HELP! flying tmrw but out-of-sych ticket caused by UA agent & UA refuses to help!
Dec 12, 2013, 4:28 pm
#1
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HELP! flying tmrw but out-of-sych ticket caused by UA agent & UA refuses to help!
I'm in a bind and need advice from the UA community on FT. This is quite the story so please be patient with the text vomit below:
I'm flying DCA-EWR-ARN tomorrow and returning ARN-EWR-DCA on 12/15. I got this ticket from the Wideroe deal so its on 701 stock. For some reason, the EWR-DCA segment is on 016 stock.
The ticket was originally booked to fly last weekend 12/7, but due to WX issues I would have missed my connection in EWR. The UA ticket agent at DCA asked me if I would be ok going next (tomorrow) weekend, and I agreed. She did an involuntary reroute, booking me in Y-bucket for the same itinerary, just 1 week later. The original fare bucket was K. Dureing the rebooking, the UA ticket agent says "this will take some doing to avoid it being out-of-synch, but I know what to do." 10 minutes later, she handed me the new itinerary on boarding-pass stock that said "invol reroute" with the 701 ticket stock.
When I got home, I checked on UA.com which offered me a mileage upgrade to BF for 15k pp, ow. A friend w/ UA miles sponsored the upgrade, and I got the "upgrade confirmed", seat assignments in BF, etc. on the EWR-ARN segment. There wasn't R space on the DCA-EWR segment so it had me as "upgrade requested" and the extra DCA-EWR tab showing on the seatmap...all normal.
Fast-forward to today (T-24) I was at work when I just happened to check my res, and lo-and-behold it says "a change was made to your itinerary, call UA to have tix reissued." My gut reaction was "great, tix is out of synch." Having no status, I called the UA India-preferred line, where I explained the situation to the phone agent, whom promptly said "sir, this isn't a united ticket, you have to call Wideroe." I repeated that it was a UA ticket agent who made these changes but alas, no dice.
Fire up the wideroe chat screen, talk to a CS rep there, who tells me that b/c it was a "special" fare, that UA is not permitting them to make ANY change to the ticket.
In one last desperate attempt, I tried OLCI, but it said "no valid flight coupon found, contact UA reservations." If I pull up the reservation on UA.com, it shows me in the Y fare bucket, with the seat assignments in BF (R-class) on the EWR-ARN segment; just as normal. When I show "pick my itinerary", everything is normal. When I look at the seat map, everything is normal.
So what should I do???? My FT-training says to show up at DCA tomorrow morning (4 hours before my flight) and play dumb. I have the TA-sourced itinerary, the printed receipts and itinerary from UA.com showing me as confirmed in BF, and the original receipt from UA showing payment. Is that my only recourse? Am I going to be able to fly tomorrow?
I'm flying DCA-EWR-ARN tomorrow and returning ARN-EWR-DCA on 12/15. I got this ticket from the Wideroe deal so its on 701 stock. For some reason, the EWR-DCA segment is on 016 stock.
The ticket was originally booked to fly last weekend 12/7, but due to WX issues I would have missed my connection in EWR. The UA ticket agent at DCA asked me if I would be ok going next (tomorrow) weekend, and I agreed. She did an involuntary reroute, booking me in Y-bucket for the same itinerary, just 1 week later. The original fare bucket was K. Dureing the rebooking, the UA ticket agent says "this will take some doing to avoid it being out-of-synch, but I know what to do." 10 minutes later, she handed me the new itinerary on boarding-pass stock that said "invol reroute" with the 701 ticket stock.
When I got home, I checked on UA.com which offered me a mileage upgrade to BF for 15k pp, ow. A friend w/ UA miles sponsored the upgrade, and I got the "upgrade confirmed", seat assignments in BF, etc. on the EWR-ARN segment. There wasn't R space on the DCA-EWR segment so it had me as "upgrade requested" and the extra DCA-EWR tab showing on the seatmap...all normal.
Fast-forward to today (T-24) I was at work when I just happened to check my res, and lo-and-behold it says "a change was made to your itinerary, call UA to have tix reissued." My gut reaction was "great, tix is out of synch." Having no status, I called the UA India-preferred line, where I explained the situation to the phone agent, whom promptly said "sir, this isn't a united ticket, you have to call Wideroe." I repeated that it was a UA ticket agent who made these changes but alas, no dice.
Fire up the wideroe chat screen, talk to a CS rep there, who tells me that b/c it was a "special" fare, that UA is not permitting them to make ANY change to the ticket.
In one last desperate attempt, I tried OLCI, but it said "no valid flight coupon found, contact UA reservations." If I pull up the reservation on UA.com, it shows me in the Y fare bucket, with the seat assignments in BF (R-class) on the EWR-ARN segment; just as normal. When I show "pick my itinerary", everything is normal. When I look at the seat map, everything is normal.
So what should I do???? My FT-training says to show up at DCA tomorrow morning (4 hours before my flight) and play dumb. I have the TA-sourced itinerary, the printed receipts and itinerary from UA.com showing me as confirmed in BF, and the original receipt from UA showing payment. Is that my only recourse? Am I going to be able to fly tomorrow?
Dec 12, 2013, 4:37 pm
#2
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Where's the part where a UA agent caused this issue? It sounds more like an issue with Wideroe not updating the ticket to reflect the new itinerary. UA modified the reservation to get you on the new flights this weekend (which is all they can do when it's not a UA or *A ticket), but you'll need an eTicket that corresponds to this. Wideroe needs to resolve this issue with the ticket, or UA will need to decide at the airport that the eTicket you have is good enough without being changed.
Dec 12, 2013, 4:42 pm
#3
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IIRC wilderoe is the mistake fare website that was shut down in early DEC 2013.... Or at least the fares were.
Showing up is the only chance you have of flying, I fear. I don't think Wilderoe will help because UA has made it clear to them they will have to pay the fare mistakes back. If you were cleanly ticketed you could force UA to fly from what I have read, but I'm no expert on this.
Showing up is the only chance you have of flying, I fear. I don't think Wilderoe will help because UA has made it clear to them they will have to pay the fare mistakes back. If you were cleanly ticketed you could force UA to fly from what I have read, but I'm no expert on this.
Dec 12, 2013, 4:45 pm
#4
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Agreed, I'd show up and play dumb. Trying to sort this out is going to be annoying, at best. On the upside, it's all ticketed on the same PNR, so you're unlikely to be stranded somewhere (weather aside).
Dec 12, 2013, 4:53 pm
#5
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Even if you are able to check-in tomorrow, I'd be more worried about what you might encounter on the way home. If you're refused check-in in Stockholm, do you have enough miles in your account for an award ticket home? Do you have a backup plan in place if you can't get home?
Does UA use its own agents in Stockholm or does it contract out there?
Does UA use its own agents in Stockholm or does it contract out there?
Dec 12, 2013, 5:04 pm
#6
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Nothing here suggests that the UA agent didn't do what she said she would do, e.g., it's not out of synch.
You simply lack a valid flight coupon and that's because the issuing carrier hasn't reissued the ticket.
Slogging this out at DCA is likely to be your best bet. But, be prepared to be disappointed. Wideroe absolutely does need to reissue the ticket and if UA at DCA figures this out, you will have a problem.
You simply lack a valid flight coupon and that's because the issuing carrier hasn't reissued the ticket.
Slogging this out at DCA is likely to be your best bet. But, be prepared to be disappointed. Wideroe absolutely does need to reissue the ticket and if UA at DCA figures this out, you will have a problem.
Dec 12, 2013, 5:06 pm
#7
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show up and play dumb, get there EARLY. bring all the paperwork that you have, but volunteer no information except that you tried to fly last week and due to the weather, UA reissued your ticket for this weekend. i would expect your PNR would have notes to that effect.
what class/cabin does your reservation show for each leg right now on .bomb?
do you know when the ticket fell out of sync? as i recall many people were experiencing very long ticketing times on Wideroe website. my guess is that the agent/UA sent the ticket back to Wideroe for re-issue after changing the reservation, and they did not reissue it properly. did your e-ticket numbers change from your original reservation to the re-issued one that you received from the agent at DCA last weekend?
i would worry less about the return trip, if your ticket is able to be re-synced before you depart it should also be synced for the return (*provided you make no other changes that would result in another change in booking class, such as upgrading the return to BF). if it cannot be re-synced before you depart, you aren't going to have to worry about the return because you'll be headed home, not to ARN.
if OP is denied boarding would this qualify for IDB compensation?
what class/cabin does your reservation show for each leg right now on .bomb?
do you know when the ticket fell out of sync? as i recall many people were experiencing very long ticketing times on Wideroe website. my guess is that the agent/UA sent the ticket back to Wideroe for re-issue after changing the reservation, and they did not reissue it properly. did your e-ticket numbers change from your original reservation to the re-issued one that you received from the agent at DCA last weekend?
i would worry less about the return trip, if your ticket is able to be re-synced before you depart it should also be synced for the return (*provided you make no other changes that would result in another change in booking class, such as upgrading the return to BF). if it cannot be re-synced before you depart, you aren't going to have to worry about the return because you'll be headed home, not to ARN.
if OP is denied boarding would this qualify for IDB compensation?
Last edited by PV_Premier; Dec 12, 2013 at 5:14 pm Reason: *edit to add
Dec 12, 2013, 5:11 pm
#8
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Dec 12, 2013, 5:18 pm
#9
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show up and play dumb, get there EARLY. bring all the paperwork that you have, but volunteer no information except that you tried to fly last week and due to the weather, UA reissued your ticket for this weekend. i would expect your PNR would have notes to that effect.
what class/cabin does your reservation show for each leg right now on .bomb?
do you know when the ticket fell out of sync? as i recall many people were experiencing very long ticketing times on Wideroe website. my guess is that the agent/UA sent the ticket back to Wideroe for re-issue after changing the reservation, and they did not reissue it properly. did your e-ticket numbers change from your original reservation to the re-issued one that you received from the agent at DCA last weekend?
i would worry less about the return trip, if your ticket is able to be re-synced before you depart it should also be synced for the return (*provided you make no other changes that would result in another change in booking class, such as upgrading the return to BF). if it cannot be re-synced before you depart, you aren't going to have to worry about the return because you'll be headed home, not to ARN.
if OP is denied boarding would this qualify for IDB compensation?
what class/cabin does your reservation show for each leg right now on .bomb?
do you know when the ticket fell out of sync? as i recall many people were experiencing very long ticketing times on Wideroe website. my guess is that the agent/UA sent the ticket back to Wideroe for re-issue after changing the reservation, and they did not reissue it properly. did your e-ticket numbers change from your original reservation to the re-issued one that you received from the agent at DCA last weekend?
i would worry less about the return trip, if your ticket is able to be re-synced before you depart it should also be synced for the return (*provided you make no other changes that would result in another change in booking class, such as upgrading the return to BF). if it cannot be re-synced before you depart, you aren't going to have to worry about the return because you'll be headed home, not to ARN.
if OP is denied boarding would this qualify for IDB compensation?
OP may have some claim against Wideroe, but good luck to him on that. Certainly not gonna help him standing at DCA.
Dec 12, 2013, 6:28 pm
#10
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The e-ticket numbers did not change from the original reservation.
Dec 12, 2013, 6:51 pm
#11
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UAs systems are not smart enough to reissue an extant ticket on the same number in IRROPS. works fine when the ticket is issued on 016 stock, or with a partner airline with a "seamless" connection to SHARES. the agent at DCA didn't reissue your ticket but s/he probably sent a request to Wideroe to reissue it, which didn't happen (otherwise your eticket number would have changed). actually, IIRC, it may have happened, but it didn't happen before you requested the upgrade. you caused a further logjam by requesting the upgrade against a reservation that doesn't have a valid e-ticket number filed against it at the time the upgrade was requested.
right now you don't have a valid e-ticket, because your original e-ticket was issued with a K fare basis and the system is now looking for an e-ticket that is issued with a Y fare basis. but even that might not be right, because you issued an upgrade against a reservation that didn't have an eticket when the upgrade was requested, so now it's looking for something with Y and R.
in my experience by now you should have had 3 eticket numbers by this point, if things had gone correctly:
eticket 1: K fare - canceled and reissued to:
eticket 2: Y fare - canceled and reissued to:
eticket 3: Y/R fare - valid
all three should have been on 701 stock and probably would have required UA agent intervention to send back to Wideroe for reissuing after each change. i may be wrong about eticket 3.
sounds like you're stuck back at step 1. not a great place to be.
this is my take on the situation. as usual, the experts will correct me and i will learn something new.
Dec 12, 2013, 6:59 pm
#12
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IIRC, some people were able to jump to the head of the ticketing line by updating their CC. It's a long shot, but perhaps you could do that? https://www.wideroe.no/cc/?pnr=XXXXXX
Dec 12, 2013, 7:05 pm
#13
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IIRC, some people were able to jump to the head of the ticketing line by updating their CC. It's a long shot, but perhaps you could do that? https://www.wideroe.no/cc/?pnr=XXXXXX
I'm getting really worried; would it be worth another shot of asking Wideroe to re-issue the ticket? Or just suck it up and wait till tomorrow?
Dec 12, 2013, 7:39 pm
#14
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Several years ago I had a similar issue with a UA award ticket operated by LH using a US codeshare flight number. It took me 2hrs at ZRH airport to rectify.
Dec 12, 2013, 7:52 pm
#15
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No doubt you're in a bad spot. Trying again with wideroe would not hurt. This is probably what UA will ask you to do at the airport anyways. Or they'll ask you for a large sum of money for a walk up fare to issue a 016 ticket.
Several years ago I had a similar issue with a UA award ticket operated by LH using a US codeshare flight number. It took me 2hrs at ZRH airport to rectify.
Several years ago I had a similar issue with a UA award ticket operated by LH using a US codeshare flight number. It took me 2hrs at ZRH airport to rectify.