FlyerBeek

Definitely. I would start with a PM. If you've got ticket confirmations, I think UA has some explaining to do. It's not your responsibility to know that a eTicket confirmation received from United is really not valid.

-FlyerBeek

RS250Racer

Well my cancel and do not re deposit is not workin out to well for me now...got it to sort of reprice on line but always errors out, and now after a few calls looks like I am sol.

Will hopefully get them to honor if not, looks like I will get a 1 way outta of this...wonderful.

Miles re- deposited... oh well, I was really past the one year validity so not a major tragedy, I knew it would be tough!

kmfdm91

I think this is a big nugget here: the two times change fees. Since UA decided to charge you (of course they would, they love grabbing people's money at first chance and not refunding it until demanded by the passenger and DOT (yes, this has happened to me more than 5 times this year, as a 1K and having DOT finally get them to give me my money back).

Since you got charged twice, it naturally shows that there were/ARE still two tickets out there, or there better be, since they charged you for two. But, using all your e-mails and receipts, piece it together and let UA and ESPECIALLY the DOT know. This is insane and awful, I really can't imagine being in your shoes.

Start there, and immediately make your way up the chain. You should be on the way to Singapore now, and it's solely UA's fault for not making this happen. I'd also file a complaint with the DOT right now, since in my experience, it is one of the only ways to actually get UA to do something 'passenger friendly'.

-jeremy

jglenn16

Thanks for the recommendation kmfdm91. I was able to find an alternative using some leftover AA miles on CX from SFO-HKG-SIN on a biz award, but I had to buy an additional 18k to top off my account, which cost a little over $500 out of pocket. I'm now waiting in a lounge and find my self fortunate there was availability so last minute. I do think that United is at fault here as I had about 15 hours to recollect all the events that led to this mishap.

Anyway, I filed a complaint with the DOT yesterday and they said it "it does not appear that your complaint falls under one of the Department's rules." I guess since it's an award ticket, they do not think it warrants an investigation. However, they said they have forwarded my complaint to United directly, and they'll have to respond to me. So, I guess now the waiting game starts.

zloneill

(Apologies if this has been asked before--I didn't find anything obvious in old threads, but maybe my search terms are all wrong.)

Last year, before the chart devaluation, I booked two o/w tix (one in my husband's acct, one in mine) to Europe, then canceled them and held the miles.

I'm finally getting around to using the miles, under the wire at the end of Jan. When I go to change the booking online, the new tickets price under the old chart (50K in biz).

I was able to change my husband's ticket online. But I haven't been able to change mine (perhaps because it is listed, for some reason, as 'inactive' rather than 'canceled'?). When I call in, the phone reps say it will cost 57.5K (new chart), rather than by the old chart.

I've hung up and called back a few times, but the story stays the same--even though they can see my husband's tickets. In fact, the last person said that was wrong, and she'd need to reprice his too.

What to do? Am I right in thinking the price should be 50K?

Thanks.

IADFlyer123

I believe your husband's ticket should be priced at the old price if it wasn't canceled. Since yours was canceled and you held the miles, you might have to be repriced.

Kacee

The "reserve then cancel" was a trick that has worked for some but not others. Maybe you can talk an agent into re-booking at pre February rate, but UA has no obligation to honor the old pricing in these circumstances.

zloneill

Thx for answers, and to mod for moving my Q to the right thread. Will dig back through here and see if anyone else was in similar situation.

FWIW, I have now been able to change both flights online, sort of, for 50K--got error at end, but in My Reservations, the new flights are listed. (I was only able to do this in incognito-browsing mode, I guess because all my previous attempts had gummed things up.) There are $75 change fees in process on my credit card.

I called again, and the phone rep said everything looked OK and said he would email the itineraries.

So, currently OK. But I will call again in a few days, just to be sure.

Modern 49er

We're now over a year out from the Feb. 2014 increase in mileage awards and I'm wondering if it's game over on rebooking any and all of these. I had a saver award USA-Europe that I had changed twice to extend it until this coming summer. I just tried to change it again to actual dates/flights I want and (a) couldn't do anything on .bomb, (b) phone agent and SD were not willing to honor the old mileage rates for a further change, and (c) phone agent informed me that all MP awards must be used within 1 year of booking, thus the original ticket was not invalid, thus need to cancel, redeposit, and rebook. That's what I did as I really wanted the flights, for an increase of 40K miles per ticket (I award).

Any thoughts of any way around this? (This one is already done, but I still have an O award out there for July I'm wondering about.)

Cheers.

FlytheTail

Unless you can find an agent who can work their magic on an itinerary, the game is over. Existing itineraries should be fine, but any changes will require re-depositing miles and re-ticketing at current rates.

Pat89339

I have one parked in August. I guess I'll find out when I try to rebook it.

lewende

What else can we say? The agents are right and are doing the right thing - adhering to UA MP rules. We are already fortunate enough to online change these tickets pushing travel dates forward beyond Feb. 2015.

I had the same experience - hoarded a ticket before devaluation, online changed it to this summer, but when I tried to add segments online, I got an error message. So I called, was told the booking was invalid because all travel must be completed within one year of the original ticketing date. However, MP honors the ticket as-is and no further changes are allowed, unless I opt to refund $ and redeposit miles.

Xyzzy

I recently had a similar experience, but they did let graciously me make one more change as I'd already been allowed to change it past the 1yr past issue point (but before the 1yr since reissue point). After making the change the agent left my reservation specially nted and in such a state that she was sure I couldn't change it any further. I believe it was out of sync, as I couldn't even check in without going to the airport. But telephone reservation agents couldn't fix it so I could check in!