can occasionally be fun, I feel you're pushing this a bit far with just a 2.5 hour MX delay. Take the HKG hotel and have fun.

985X

I admit I was pushing a bit hard since I took the UA708, when I landed in SFO it was already 1230pm. Trying to get the 3pm LH455 to FRA then LH728 to PVG. I think UA agents didn't allow this crazy routing cuz it's not justifiable. UA869 is nice, empty row for myself. Looking forward to staying at HK for a night. Haven't been there for many years.

dihydrogen_monoxide

Naiice! Maybe I'll get lucky next month and end up with my own row. I just have a sixth sense telling me my trip on UAL869 will be delayed as well and as a result miss the HKG-HGH leg.

Did you call United and make your arrangements for the hotel voucher as soon as you realized you would be delayed? Or how did that process work? I just want to either have a plane or a hotel waiting for me when I land in HKG.

Kmxu

See post #477 . You will get a hotel voucher on arrival at HKG.

BigTallTree

How does the TWOV work if I'm staying with friends?

Kmxu

I do not know the answer. Perhaps, you click on the link to the TWOV thread on wiki and post up an answer here to help others. Good luck.

985X

Trip report:
(just landed LAX on UA199, TBIT unfortunately.. Pictures may become available when I can access my computer.)

TLDR: Don't check any bags in case you miss connection and bag is missing as well.

I left LA on Sept 22nd, came back on 25th. Super tired after doing MR for the first time. Took UA708 from LA to SFO, which was delayed. Arrived at SFO on 12:30pm, 25mins before UA869 boarding ends. Surprisingly, UA869 was also delayed and would depart at 2pm. I wanted to reroute since I would miss a connection in HKG(KA622). The queue at customer service(gate 92) was super long. While I was waiting, UA869 was rescheduled to depart at 330pm due to maintenance issues. I asked the agent if I could reroute to shanghai, she agreed but cannot provide me with a hotel in shanghai as it would be my final destination. They could only provide you with free hotels if you miss you connection halfway. Then I asked if I could reroute to shanghai on Lufthansa so that I "don't have to pay for the hotel and just sleep on the flight". She denied cuz "the flight to HKG is still going". She agreed to transfer me to UA891 flying direct to shanghai, or I keep with UA869 and UA will get me a hotel in HKG. So I went for the hotel. Later I rushed to the customer service in terminal 3, more agents and no queue at all. I asked the same question as before, and she said she could reissue me a ticket from HKG-HGH on Hong Kong airlines HX128(the last flight of that day flying to Hangzhou) if I could catch that one. UA869 was really nice, only 190 pax according to the captain. Get an empty row for myself at the back of aircraft, 77W atmosphere was nice, HKG based crews were very helpful. A combination of Asian hospitality and American free-style.

UA869 landed HKG at 9pm, which was a guarantee that I would miss HX128. When I disembarked, HKG agents were already at the gate and distributed us hotel, shuttle to the hotel, and meal vouchers. I checked the departure board, surprisingly KA622 was also delayed and would depart at 11:25pm. I saw that but I didn't ask the agents if I could still take that flight. I wanted a stopover in HKG so bad cuz I haven't been there for a couple of years. Thanks to the empty UA869, I had a good rest on flight. I couldn't get my checked bag at HKG cuz my final destination was not HKG, they did it for security reasons. When I got to the hotel (Panda Hotel aka. "香港悦来酒店"), I called UA agent via Skype to see if they could reroute my HKG-HGH ticket to HKG-PVG. I asked if I could choose star alliance members and UA agent agreed. I first asked for BR/TG/CA and the agent couldn't get any of those confirmed. Then I called another agent who helped me the get my tickets reissued as BR828-BR712, HKG-TPE-PVG on Sept 24th. She also asked if I wanna change my return ticket as I would depart on 25th, which was pretty tight, so I asked for leaving on 26th and got my ticket reissued. After that, I took a quick shower at the hotel and hopped on and off those iconic double-deckers for the entire night. I didn't even get a sleep at Panda hotel cuz I just wanna experience those night buses. Since my flight was early in the morning (730am) and hotel shuttle was not running at that time, hotel booked us a taxi at United's expense. The ride to the airport was roughly 30-35mins.

When I checked in at BR's counter, the agents were surprised that I got such a weird routeing to PVG. I told them I had a checked bag, but they couldn't find it. After waiting for 45mins, they still couldn't get my luggage. Then they asked if I wanna go without checked bag. I agreed as boarding would start in a few minutes. They had me signed a document like "responsibility wavier for lost baggage". Then I boarded the plane. Almost missed it. BR's service was really nice, they even had a complimentary meal service on a 80-minute flight! Shame on North American carriers! When I got to PVG, I went to the baggage counter and filled a form for lost baggage. Neither UA nor BR could locate my baggage. Then I asked my friend who had worked for MU for help cuz he had a colleague working for KA that might assist me with the lost baggage. My friend's colleague forwarded my case to KA agents in HKG airport. After a few hours, they found my luggage, which was stranded at HKG. According to my friend, the KA\UA\BR agents in HKG negotiated with each other and decided to transport my baggage back to Shanghai on China Eastern MU506, which was the last HKG-PVG flight on that date. So here is the tricky part: Initially I was flying an oneworld member, then I got my tickets reissued to a star alliance member, and got my checked bag transported by a skyteam member!

I stayed at a HIX without my baggage. And the rain in shanghai was crazy. I met with my friend, thanked him for finding my bags, and we had dinner together in Jing'an Temple area. When I was back to hotel, I found MU506 was severely delayed. I wonder if that flight would get cancelled. MU506 left HKG after a 4-hr delay. Then I called UA agent again to change my return ticket back to Sept 25th as my baggage would probably arrive that morning and there's nothing to do in shanghai cuz it would be raining for an entire week. The charger of the computer was in my lost baggage, couldn't get one in shanghai. Thus I couldn't use Skype as my computer was out of battery. I used hotel's telephone instead. When I checked out, they charged me 350CNY (55USD) for using the telephone! Their international call rate was 10CNY/min(1.5-1.6USD/min)! Insane.

When I woke up on sept25th, I found out MU506 from HKG to PVG was diverted to HGH(Hangzhou) due to weather issues! I immediately called my friend to locate my baggage, and he said he had arranged staff at HGH to put my luggage on Shanghai Airlines FM934X(Hangzhou-Shanghai). They called this "a standby flight". FM934X was scheduled to depart on Sept 25th 3:05pm, and my flight to LA would depart on 810pm, pretty tight. I got to the airport at 1pm, and waited for the entire afternoon. I called the MU baggage department and they arranged someone to take me into the baggage claim area around 5pm. Then I waited until 530pm, nobody came. Then I saw their supervisor and complained to him in shanghai dialect. That worked. He took me into the int'l baggage claim area and tracked my baggage. The funniest thing was that even himself had no idea where was my baggage as the "standby flight" baggage info cannot be tracked. Had my friend not told me about the details of my baggage carrier, I would not be able to find it back. The int'l baggage claim supervisor directed me to the domestic claim area, and FM934X was also delayed. It landed at 550pm, and the gate was a remote one. I kept my fingers crossed as my flight back to LA would leave at 810pm (check-in counter closes at 710pm). Finally my bag came around 630pm, just 40mins prior to the check-in counter closes. MU's domestic baggage claim supervisor was nice, she took my claim report and promised me that she would forward it to BR agents. She was like "go right now, or you'll miss your flight!" Then I rushed to Terminal 2.

UA199 was fully booked in economy, since I had to wait for my delayed luggage, I didn't arrive early enough to get an E+ seat. All the E+ seats were taken and the system arranged me a seat on row 30, which was horrible. Last row of 789, narrow legroom comparing with E+ seats or an empty row. So many tourists. Babies kept crying, which was hard for me to fall asleep. Not a pleasant experience. Overall, this has been the most challenging journey. I didn't expect I would encounter so many problems on the way. Sore throat hurts. And it has lasted for 8 days since I flew with UA's PVG-GUM-HNL(island hopper)-SFO-EWR-SNA. That journey from PVG to SNA took me 55 hours. This time the LAX-SFO-HKG-TPE-PVG took me 35 hours(yet 65 hours for my checked bag)! I feel lucky that I'm still young and could push myself to the extreme to get more miles, explore some innovative routeings, and experience more airlines. Thanks to UA's ticketing policy and my friend's assistance, my first MR was challenging though amazing. Took me 8 days from blue to silver to gold.

Bottom Line: Don't have any checked bags unless you wanna make a short turnaround to a longer vacation. Tight connection and changing the itinerary at the last minute would result in the loss or delay of your baggage. Staff at PVG may speak a little English, if you don't speak local dialect or Chinese, they may treat you differently cuz some of them have awful oral skills (e.g. they'll forward you to another department when they can actually assist you directly). UA's ticketing policy is very flexible, you can get what you are looking for as long as your request is reasonable and tell them the difficulties you have encountered. Don't expect to get a free upgrade to biz when you have some status from other airlines and are holding a Y-class ticket. Chinese saying "the more you expect, the more you get disappointed." If they give you an upgrade, that's a courtesy. If you're still sitting in the last row of economy, that's the rules. Wish everyone can have a smoother trip than I do. Life well travelled!