Rover75

I recently tried to take advantage of a really low fare ( < US$400) to buy a return ticket from BOS to CHP using the UA website. I am new to UA (20 plus years flying AA and oneworld) so I got caught off guard when the itinerary hadn't ticketed after 24 hours because of a lack of confirmation from one of the participating Star Alliance partners (Air Canada). I then called UA (fearing, apparently incorrectly, that my 24 hour cancelation window was about to close) and the telephone agent ticketed the itinerary.

I noticed the last segment (YYZ-BOS) had no PQM credit (even though it had been listed as having 500 miles when I initially booked the reservation). The UA agent was unable to explain this to me other than to say (wrongly) that the K class UA code-share ticket on AC metal didn't qualify for PQM accrual. I then looked at the confirmed reservation a little more closely and saw that what had been described as a schedule change on the YYZ-BOS segment was actually listed as a carrier change with Air Seoul metal now providing the last leg of my itinerary.

No one I spoke with at UA after that claimed that they could see Air Seoul in the reservation. Nothing I could find on Expedia or the Air Canada website suggested that Air Seoul actually flies (or will be flying) this route.

So I canceled the reservation and, a day or so later, started from scratch again without putting Air Canada into the mix.

Nonetheless, I am wildly confused. In all of my years booking travel on line and over the phone with AA, I never had an experience even vaguely approximating this.

Did I just really get unlucky or is this kind of anomaly common when booking flights on non-UA carriers using the UA website?

goodeats21

United's website has some funky displays occasionally. I believe it is something on the back end that gets translated incorrectly when it displays on the customer facing website.

My guess is the flight would be operated by AC and it would have been fine.

Hartmann

I wouldn't worry about it. There is likely some old link between UA8112 and Air Seoul somewhere in the database. The fact that they reference Air Canada in the line below points to the system knowing it is in fact an Air Canada flight.

D582

Air Canada's E175 flights are Air Canada Express, operated by Sky Regional (like United Express, operated by SkyWest, Mesa, etc.).

Sky Regional's IATA code is RS. Air Seoul's IATA code is also RS. (IATA assigns duplicate codes to airlines that have no possibility of flying near each other).

Rover75

Fascinating. Thank you!

I canceled the reservation because the result of the system treating the carrier as Air Seoul rather than Sky Regional meant no PQM's, Segments, PQD's or RDM's were allocated this segment (and the UA agent simply claimed the flight didn't qualify for any of those which was wrong).

EmailKid

Fascinating indeed.

I am pretty sure you would have received credit if you flew and kept you BPs - though possibly not automatically.

emcampbe

Sky regional is like any other AC flight for mileage purposes, it's like flying Skywest dba UA (or AA, for that matter). Mileage like any other.

The mileage display error has no bearing on the mileage actually earned, and this is a frequent occurance on even UA/UAX operated flights. I've seen the mileage earning disappear completely, change to something else, change back, disappear, then be back next day, etc. It's never caused my mileage (Or PQD) to post incorrectly - always posts as I expect. The only time I've had to manually credit mileage in the last several years has been due to IRROPS.

mherdeg

I think it would have credited ok. It's just a display issue. There is a lookup table from IATA code to "name to display" which occasionally is out of date or inaccurate.

sbm12

Or, in this case, has multiple entries and UA's systems just pick one to display.

But it is a cosmetic issue, not one that will adversely affect anything else for the traveler.

Often1

DOT rules require that the e-ticket receipt display the operating carrier. Thus, the regional carrier must be listed. But, that is not relevant for MP.

At absolute worst, the flight would not have properly credited and OP would have had to submit a request for manual processing.

username

That is crazy. I guess as long as they don't issue the same codes for airports

I was wondering the other day what happens when they run out of the 36*36 combinations (minus a few for GDS and YY).

It seems a waste to assign IATA codes to airlines that do not market flights (e.g. a lot of the regional carriers)?

TPJ

For the record RS - Air Seoul is a low cost subsidiary of OZ - Asiana. They operate a few secondary routes out of ICN (plus will take a few red eyes to SE Asia over from OZ).

While OZ is a *A member, RS is not.

SKYEG

I've had this same issue before and the miles were credited. I've also flown Air Seoul as well. Not a bad LCC lol!

sannmann

This is still an issue. Just bought an award ticket for December with the final segment, YYZ-DCA operated by AC subsidiary Sky Regional. Both the website and app correctly state the operating carrier as Sky Regional while my receipt says Air Seoul.

findark

Swiss has some similar problems due to subsidiaries. 77W flights are operated by Swiss Global Air Lines, which has the IATA code LZ. UA shows the name correctly, but I believe it's causing earnings to be incorrect and also various other sources state the flight is operated alternately by Belle Air or Balkan Bulgarian Airlines (both former users of LZ).