Passmethesickbag

Wow. After those two sleepless nights and two days, without a shower, will he still look and smell like somebody his girlfriend wants to marry?

PlzNo

This made me laugh. And that proposed itinerary through EWR makes me want to cry, although from the looks of it I'd pick up an extra 3k or so miles. I'm going to have an enormous checked bag, however, and the friends I have there would almost certainly be working that day.

Kmxu

If you want to get there a few days earlier, this itinerary will also give you a lot of miles (5,428 miles) but only 16 hours journey. There is only one redeye flight (SJU-EWR). Your girlfriend will smell you a lot of "fresher" once you arrive at SJD. Good luck.

Sun., Dec. 14, 2014 | San Juan, PR (SJU) to Los Cabos, Mexico (SJD)
SAN-EWR: Depart: 1:58 a.m. Sun., Dec. 14, 2014, Arrive: 5:13 a.m. Sun., Dec. 14, 2014; Distance: 1,608 miles Flight:UA1236

Change Planes. Connect time in New York/Newark, NJ (EWR - Liberty) is 50 minutes.

EWR-SFO: Depart: 6:03 a.m. Sun., Dec. 14, 2014; Arrive: 9:40 a.m. Sun., Dec. 14, 2014; Distance: 2,565 miles; Flight: UA342

Change Planes. Connect time in San Francisco, CA (SFO) is 1 hour 17 minutes.

SFO-SJD: Depart: 10:57 a.m. Sun., Dec. 14, 2014; Arrive: 3:05 p.m. Sun., Dec. 14, Distance: 1,255 miles; Flight: UA1689

PlzNo

This doesn't work for me unfortunately because I have to be there for a morning function at least until 11am on the 15th.

On the phone with United right now, just got put on hold. Being putting on hold as a non-status flyer doesn't perturb me, but I am surprised that the phone agent with whom I am speaking does not seem to really understand my request. I told him I need to change my flight and he said that, yes, my itinerary now shows me terminating in Denver on the 16th and he doesn't seem to think there is a problem with that. I think there is a bit of a language barrier here. I grew up learning English and Spanish so I am familiar with such a thing, but I have never encountered this with American or USAir (my usual airlines). He just came back on the line and told me that there are problems with the number of flights to Cabo and seemed to blame it on Cabo (but none of the other airlines appear to have problems), and asked me to hold to try to find me a workable itinerary. When he comes back on the line should I just suggest to him the itinerary that I would like?

jib71

Yes. And if you can't communicate effectively with the agent, thank him for his efforts, say goodbye, and try again later.

3Cforme

You're making this way more difficult than it needs to be. (I'll warn you that other carriers continue to cut Cabo flights, so investigate throughly before proceeding.)

If you find a better itinerary on another carrier - connection timing, dates, price, whatever - just ask for a refund from United back to the original form of payment. Department of Transportation rules allow you to do this when the carrier can't reasonably meet schedules as purchased, adds a stop, or requires travel carriers different from what you purchased.

If you want to stay on United, yes, give the agent time to investigate and offer routings. Suggest your own.

Often1

I also want to caution against delay. Not only has UA cancelled one of few flights of that day, but other carriers are trimming service as the recovery is not as speedy as hoped. OP can be left out in the cold.

1. Presume that you will not be reimbursed for a hotel and that you will not receive any miles.

2. If you can get a reroute on UA which makes sense, just ask for it. But, don't delay.

3. If the fare has dropped, have UA cancel the existing ticket and buy a new one.

4. Understand that there may well be more changes and cancellations between now and your travel date.

When you get back from your trip, send a short note to UA. They may send you a few miles. Don't bother making a specific "ask" as UA is going to toss you whatever it's going to toss you.

PlzNo

Thanks for the advice. I just changed my itinerary. I priced the new itinerary at $742 on United.com so obviously wasn't going to refund it and rebook. I'm leaving PR on the afternoon of the 15th and getting into Houston that same afternoon. My flight to Cabo leaves on the morning of the 16th. I also changed my return itinerary from this:

SJD Sat, Jan 10th at 4:00pm on UA1240, getting into SFO at 6:14pm. Leaving SFO at 11:10pm on UA995 , getting into ORD at 5:06am on January 11th. Leaving ORD at 8:20am on UA1668, getting into SJU at 3:05pm

To this:

SJD Sat Jan 10th at 4:00pm on UA1240, getting into SFO at 6:14pm. Leaving SFO at 10:31pm on UA1568, getting into IAD at 6:33am on January 11th. Leaving IAD at 8:10am on UA1743, getting into SJU at 12:54pm.

I thought it would be better to have a scheduled arrival two hours earlier in PR and my thinking was also that IAD will have a lower probability of being affected by weather problems than ORD?.That routing through IAD wasn't available when I booked my flight. I think I can Priceline a hotel for around $60 or so. I'll send United a letter after my trip, and if they decide to toss me some miles, then great, but if not, whatever.

mduell

Connecting through EWR and DEN in December? Wow, definitely not advisable with schedule constraints.

Yes; you and the airline agreed to this arrangement when you agreed to purchase the ticket.

Yes, you can typically get a full refund if the departure or arrival time changes by more than ~2 hours.

To some travellers; not to United.

I can't wait to get a new schedule in a week to evaluate the Truthiness of this claim.

PlzNo

Are you calling me a liar, or United? Get a new schedule from where? I normally fly American/USAir and when I called and asked them for frequent flyer alternatives, they said that their flight schedule had not changed as of yesterday.

In an unrelated matter, I just realized when choosing my seats on my new itinerary that the SJU-IAH and IAH-SJD legs will apparently be considered separate for purposes of checking bags at least. I was fully expecting to pay $25 EACH way to check a bag, on my original itinerary. But now it looks like United wants me to pay $25 for SJU-IAH, $25 for IAH-SJD, and $25 for SJD-SJU on the return. Let me guess, mduell. I also agreed to this when I agreed to change my itinerary? So now I'll be out for the motel plus the extra checked bag fee if United won't work with me on this.

Do you work for them?

mecabq

I believe that mduell is questioning the veracity of the claim that the UA phone agent made. Airlines file schedule updates periodically, so I suppose he is curious to see if the UA agent was just spouting nonsense as an excuse for his inability or unwillingness to look for creative alternatives for you. . . those of us with more experience with UA know that this tends to happen. Hence the repeated advice here to take matters into your own hands as much as possible.

PlzNo

Fair enough. Doesn't really matter to me at this moment. I posted above that now I'm on the hook for two $25 baggage fees on the SJU-Cabo trip instead of one, due to the fact that I'll be recovering my checked bag in Houston and staying overnight there. Will United waive one of these two fees for me? I would rather try to take care of that part of it ASAP because I don't want to pay the fee and then have to fight for a refund later. It doesn't seem fair to me that because of United's screw-up, I now have to pay $75 total in checked bag fees for the RT instead of $50. I imagine this was probably a decision by United's computers but is it waivable?

Sorry for misunderstanding your post, mduell. I just found United's agent's explanation laughable. He said the cancellation was due to the hurricane damage. And then I asked him why an itinerary was available for December 17th and December 15th but only December 16th was affected. Why would a mid-September hurricane affect only some days in December? What it could be is that the Cabo tourism traffic is being affected and with so many seats empty 2 months out, United decided to cancel some of their flights? Not an expert, but it seems more likely to me. From what my gf tells me, Cabo is turning things around rapidly, but I think tourism will be affected for longer than what they're saying, and that seems to me to be a more logical explanation for those cancelled Denver-Cabo flights: lower than expected demand. There are still Dec 13th and 14th nonstops in between Denver and Cabo. So maybe the agent was accidentally correct. It is indirectly due to the hurricane because it is affecting flight demand two months out.

pinniped

Do you really need to short check the bag to IAH? Can you just throw a change of clothes in a backpack? Just a one-nighter there...

I would *think* that UA would not double-charge the bag fee since you're on a standard R/T ticket, short-checking because of the overnight connection, but I can easily see it being a thing that only a human agent in IAH can override.

Anyone have experience doing this? I know I've successfully short-checked a bag to a UA hub before due to this exact situation, but I was *G so the bag fee wasn't an issue.

endrond

I think you should be able to through-check your bag rather than recovering it for your overnight in Houston. Just bring in your carryon whatever you need for the overnight (you should be doing that anyway, just in case of IRROPS or misconnects!).

Others here would know better than I do what UA's rules on through-checking are.

PlzNo

I've never had an overnight layover with a checked bag. I've done overnight layovers but always with separate airlines (domestic + Aeromex for example) and no checked bag. I did not realize that I have the option of checking the bag through to Cabo, because I would be happy to have it through-checked. The fact that the website shows the listed bag fees indicates that the standard procedure for an itinerary like this is to pick it up in the layover city and recheck it the next morning. I always throw a change of clothes and some travel-sized toiletries in my overnight bag in case the checked bag gets lost. Can United take care of this over the phone this far out? Or is this something I will have to sort out with them at SJU on the day of departure?

Thanks for the help.