Originally Posted by GordonGordon

OP, I feel your frustration and sorry to hear that.

People who currently have any award reservations that contain CA flight need to babysit them everyday. If possible, try to change the CA segments to other carriers. I have 2 upcoming award reservations that contains CA flights. I guess I will search for other carriers that flies the same route to or out of China. Sad!

Originally Posted by MikeMpls

Received an email today from United -- in Chinese. I don't read Chinese.

Logged into our accounts and found that the itinerary had been canceled, leaving us holding the bag on $1K in nonrefundable domestic Australian flights on Qantas & JetStar, plus some hotel reservations

Originally Posted by ordbkk

Whether this is a bug, or a security gap allowing malicious action, United is partially responsible. And when a plane has mechanical issues, they must place me on the next available flight, whether that flight is United or not. Even if United has to pay for it. Why should this be any different? Why should award availability be necessary to make this right?

Originally Posted by zhuzheng

However, the fact was that the OP received a Chinese cancellation email from United and UA agents thought the whole reservation was canceled by the OP/passenger, which proved the reservation was actually canceled through United's Chinese website (https://www.united.com/web/zh-CN/default.aspx) by accessing the reservation with the PNR and last name.

Originally Posted by Paulakers2010

As this has become a security issue, I am not sure if DOT would be involved in this.

Originally Posted by ordbkk

Update: My call with United just ended. The agent (who was patient) and her supervisor feel they have exhausted all of their options with Air China to no avail. They are simply refusing to reinstate my tickets. They are also refusing to convert revenue tickets into award space. And United won't eat the cost of revenue tickets.

The United agent declined to contact ANA and ask for those segments to be reinstated, claiming it was not even worth the call because there was zero chance of cooperation there either.

So at this point, United has given us a mix of first & business seats on United flights, and we are grateful for that. However, due to the timing of the United flights we will require additional time off from work, on top of missing out on experiencing the foreign carriers which was our reason for booking.

Surprisingly, they wanted to charge us the new redemption rates. This took another supervisor escalation and we were granted a one-time reprieve.

At the end of the call, I asked to be transferred to the fraud department and the agent told me it was not necessary because her supervisor just informed her my experience was very common and they are receiving "many, many" calls about this exact same issue and it's something United is well aware of.

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

If UA and CA are cancelling valid award tickets because they are operating insecure confirmation systems, that's their problem to figure out a way to honor their reservations, not the DOT or the passenger's.

Originally Posted by mahasamatman

Both, actually.

Originally Posted by ordbkk

At the end of the call, I asked to be transferred to the fraud department and the agent told me it was not necessary because her supervisor just informed her my experience was very common and they are receiving "many, many" calls about this exact same issue and it's something United is well aware of.

Originally Posted by BearX220

Who already knows those things? Air China. Who has a motive to retrieve J/F inventory to sell at higher prices? Air China. Who comes from a business culture of indifference to consumers? Air.... c'mon, do the math. This probably isn't a "hack," but a brutish form of inventory recapture by CA. The kind of thing UA occasionally does right at the gate when people flying on award tickets are downgraded for FAMs or other reasons.

I don't know what the hell United can do about it, either, beyond breaking open more inventory on alternative own-metal flights to reaccommodate, which it looks like they are not doing.

Originally Posted by BearX220

Who already knows those things? Air China. Who has a motive to retrieve J/F inventory to sell at higher prices? Air China. Who comes from a business culture of indifference to consumers? Air.... c'mon, do the math. This probably isn't a "hack," but a brutish form of inventory recapture by CA. The kind of thing UA occasionally does right at the gate when people flying on award tickets are downgraded for FAMs or other reasons.

I don't know what the hell United can do about it, either, beyond breaking open more inventory on alternative own-metal flights to reaccommodate, which it looks like they are not doing.

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

DOT doesn't have to resolve or even care about the security issue. They just have to compel UA and CA to honor their promises. If UA and CA are cancelling valid award tickets because they are operating insecure confirmation systems, that's their problem to figure out a way to honor their reservations, not the DOT or the passenger's. If UA wants to claim they aren't honoring the awards because they were canceled by the passengers then they will have to demonstrate to the DOT that that's true. And of course they won't be able to do that.

Originally Posted by tom911

I haven't seen anyone here report they've taken a hit on prepaid hotels or prepaid ground bookings yet, but if this keeps up surely someone will be along to report they're out some money.