GetSetJetSet

Every time I try to search "multiple destinations" united.com gives me an error message saying it couldn't find the flights, even though when I search each individual segment as a one way, I find all of the relevant flights. I only ask because of the gross incompetence of the UA phone operators.

I am trying to book:
BCN-DOH QR J
DOH-TBS QR J (Stopover)
TBS-IST TK J
IST-BEY TK J (Destination)
OPEN JAW
CAI-ZRH-BCN LX J

United.com shows J seats open on all of the relevant days for all of my flights. The UA agents seem to be perplexed as all of my flights have been confirmed other than the QR flights which are listed as "waitlisted" on my reservation, which I don't even think we normally have the ability to do. All the while the flights still show available on United.com and when I try a dummy booking online (of the BCN-DOH flight as an example) it lets me go ahead. Until my third call it never dawned on anyone at United to perhaps call Qatar and see what the deal was. However according to UA, Qatar doesn't open until 9am EST, so I need to call UA again later.

Long story short. I want to book all of the flights online, cancel the aborted booking UA has been mucking up and cut the idiots at UA's elite line out of the equation, but the website won't comply...how to I bend it to my will? Thanks.

P.S.

All QR travel would be complete before the end of August, so there should be no September 14th related issues.

Ericka

I booked my QR itinerary online as two one-ways. It also had a stopover so the website (seeing a one-way award) overcharged me miles. I had to work with several UA phone agents after the fact to get the extra miles refunded, explaining that I was trying to build a legal roundtrip but the website wouldn't let me.

FlyerChrisK

Calling to book complex itineraries is generally much better than trying to use the website. Since you've been spending your time on the phone anyways, why not just book the trip over the phone?

GetSetJetSet

Because I did book it, then they for some reason waitlisted my QR segments and I am now on my 4th call with UA, where the agent is telling me QR is keeping the flights waitlisted (even though they show available and can be booked online) and trying to get me to switch dates...and frankly giving me attitude about me wanting her to call Qatar and straighten this out. Now she is telling me that QR award shouldn't have been able to have been booked yesterday. Does anyone at UA know the rules of their own program? She wants me to move the QR flights forward a day, which I can't do because I have to be in BEY on a specific specific day.

Ericka

Is there something stopping you from booking the itinerary online as one-ways and then cancelling the itinerary the agents have been working with?

PapaSmurf

I think the OP would like a stopover along the way. As far as I know, this can't be done online although I'd love to be proven otherwise.

I've run into similar situation recently. However, instead of booking everything over the phone I was able to book most of the itinerary online and then called to book the remaining segments. This might work better than trying to book everything over the phone and should price out correctly in terms of miles.

In my case I booked A-B and then C-D-A online as a roundtrip with B being the stopover and C the final destination. After that was confirmed online, I called MP and booked the remaining B-C segment.

I've been booking a Qatar itinerary over the last two days and run into the same problems. Most of the agents say that you can't book anymore and it takes some convincing to get them to book it.

BTW, are you sure that the QR segments actually have availability? I found one segment last night which was showing online as bookable, but when I called I was told that it's not available. Sure enough when I try to actually book it online, it said it wasn't available. So there appears to be some phantom availability that's not bookable.

GetSetJetSet

I finally got it all sorted over the phone. Took a lot of calls but I managed to get them to book my on a QR flight. It was 2 days earlier than I wanted to leave, but I suppose I can just add some time at various stops, should be ok. Still haven't gotten the 35,000 miles kicked back to me yet though. I changed a Euro-S.Africa award in J to a Euro-Middle East award in J. I believe I am owed 35k miles and close to $300 in taxes. UA keeps telling me to wait and it could take up to 2 weeks.

Ericka

Well, I did it. See post 2 in this thread. I booked two one-ways as follows and then fought to get the extra miles back.
IAH-DOH stopover DOH-SEZ
SEZ-DOH-KWI-IAD

cruise603

So when you called MP and booked the B-C segment, do you have to pay any change fees or extra miles ?
I ran into the same problem. All my QR flights show up on line, but the phone agent refuses to book any Qatar flights.

PapaSmurf

As a 1K, no booking fees. The miles remain the same, but there might be some slight change in taxes.

If the agent doesn't want to book QR flights, hang-up and call again.

channa

There's already a thread on the QR issue -- apparently they cutoff the agents' visibility into the QR flights already.