jkellyplan

While LH was patently unfair and the senior management "arrogant" (this according to the senior UA who assisted me), the matter has been brought to a resolution a few minutes ago.

UA contacted me to inform me she had a conf call w/LH USA and Frankfurt people who basically said "NO", they will not reinstate, but will "waitlist" me. They admitted to UA that the waitlist was a pretty poor chance to come through. UA said thanks but no thanks and terminated the call. UA admitted to me that this was a pretty unprofessional encounter and was herself not happy w/LH at all.

She happily accommodated me on my choice of UA metal, so I selected LAX-SFO-FRA on the early eve departure for a 3pm arrival in FRA on their 744 in C class. All forward seats taken on the upper deck except for aisle in front of the restrooms (first row), so I selected that seat as opposed to facing "backwards".

Thanks to all of you who wrote in offering advice , I really LOVE FlyerTalk!

FlyWorld

I think it is insane to go from SFO to FRA via IAH instead of direct from SFO.

Thank you for following up with us.

There have been endless posts here from people who have described failures in SHARES that result in UA messing up bookings with partners.

To understand the "arrogance" of LH, I'd suggest that you put on their shoes. They probably get several hundred calls every day from UA agents trying to blame LH for what really is a UA problem.

Also it never was clear to me that they ever confirmed. Did they confirm and give you a PNR then pull it back? Or, did they just not confirm what you requested in the first place?

jkellyplan

LH issued PNR and took it back but wouldn't explain why to UA is what I was told. I think that is why UA worked as hard on this as they did.

FlyWorld

But you never saw the PNR and you never logged into LH web site with the PNR so you don't know if that's true, right?

jkellyplan

I just am repeating what UA told me

CDKing

How about when you book 1 or 2 days in advance? Im hoping LH space opens up on my trip at the end of the month. Id hate to lose my existing GF seat because my new flight does not get confirmed in LH system

FlyWorld

Understood. I'm just questioning what they told you.

We all know that LH might not confirm in the 72 hour window.

Has anyone here had experience where they did confirm, they issued a PNR, and then they clawed it back?

TerryK

LH computer will immediately generate a PNR based on request from UA computer. The question is if the status was ever confirmed (HK)? It could have been NN, PN, RQ or UC without ever been HKed. Then, you never really had a seat on LH and LH never confirmed you (which is different from what the thread title implies). In other words, you were too late to the party and someone else grabbed the LH seat. UA computer didn't update in time and incorrectly showed seat being available.

UA worked as hard as you said because UA screwed up, not LH. UA agent should have advised you that you need to call back in 24 hours to confirm as it is an interline booking and status is not real time. Again, this applies to interline revenue booking as well. Although revenue classes are usually available and less of a problem. It is really no fault of LH but simply limitation of interline computer booking.

UA, although not admitting fault, made good for you. All is well now.

pigx5

I have another concern that is about SHARES....

My friend had a ticket on UA/CA and CA had never received the ticket number,
no matter how many times UA agents reissued this ticket.
CA said they had never received and canceled the segment.
At the end, the solution was to go to UA ticket office in Beijing to pick up the
paper ticket when transiting. (he had overnight layover)

I had an award ticket issued by UA and travel on OZ/CA.
I called to change one segment and turned out the other 2 segments were
disappeared. I called UA again but they couldn't force OZ to open seats.
In addition, the new ticket should be from PVG. When I arrived at PVG, the reservation showed SHA.

I have been protected on DL twice on revenue tickets.
Both time they said the tickets had been reissued and I just needed to
show up at DL check in counter to check in.
Both time DL said they didn't have a ticket attached with the reservation.
I needed to go back and forth between DL and UA counter many times.

The other thread points out that UA has problem to book BR award.
This might be caused by BR system but it might be caused by SHARES.

Not to mention that many people report that one or more of their segments on partner airline dropped.

The other story was from points guy that he had problem with LX award ticket issued by UA. (My friend travel with LX many times by US airways' miles without any problem)
http://thepointsguy.com/2012/09/my-s...wiss-airlines/

channa has stories about this kind issue back to pmCO

I am more concerned about the truth....
That's why I suggested OP to have conference call with both airlines to figure out what exactly happened.
Are all these caused by SHARES or they are all partner airlines' fault??

mauiUAflyer

I had a similar issue to the OP with LH. I was booked DXB-FRA (LH, C), FRA-IAD on UA (GF) award.

Finally the DXB-FRA opened up with F on LH. I got UA to change that segment.

Checking with the LH website, never saw the change to F. Called LH, no idea about it.

Called UA, on hold, they couldn't make it work with LH, so they put me in GF on the DXB-IAD non-stop. That was nice.

channa

Couldn't be. When you request the space, it comes back confirmed or unconfirmed (instantly). If someone snagged it a split second before you did, it would come back unconfirmed.

Since the OP had it confirmed on his or her ticket, and the ticket is issued with that segment, UA is responsible for flying you for that segment.

We can talk all we want about glitches and SHARES and interconnection, but if that flight coupon is on the ticket, it's a ticket, and if LH is not seeing it, UA must do what's needed to fix it.

In most cases, offering up UA space will be a sufficient remedy, but the OP seems intent on flying LH, so they can push until UA books them into LH revenue.


Doesn't matter. UA got a confirmation from LH and ticketed it. The OP has a ticket, that's all that matters.


Another option would be to feed CA the ticket number. Sometimes they can pull it up and manually attach it.

I've had to do that with a post-SHARES UA-issued ticket for some flights on NZ.


Yes, the dropped segment thing has been happening for years with SHARES, well back in the CO days.


Yes, post-3/3, I always call DL before leaving the UA area to make sure it's good (or try to smartphone checkin via the DL app).


I think this is different, since it used to work reasonably reliably before BR's system cutover. I think the interface hasn't been reestablished since BR made their changes.


The common denominator is CO's systems. These problems didn't really happen on PMUA until they went to SHARES. They happened on CO before the cutover, and they're happening now on UA.

The ONLY time I ever had something similar on UA was with a SA segment that UA showed as dropped. But a call to SAA verified the segment was still in tact, it just stopped showing on UA's side. So the severity and impact of the issue was merely cosmetic, whereas with SHARES, space is truly getting dropped.

That's why I think a conference call wouldn't produce the desired results. CO is not going to want to disclose they screwed up. LH, however may be willing to point a finger at CO. So as I suggested before, the OP should call LH directly and try to find an agent willing to figure out what happened. Once I did that with LX in my CO-dropped LX flight, that's when I was able to get CO to acknowledge their systems did it, and then I was able to get them to force me on LX in a revenue class as a remedy.

Often1

Nowhere does OP say that he had a ticket. All he says is:

"I received an e-mail confirmation shortly after my call ".

The question is whether OP received an e-ticket receipt, not whether he received an itinerary or other communication.

It's unclear that this was ticketed and given that LH had 72 hours to confirm space, it's unlikely that it was ticketed.

pigx5

I think more important is that this happens too many times already.
He is not the only one in this situation.

Antipode

I wouldn't necessarily count out the rear-facing seats so easily. There are many here (including myself) who prefer the rear-facing seats to the forward facing ones.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...g-j-seats.html

Kacee

Glad to hear United took care of you Should be a very pleasant flight. The backwards facing seats on the upper deck do get lots of recommendations. I'll test that out in 15K SFO-HKG next month.