kb1992

It appears that CA awards are vanishing on Aeroplan as well. Not just international, but also domestic inside China.

Something is wrong with CA's IT with *A.

Kacee

Don't forget the black helipcopters

RealHJ

NH will show phantom space - at least as far as showing J when only Y is available is concerned. You need to click through to the very last step. Often NH will show CA flights as available in J, but when you click through to the confirmation the long-haul AC segments will be changed to Y (as on some flights CA seems to never, ever release any award J seats, only Y) and only short-haul be in J.

Best is to use www.aeroplan.ca to search for CA availability. That is the most accurate and is real-time, I believe.

achillesheel

Not really, Aeroplan is not showing any CA award flight!

WineCountryUA

Looks like the answer is this

Kacee

Well there you have it then. NH space is likely phantom.

achillesheel

I don't think so coz I called UA again today, was told CA996 was showing as cancelled +/-5 days! Cancelled, not no seats...However, CA is selling these tickets on their website... I guess there might be something going on between CA and UA

RealHJ

Ah, that must be new. It was showing so before. I think I know why it is so, and I bet that it is so as of November 14th.

Here's why, and a useful data point, after I spent the better part of this morning on the phone with CA and UA.

I have a CA award in I booked back on Sept 14 on a 016 (UA ticket), for two CA flights next summer (one-way). Couldn't book it online then on old or new UA site from any browser or device - always errored out with a blank "Error" page with no detail after CC info input. Called to book by phone. First agent couldn't do it. HUACA. Second agent got it all booked relatively quickly and with only minor difficulties. It was fine and showing as both segments confirmed and ticketed on UA record and ticket and on the Saudia site for the ticket also. But, I was always a bit concerned, since as per this thread method of checking, I could only see the first flight (short-haul), but not the connecting longer flight.

Today I finally had the time to call CA to do the seat assignments and check on it in the process. I got who must be the world's most depressed and couldn't-care-less CSR anywhere, after having to quickly press "1" every 30 seconds not to be disconnected from the hold for several minutes (the AC phone system does everything it can to get you off the phone and not even connected to an agent; if you want to stay on hold you have to press "1" when prompted every 30 seconds; if you are too slow and don't do it, they will just dump your call and disconnect you). He flat out said there is only one flight and that's it. After I had to beg him to check on it by the ticket number, he said that OK, he seems the 016 UA ticket has two flights ticketed, but that is meaningless and worthless as on the record there is only the first (short) flight.

It was pointless to try to get this extremely depressed sounding CSR to do anything further and he clearly couldn't care less, so I hung up and called UA. At UA, after a lengthy hold, got a really good CSR who kept me on the phone for some two hours while calling CA, and after they refused to honor the ticket then various internal departments to try to make it right. In the end I was told that I can only get a refund, as there has been a problem with CA since November 14th and that UA can't touch any CA flights or do anything at all with any CA flights at this time - they supposedly have no connectivity to CA. After I pressed on it a bit further, asking UA to honor the confirmed, ticketed and paid ticket, he checked with another dep't and said that most they can do is put the missing flight back in on a waitlist and that it may clear by next summer. He reticketed it and supposedly now it's waitlisted, but no way to see that on the UA site, travelsky.com still only shows first flight (but new ticket #), and Saudia still shows both flights confirmed and ticketed on the new ticket #: as before, very contradictory.

When I asked him is there any, even rough, ETA for fixing the CA problem he said that he is in no position to say, but later did offer his opinion that in some "2 to 4 weeks he thinks it should be fixed" and that the waitlist may clear by then.

I am not hopeful, as the flight that was dropped is PEK-HNL, on which CA never, ever releases any J (I) seats - ever, not even to its own FFs (does CA do that on many/most of its longer flights, that it only releases Y and never any J award seats, to *A or its own FFs?). Several times I've checked from 1 to 331 days out, and even under CA's own FFP, the flight never has a single seat on any date available in I (same on AC Aeroplan, NH, and when it was working before UA). When I saw the flight available in I back in September, it was totally unexpected so I jumped on the opportunity to book it. Now that it's dropped by CA and waitlisted, I hold next to zero hope that it'll ever clear the waitlist, even when the CA and UA (or possibly *A, as not just UA is affected - if AC also now reportedly shows no CA flights) problem is fixed, as it is never made available in I in the first place. Just was then for a short time for a day or a few back in September, at >330 days out.

Anyhow, so the point of this is that if you have a UA ticket with CA flights, check to see if any flights are dropped. Since UA lost connectivity to CA on Nov 14th, there is a greater chance than normal of that happening. And if your flights are dropped, there seems to be practically zero chance to get it back: UA will just give you a refund, so you'd better make alternate plans, as they supposedly can't touch or see any CA flights now as of Nov 14th.

Any others experience in what UA does in such situations? I asked would UA then just get me a revenue ticket (there are plenty of seats available on the flight, and it's cheap also - just some $1387 one-way in J all the way through), if it can't get the I seat that was confirmed and ticketed back, but was flat out told no. But, doesn't UA have an obligation to honour the ticket as ticketed and paid for, as there is no flight change or cancellation, it's just their/CA systems problem, which shouldn't end up costing the innocent passenger? Or can UA weasle out of this and just give a refund and that's it? (Difficulty is that this is during OZ and KE blackout dates next summer, and JL, as always, has zero availability also (it only lasts for a few minutes at 330 days out), so I have no alternate flights available here, other than DL which are priced at about eight fold of the normal level then, and still require a $300 separate revenue connecting flight. So the CA flight was really my only option.)

mrhuggies

Does anyone know when will Air China Award Seats be available again? I checked both UA and ANA website for IAH-PEK route, and no seats for any dates.

TennisNoob

No and I'm totally with you.

I haven't flown CA for 2 years, sometimes I miss the spacious seat and the 1AM departure. No carrier can beat it out of IAH.

KE/NH morning flight (puke)
BR , No F - leaves before midnight.

Sadly CA996 is flying out empty still.

supermintyfresh

Anyone have any updates on this situation? Surprising to find that there is absolutely no award availability available on Air China -- ANA tool is showing lots of phantom space however.

warakorn

Just call!

travel.flier

That doesn't work either

Kacee

The inability to book CA awards is being discussed in various *A fora here. It's not a UA issue.

AndrewJeong

Hi .

I want to ask your wisdom.

My situation;
I booked 2~3 days ago by United airline mileages From ICN to SYD
The routing is ICN - PEK - SYD ( All Operated by Air China)

However, I was told My seat has not been comfirmed yet from Air china.

- Air China asks me to solve with United Airline, Since The ticket was issued by United Airlines.
-When I call UA several times, they said There is showed comfirmed well on their screen and nothing wrong on it
- So, I called Air China over and again. They said same response.( Not their Business)

* I have the person who go with me. In her case, Outbound is comfirmed but inbound is not comfirmed yet. ( In my case, All route are not yet)


Who is responsible for my ticket..?!!
My departure time left approx 23 hours from now on.

Please give me advice

Thank you.