Am I right, or is the agent right? [vexing award issue]
I booked an award N.America to Asia, going to Asia via the pacific, and returning TATL. I have one stop and one destination, both in N.Asia. I booked this and ticketed it no problem for 140,000 miles in F.
I called today because I wanted to make my return 1 day earlier. I am still on the same flight #'s as the original routing, just bumped the return up 1-day in order to get home for a meeting.
The agent tells me this isn't a legal routing and it's a RTW ticket. I tried to explain that RTW tickets have 5 stopovers, I only have 1 stop and 1 destination like a normal roundtrip and asked her to please show me the provision in the FF program that doesn't allow going TPAC and TATL to Asia. She admitted there was no provision, but read me an irrelevant provision that said if you don't comply with the MP rules and conditions UA reserves the right to cancel your ticket. I told here I HAD complied with the rules and she had just admitted there was no rule I had violated. She told me too bad, she had decided it was a RTW and that was that. I asked for a supervisor and she transferred me to vmail.
Programs: AS MVP Gold, UA 1K, BA Silver, SPG Gold, HHonors Gold, Hertz #1 Gold
Posts: 4,991
The agent was wrong in this case.
This is why I prefer booking those trips as one-ways [unless I want to do a stopover], to avoid by clueless agents.
If the agent indeed did cancel your trip, be sure to copy your PNR and have the information handy, because the agent had no reasonable grounds to cancel your itinerary as evidenced when she couldn't identify a specific rule violation.
This is why I prefer booking those trips as one-ways [unless I want to do a stopover], to avoid by clueless agents.
If the agent indeed did cancel your trip, be sure to copy your PNR and have the information handy, because the agent had no reasonable grounds to cancel your itinerary as evidenced when she couldn't identify a specific rule violation.
I am on the phone with a more competent agent now trying to sort it out. I couldn't believe it. I was like "if you admit to me that there is nothing in the program that says this isn't valid, how can you tell me it's not valid because you say so and cancel something that was ticketed and confirmed months ago?" Hopefully the agent i'm on with now can sort it out...I mean if it wasn't a valid routing, wouldn't the system say so and refuse to ticket in the first place?
Programs: UA 1K MM, Hyatt Plat, Marriott Silver, Hilton Silver
Posts: 19,475
Quote:
Originally Posted by GetSetJetSet
.... The agent tells me this isn't a legal routing and it's a RTW ticket. I tried to explain that RTW tickets have 5 stopovers, I only have 1 stop and 1 destination like a normal roundtrip and asked her to please show me the provision in the FF program that doesn't allow going TPAC and TATL to Asia. She admitted there was no provision, ....
Quote:
Originally Posted by golfingboy
The agent was wrong in this case. ....
This has always been a fuzzy area. RTW has regularity been interpreted as a circumnavigation ticket a(acrossing the Pac & Atl in the same direction) however there is no clear-cut public definition in the MP / UA rules either way. The interpretation of this agent seems to be the most common but occasionally others will be more lax. A very much YMMV situation.
Without knowing the specifics of the agents you've spoken to, I've had much better luck by calling the Priority Line, selecting the Mileage Plus option, then Award Travel, Existing Travel Options. The Mileage Plus Agents seem to know the rules and are more knowledgeable than the regular Customer Service Agents.
Without knowing the specifics of the agents you've spoken to, I've had much better luck by calling the Priority Line, selecting the Mileage Plus option, then Award Travel, Existing Travel Options. The Mileage Plus Agents seem to know the rules and are more knowledgeable than the regular Customer Service Agents.
Programs: UA 1K & UC, HHonors Gold, Hyatt Diamond, Avis PC, AS, US, AA
Posts: 700
Quote:
Originally Posted by GetSetJetSet
So there is no rule either way? It's whatever the agent decides?
More to the point, there's not a 100% consensus on what the real rule is; all the written rules we know of are ambiguous; and the agent has the power to screw you over. In general, hanging up and calling back works -- and until it stops working, we all figure it's better not to force UA into stating a specific rule (because if we do, it will almost certainly be the rule we don't want).
It's possible to get the online booking engine to book two-ocean itineraries for a R/T with stopover (although it can be tricky), which may serve as evidence that it's not illegal.
Programs: UA 1K MM, Hyatt Plat, Marriott Silver, Hilton Silver
Posts: 19,475
Quote:
Originally Posted by QBK
... It's possible to get the online booking engine to book two-ocean itineraries for a R/T with stopover (although it can be tricky), which may serve as evidence that it's not illegal.
or since it is tricky, the booking system has loopholes (it is IT afterall written by humans).
The new agent finally came back on the line and said that they will honor the ticket and make my changes. Also deleted the old agent's comments and put a note in specifically stating they were authorizing this routing. I told her there might be an issue in the future since I am flying FRA-IAD-JFK on the return to try the new 748i and as of now only J is open, so should F open, I would probably be calling in to try and switch J to F (since this is an F award) and I was hoping to avoid triggering this whole meltdown again. Seems to all be sorted out. I'm glad United has some employees who have been trained in customer service as opposed to the first women I spoke to, who was horrible.
so sounds like they are saying the original routing was not valid but "one time exception" will honor it?
Still not clear. Basically she said since the system priced it and ticketed for me originally, even though they were getting a pricing error when trying to make my changes, they would honor it, because otherwise i'd be over a barrel basically. Still no clear stance on the real rule, she did say post-merger there are no specific rules about the routing, so I guess it's luck of the draw.
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Diamond, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 528
The rule is ambiguous, but I wouldn't exactly say the rep was incompetent. A route going the same direction and crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans sure looks like a RTW trip. You're simply taking advantage of the ambiguous 'rules' UA has laid out (which is often to our benefit).
I'd say that with the merger it's gotten even more ambiguous. Going the same direction the whole way for a RT is still something I'm not willing to test. It just seems like too much of a headache to get those reticketed.
Programs: AS MVP Gold, UA 1K, BA Silver, SPG Gold, HHonors Gold, Hertz #1 Gold
Posts: 4,991
Honestly, the more appropriate way to define an RTW trip is to use # of stopovers. No matter what bodies of water you cross, as long as you do not have more than 1 stop-over on a roundtrip itinerary, it is not RTW award.
That seems to be the simplest way to define an RTW award.
Maybe it is time for UA to write up a memo and send it out to all agents clearing up the dust to prevent power trip hungry agents from canceling an itinerary outright.
by clueless agents.
