Re-syncing and partner upgrades
Sep 19, 2012, 6:46 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: ORD
Programs: United Plat 2MM, Hilton Gold
Posts: 2,727
Re-syncing and partner upgrades
I recently flew ORD-FRA on UA, FRA-ZRH on LH, ZRH-BRU on LX and BRU-ORD on UA, on 016 stock. I upgraded the middle two segments with LH miles (which cleared immediately), and the outer two with UA miles (waitlisted).
When BRU-ORD cleared, I called, and United resynced ("sunk") the ticket. This caused both partner upgrades to be lost - and indeed, the whole LX segment disappeared. I spent a good 45 minutes on the phone while several agents worked to fix this. Eventually I got the *A Upgrade desk, and he told me the following:
So the moral of this story is to be very careful with re-syncing a ticket if you have any partner upgrades. Tell the agents to call the *A upgrade desk to get instructions before you let them "fix" anything.
When BRU-ORD cleared, I called, and United resynced ("sunk") the ticket. This caused both partner upgrades to be lost - and indeed, the whole LX segment disappeared. I spent a good 45 minutes on the phone while several agents worked to fix this. Eventually I got the *A Upgrade desk, and he told me the following:
- This happens (upgrades are lost) when tickets are re-synced. It is best to leave them out-of-sync.
- LH had me in both B and I (their version of R) when this happened, and LX had me only in I. Both segments in I vanished, so I was left without anything on Swiss.
- They were able to re-upgrade me, but only because there was still I inventory. Otherwise I would have been out of luck.
- Reservations agents are not taught how to handle this. He was kind of annoyed at this, seeing as how he ends up having to fix these problems.
So the moral of this story is to be very careful with re-syncing a ticket if you have any partner upgrades. Tell the agents to call the *A upgrade desk to get instructions before you let them "fix" anything.
Sep 19, 2012, 6:57 pm
#2
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: The counter of lost hopes and dreams, and for the creation of new ones in DEN
Programs: MP Rehab... or something like that...
Posts: 317
Well that's intersting yet not surprising... but teaching that to fellow coworkers is kind of like teaching an old dog new tricks... will try to foward that bit of information to IT but I'm sure it may fall on deaf ears unless I can provide physical proof... but here's the fun part... did the re-sync'd segments stay HK in SHARES yet disappear in OA reservations? Or did they disappear altogether from all resvervations? Maybe PM UA Insider with reservation details as I think their voice is greater than mine when it comes to these things... never know...
-CLE-
-CLE-
Sep 19, 2012, 7:26 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Bay Area, CA
Programs: UA Plat 2MM; AS MVP Gold 75K
Posts: 35,067
If you didn't call to sync it, someone in the back office of COdbaUA would probably have synced it, and you wouldn't have been able to witness the destruction to your record in real time.
And if they left it out of sync, wouldn't it have to get back in sync at the airport to check you in? Then the destruction might happen on day of departure.
Either way, I suspect that whatever happened to your record may be somehow related to some of the partner dropping issues we see from time to time. If the tickets are out of whack and/or CO touches them, then it has the potential to wreak havoc on the partner pieces of the record.
And by the way, if an agent tells you they can't put you back because the fare bucket is not available, push back if it's a systems issue. They can sell you into whatever is available. If Full C is available, then so be it. Might cost them some money to do it, but they certainly can.
And if they left it out of sync, wouldn't it have to get back in sync at the airport to check you in? Then the destruction might happen on day of departure.
Either way, I suspect that whatever happened to your record may be somehow related to some of the partner dropping issues we see from time to time. If the tickets are out of whack and/or CO touches them, then it has the potential to wreak havoc on the partner pieces of the record.
And by the way, if an agent tells you they can't put you back because the fare bucket is not available, push back if it's a systems issue. They can sell you into whatever is available. If Full C is available, then so be it. Might cost them some money to do it, but they certainly can.
Sep 19, 2012, 7:31 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: ORD
Programs: United Plat 2MM, Hilton Gold
Posts: 2,727
My intent was more to warn my fellow FT's about this than to get UA to fix this, but...
I'm happy to provide any information you think would be helpful, but since the *A Desk seems to know what's going on, maybe they would be the best folks to try and fix it. From the passenger's end it's hard to tell - for instance I have no idea if the segments were still HK in SHARES.
One other thing: I printed out the upgrade confirmations as soon as I got them, and that turned out to be a good thing. When I showed up at ZRH for the return, things were still a bit of a mess and this helped the LX staff check me in. (It took two CSRs and a supervisor 30 minutes, but they did it) It helps to be prepared.
I'm happy to provide any information you think would be helpful, but since the *A Desk seems to know what's going on, maybe they would be the best folks to try and fix it. From the passenger's end it's hard to tell - for instance I have no idea if the segments were still HK in SHARES.
One other thing: I printed out the upgrade confirmations as soon as I got them, and that turned out to be a good thing. When I showed up at ZRH for the return, things were still a bit of a mess and this helped the LX staff check me in. (It took two CSRs and a supervisor 30 minutes, but they did it) It helps to be prepared.
Sep 19, 2012, 7:47 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: ORD
Programs: United Plat 2MM, Hilton Gold
Posts: 2,727
Channa, the *A agent left a note in the record and told me to tell anyone who looked at it
I certainly believe that they could force me into C if they wanted to. I'm not as confident as you that they would have spent real money on it. I would have expected them to tell me to pound sand, and then Customer Service would give me a few thousand miles.
I called up my old ticket on united.com, and it says I was in classes B-I-B-R for the trip. The first section has already posted as "ZB", so that's correct. The LX segment says "B", and the agent said when checking me in that they had to override the system to issue me a Business boarding pass even though the system thought I was in Economy. However, that BP says C where the Lufthansa one says I. So it's not clear what sort of witchcraft they had to do. A mystery unlikely to be solved.
I certainly believe that they could force me into C if they wanted to. I'm not as confident as you that they would have spent real money on it. I would have expected them to tell me to pound sand, and then Customer Service would give me a few thousand miles.
I called up my old ticket on united.com, and it says I was in classes B-I-B-R for the trip. The first section has already posted as "ZB", so that's correct. The LX segment says "B", and the agent said when checking me in that they had to override the system to issue me a Business boarding pass even though the system thought I was in Economy. However, that BP says C where the Lufthansa one says I. So it's not clear what sort of witchcraft they had to do. A mystery unlikely to be solved.
