ordbkk

What date was your IAH-PEK leg? That was our flight too (CA996).

Can you ask what exactly they mean by Air China cancellation ? I was told an individual logged into the site and requested cancellation (which is why they initially blamed me).

critten

pmed flight- waiting on websupport to get back and i will ask them

They see documentation of cancellation came from me, but according to the websupport the person, the person who cancelled went on as a guest (not logged in to my account) to cancel without logging in

Which i guess may be a stretch to blame air china, but I know I would always log in to get better premier availability.

MSPeconomist

This sounds suspiciously like whoever cancelled your award ticket grabbed the space right away. The odds of this happening naturally within ten minutes for some particular flight when there's no relation between the person who cancelled it and the new tickets would seem unlikely.

ordbkk

Okay, that matches what I was told. So it wasn't an official Air China cancellation, it was somebody doing it anonymously.

There is no evidence that points to Air China any more or less than anybody else who has access to your confirmation number.

United is only saying there is no longer any open award space. It's possible that the cancelled award seats do not immediately become available, so United finds none even though the seats are open.

Although it's possible the seats do become immediately available, and then my money is on a travel broker who accepts extra money to "find" open space where nobody else can.

critten

I agree and told them this on the phone. It is noon in China but Air China North america is closed sweet - can't do anything till the morning.

I agree - but they somehow re booked my asiana (sold out business class) and ua metal already.

daniellam

While it might be the case the cancelled seats on the Air China flights don't go back into award right away, my guess is that Air China allows members of their own frequent flyer program to waitlist on awards (I know several Asian carriers allow their members to waitlist for awards for flights on their own metal)?

My speculation is that a mileage broker may have had their clients waitlisted on the Air China flights for the desired travel dates, made a phone call to one of their "corrupt contacts" at Air China (someone who has a way to pull up passenger lists) for the name/UA PNR of anyone with existing reservations, and then go to the United website to cancel the booking.

Once the reservation is cancelled, even if it takes a few hours for the seats to go back into award inventory, those who have already waitlisted for them (Air China FF members) would automatically have them confirmed.

ordbkk

This reminded me of something the United rep told me after she tried in vain to call Air China and have me tickets reinstated. The CA rep told her the only option was to add us to the award waitlist, but the United staff has no way to do that for another carrier. So you're probably right, CA does have a waitlist for award seats.

daniellam

Award waitlists (for carriers that allow them) are usually only for members of their own FF program.

While it may be unconventional for UA to waitlist another carrier's award segment, it is technically possible to do so in Shares. Due to your extenuating situation, somehow I feel that if you escalate it further, they may relent in waitlisting the segment (but then there's no guarantee that it will clear).

critten

I wonder how a broker would advertise this service, and get enough people to sign up with him then pay for doing something illegal.

If I have lost the award availability - will united put me and my party on UA Metal in the same class of service without increase in mileage cost? Told me that I should wait till morning so that when they call CA they can show that I don't have another valid trip and need that flight.

Last operator was very nice, documented, and filed a report on it - but not optimistic at all on being able to force CA to re-open the seats for the lost awards.

mgcsinc

There are places where things might be a bit more informal than you're used to.

daniellam

Another method that is easier to implement is to require members to be logged in to the UA account before being allowed to make changes to or cancel their reservations.

For reservations of those who are not UA members, the reservation must have an e-mail address in it in order for changes to be made (including the e-mail address itself). When a change (including changing the existing e-mail address, seat assignment, flights etc)/cancellation is attempted, the passenger will receive an e-mail with a link that they must click on before they are taken back to the website to do the change/cancellation.

ordbkk

Don't forget the only thing protecting our accounts is a 4-digit number. Get rid of that, and allow a true password, and I'm okay with this.

mgcsinc

Well, at least that 4-digit number can't be discovered through a magical query on a GDS system.

I hope...

critten

well this whole night has been a nightmare with all the cancellations - and possible adjustments. Just a giant mess - 1/4 people still on the same flight, 3 in limbo - either re-book all four, get them back on CA, or something, but it'll be one messy phone call that I have yet to see any possible satisfaction for me from other examples here.

I can't believe what the people without FT are doing. This has got to be a widespread issue by now?

DaviddesJ

Sure, but if you were, say, a German with Lufthansa miles booking an award ticket to China on CA, would you post on FT?