Flight shows up on united.com but not for award desk agents?
Jul 31, 2012, 3:56 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Seattle, WA; Denver, CO
Programs: UA 1K, Alaska MVP Gold 75K, HHonors Gold, Avis Preferred
Posts: 64
Flight shows up on united.com but not for award desk agents?
I'm running into a frustrating issue with trying to book a RTW business class award ticket for early next summer. I'd like to fly part of one leg of the trip on LH 534 (FRA-CCS). Through united.com, the flight shows up and shows business class availability. However, when I call nobody at United sees this in the "internal system" - they can't even tell it exists on that date, let alone that there's award availability (and yes, I spoke to four different agents, the answer was ruthlessly consistent. Can't see it.) There are no other FRA-CCS routings that work since they all connect through the US. Happily, all the other flights in the RTW itinerary (mostly *A partners) showed open business award availability in their system, and an excellent agent at the RTW desk was able to put the rest of the RTW ticket on hold for me even with this "missing" leg. So I've got until Friday to sort this out before my "hold" expires, ideally by convincing them that the flight/availability exists as opposed to changing the trip route.
Any advice??
It's Lufthansa business, so I don't think this is the usual "we only release seats two weeks before the flight" problem that comes up with first class awards. I'm hesitant to do an attempted award booking as a way of checking to see if this availability is for real, since if it succeeds I don't want to risk losing those miles and then waiting 54728 years for United to get around to redepositing them (thus losing miles I need to book the larger currently-on-hold itinerary). Is there a known solution for getting everyone on the same page in situations like this where united.com shows (apparent) availability but the "internal" system can't see it?
Any advice??
It's Lufthansa business, so I don't think this is the usual "we only release seats two weeks before the flight" problem that comes up with first class awards. I'm hesitant to do an attempted award booking as a way of checking to see if this availability is for real, since if it succeeds I don't want to risk losing those miles and then waiting 54728 years for United to get around to redepositing them (thus losing miles I need to book the larger currently-on-hold itinerary). Is there a known solution for getting everyone on the same page in situations like this where united.com shows (apparent) availability but the "internal" system can't see it?
Jul 31, 2012, 4:45 pm
#2
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.99MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,772
been a lot of issues with LH premium cabin availibity
Does the space show up on ANA or AC's booking systems?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-recently.html
or search on "phantom"+"LH"
Does the space show up on ANA or AC's booking systems?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-recently.html
or search on "phantom"+"LH"
Jul 31, 2012, 8:35 pm
#3
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: PHL
Programs: UA Plat, 2MM
Posts: 1,860
Don't even bother beliving UA wesbite on LH flights. This has been going on for well over a year, and UA and LH do nothing about it. From experience, just give up looking until about two weeks before the flight. I know, that does not help planning.