J.Edward

Currently delayed at IAH "awaiting inbound aircraft" to head out to LAX and then onto HNL.

On the way to the airport tripit sent over a txt informing me of the delay (and FWIW they beat UA by ~12m ) and I called into res to see what could be done.

The res agent tried to help but seemed to be more concerned about making sure my original fare class (G) was available rather than rebooking me on a flight.

I commented how this stemmed from a UA issue, and as such, the issue seemed to be more so if there was a seat or not in Y *NOT* if there was a seat in G.

(Now of course if I had wanted to make a voluntary change to the record I could certainly understand the need to keep me in G (or pay up to a higher fare) but in the case of IRROPs I firmly believe UA should adopt the industry standard of allowing last seat availability to accommodate customers.)

But the rep was adamant G was required and she, nor a supervisor could override it, even while acknowledging it was a UA issue! <sigh>

Furthermore as a point of comparison both AA and DL adhere to the practice of allow last seat availability during IRROPs as did pmUA.

In fact, DL has a very slick self-service IRROPs tool via the website/iPhone/android/kisoks where customers who have a delay of more than X minutes (10 IIRC) can select alternative flights and airports, finalize their rebooking, collect their new boarding docs and be on their way.

But anyways if it is the policy of UA then they need to quickly revisit it and revise it to be more in line with the far more consumer friendly industry standard, and if they do allow last seat availability for IRROPs, then res agents need to be empowered to use it to resolve issues.

uapremier

PMUA has always allowed last seat "Y" availability. I've never had a problem with this as a 1K for many years. I suspect this is either a SHARES limitation or new policy implemented after 3/3.
Anyone else experienced IRROPS post 3/3 yet?

OP, sorry you are experiencing this. Very frustrating.

palmetto86

I've been re-accommodated three times since 3/3 during IRROPS. Twice over the phone, once in full Y, the other in original fare class. At the airport, I was rebooked in full Y.

I don't think it is current policy to only rebook in original fare class during IRROPS. Did you look online to see if the website offered you any other options? In my experience, it seems to show all available.

Call back?

aacharya

What J. Edward means is that he is being proactive, but since the system isn't showing misconnect, UA is going via the SDC rules.

username

Was the magic word "protect" used? It might trigger the agents to think differently.

WillFlyer

I agree with palmetto86 that politely ending the call with that agent and calling back for a better agent would have been appropriate.

J.Edward

Always a good option -- I did ask at IAH what the official rule was from an agent I know at the UC and she mentioned they were suppose to keep you in the same fare class, but in the case of IRROPs they could override it...so my *guess* is they, e.g. the airport, *can* override the fare class to accommodate an IRROP'd passenger *if* the original fare class is not there. She did not know what the policy was at res.

As for reservations -- it's certainly possible she thought I wanted to do an SDC (which *would* require the correct fare class) but I clearly mentioned this was an IRROPs situation and the rep even acknowledged it ("well yes, our plane is late but we still need G to rebook you on") so I'm a bit hesitant to say the rep was confused on the issue.

In any event what needs to happen is for any agent of UA to be empowered to rebook a customer into last seat availability in IRROPs, and if we're really lucky, a self-servicing option so we could take care of it ourselves would be best.

hobo13

Unbelievable.

But, FWIW, this is not a global policy. It might be call center policy, or an individual agent's policy, but I can say without a doubt that my two horrible irroprs experiences on 3/5 and 3/16 resulted in my family getting rebooked in Y (later magically adjusted by SHARES into S so as to avoid giving me a CoS bonus!). Now it did take 4 hours the first time (not kidding!) and 2 hours the second time (also not kidding) all the while standing at gate / club / counter, but it did get done.

I even managed to change the destination, when it became clear that it would otherwise result in a trip-in-vain.

I expect that you will have much better luck at the airport when you can deal face-to-face and they realize that they can't get rid of you just by saying NO.

Pingtung

Of course that means potentially having to wait in some ridiculously long lines instead of just having the elite res agents take care of it like they did prior to the merger. Let's hope they are still empowered to make these rebookings and that this is a one off incident.

Often1

I don't think it's policy at all. Either at call center or airport. The problem with call centers is that they don't know there's a certain misconnect until the system updates. Until that happens, they are dealing with an SDC not an IRROPS.

OP was proactive here and likely beat the text from UA (note the 12m delay from Tripit to UA's system).

Best advice remains the old hang up & redial.

TWA Fan 1

I agree, I think the system and/or agent was treating this as an SDC.

Given the circumstance, by some definitions of IrrOps/SDC, it was somewhat borderline...

EsquireFlyer

This reflects typical UACO mentality: there is no need to solve problems before they arise, and the problem does not exist until after the ship hits the iceberg.

Exactly the same as:

• Forcing the SHARES cutover on 3/3 even though the GUI was not finished and there were still a bunch of glitches to work out
• Insisting on making the old MP/OP cards expire on 3/2 even though many of the new cards were not even printed and mailed until after 3/3
• Booking upgrades from paid C to F into O/ON inventory, the same as awards, even though this would deny mileage credit for the paid C ticket, and letting agents try to sort it out after the mileage credit is denied
• Merging the RCCs and PCs into the "United Club" without notifying the RCCs about the Amtrak Guest Rewards contract until after a bunch of Amtrak members were rudely bounced out and Amtrak complained directly to UACO management
• Etc., etc.

I would not be surprised if UACO makes an official policy whereby pax proactively calling in to rebook and avoid a predicted misconnect will be offered a buy-up to the available fare bucket on the rerouted flight if they want to be confirmed immediately as a SDC; or, the option to take their chances on a free reroute in any fare bucket after their connecting flight departs (and have this enforced by a new system rule that disallows higher-bucket rebooks until after the system shows the missed flight as "departed').

craz

Sorry it just may be me but I didnt read where the OP said they 100% were going to miss their LAX-HNL flight. If the delayed flight will still get them into LAX with enough time to make the connection no matter how tight, I dont see an Irrops coming into play and thusly COdbaUa would be correct that the same fare basis would need to be available for a SDC

That said I dont blame the OP for being proactive and wanting to try and get something into place just in case it becomes an actual Irrops issue, which would be getting protected on another flight but probably for the flight thats suppose to take off after their was.

Otherwise if getting to HNL ASAP is important then unfortunately the only way is to pay up as long as nothing went Irrops yet. Now depending on what they wanted from me and what my plans were for the night in HNL would be the deciding factor if I help Jeff extend his smile or not

FlyingNone

[QUOTE=J.....But anyways if it is the policy of UA then they need to quickly revisit it and revise it to be more in line with the far more consumer friendly industry standard, and if they do allow last seat availability for IRROPs, then res agents need to be empowered to use it to resolve issues.[/QUOTE].....

-------------------------------
It definitely was not the way United did it prior to March 3rd. Protection is always done in the class of service booked or lowest class closest to ticketed class on up to Y if that is the only thing available. This is a perfect example of not being on the same page (Reservations) with airport operations. Don't know why PMCO Reservations does it this way - like they have no empowerment to think out of the box (????).....or what would be known as a common sense decision.

I recently had to protect a passenger on another airline during irrops and because I am new to SHARES I had some difficulty "synching" the ticket. The Help Desk insisted I "okay" it by putting an "authorization" comment in the record. Only then did she show me how to do it. This, after I told her there was no availability on United for two days and I certainly wasn't going to torture the passenger with waiting for availability in the class of service they were ticketed in !! Ridiculous.

channa

Sounds like you got a legacy CO agent.

This is the kind of fiery hoop that CO has made me jump through in the past when dealing IRROPS -- exactly at the time you don't need to be dealing with fiery hoops.

I suspect the policy is any open seat, but if they can throw a hoop in your way to make you pay, that's more money in their pocket. Or if they successfully deflect the problem, they can avoid the lengthy ticket reissue process on their archaic systems.

So long as it's in their best interest to not help customers, we're going to see this sort of stuff continue.