Her original flight (standard award on her miles) was cancelled. I was able to talk a 1K phone rep into giving her a reservation on a flight tomorrow, even though the flight is overbooked. She has checked in on-line, but does not have a seat assignment (unsurprisingly, since the seat map shows no seats). My obvious concern is that she will be IDBed.
I can see a pair of flights that get her home tomorrow, but 8 hours later than her current booking. Because only first is available on one of the flights, it would take 50k miles to make the booking. I have plenty of miles, and am happy to use them for this purpose, and since I'm 1K I can make a change for free.
However, I'm afraid that making this double booking will cause her to lose the chance on the direct flight, or will screw up her return reservation.
Do I have a legitimate concern, or should I make the double booking as a back-up plan? Will they even let me make the booking?
Programs: UA 1K MM, Hyatt Plat, Marriott Silver, Hilton Silver
Posts: 19,447
Quote:
Originally Posted by demosthenes1
...
Do I have a legitimate concern, or should I make the double booking as a back-up plan? ....
a double booking has a high chance of creating a problem and one may get cancel. I would not be surprised in times of high system stress they are more proactive looking for double bookings which only creates more stress on the system.
You could go ahead and make the change to alternative routing (but sounds like it involves a stop which has it own risks).
I can see a pair of flights that get her home tomorrow, but 8 hours later than her current booking. Because only first is available on one of the flights, it would take 50k miles to make the booking. I have plenty of miles, and am happy to use them for this purpose, and since I'm 1K I can make a change for free.
However, I'm afraid that making this double booking will cause her to lose the chance on the direct flight, or will screw up her return reservation.
Do I have a legitimate concern, or should I make the double booking as a back-up plan? Will they even let me make the booking?
It's NOT a double booking-A double booking is reserving 2 seats for the same person on the same flight. What you want to do is perfectly legal as it is booking 2 different itins on two different flights 8 hours apart. Who's to say she isn't flying home and immediately going back on another carrier and then coming back home again.
The Op is a 1K and as such he should protect his daughter on the flight 8 hours later in F/C and if she gets bumped off the earlier one she home FREE (well sorta, as dad still pay's)!
Programs: UA 1K, AA Plat, IHG Plat, HH Gold, Hyatt Plat, Hertz Gold
Posts: 1,811
Quote:
Originally Posted by demosthenes1
However, I'm afraid that making this double booking will cause her to lose the chance on the direct flight, or will screw up her return reservation.
If the return is on the same reservation as her outbound, this is the thing that would worry me. If she ends up taking the reservation you make, she won't be taking her outbound flight, so the rest of her itinerary will be canceled.
However, if she booked her trip as two one-ways and the return is on a separate reservation, it should be OK.
Way too much is being made about the OP protecting his daughter on a flight 8 hours after her re-booked flight may cause her to be IDBed!
If the daughter has a r/t booked and she can't get on a flight the second day after her original flight was cancelled a simple call from the 1K OP to res will cancel the outbound and 1/2 the miles will be returned and she will still be booked on the flight after the holidays. Does it make any sense to have his daughter hang around whereever she is until whenever UA can get her on a flight and very possibly spend Christmas away from her family? We haven't heard back from the Op so she probably is on her way home now!
Again, the OP did not double-book his daughter, he simply protected her on a flight 8 hours later, just in case the oversold flight doesn't get her home! Besides the New UA isn't spending extra time tracking everyone's itin's, especially 3 days before a holiday.
i've done this for myself several times with no problems. it's a little tricky to work out with a return flight, but it's doable with some work by an agent after the presumed IDB or cancelation occurs.
Programs: UA 1K MM, Hyatt Plat, Marriott Silver, Hilton Silver
Posts: 19,447
Quote:
Originally Posted by LilAbner
Way too much is being made about the OP protecting his daughter on a flight 8 hours after her re-booked flight may cause her to be IDBed!....
Not actually what OP stated, OP stated arrival was 8 hours later but it was unclear on the departure time of the alternative.
Additionally the OP made a point of the original flight being a non-stop which might suggest the alternative ("a pair of flights") had a stop / connection, maybe with a long layover -- hence the later arrival. The degree of overlap of the flights is an unknown.
Unfortunately without more info from the OP we are both speculating with incomplete facts.
Her original flight (before the cancellation) was PHL-ORD-OMA. She was rebooked on EWR-OMA today, due in about 4pm. The double book flight was EWR-DEN-OMA, arriving after midnight. I haven't checked to be sure, but I think the EWR-DEN flight departed before the EWR-OMA fight landed.
Based on the first comments received, I decided to not double book. Within 20 minutes of that post it was a moot point: the option to book through DEN was no longer available.
As I feared, she was indeed IDBed today. She now has a boarding pass (with seat assignment) on basically the same flight tomorrow. Also hotel and food vouchers and $700 cash.
So, she will be 16 hours later than if I had acted, but I think its not a disastrous outcome all things considered.
Programs: UA 1K, AA Plat, IHG Plat, HH Gold, Hyatt Plat, Hertz Gold
Posts: 1,811
Quote:
Originally Posted by demosthenes1
As I feared, she was indeed IDBed today. She now has a boarding pass (with seat assignment) on basically the same flight tomorrow. Also hotel and food vouchers and $700 cash.
So, she will be 16 hours later than if I had acted, but I think its not a disastrous outcome all things considered.
Sorry to hear that, and hopefully it isn't a time sensitive sensitive thing to get home (scheduled commitments or she was only going to be there for a few days already where a day or two lost is a big deal). If not, hopefully she can take things in stride and enjoy having a day in NYC + the $700 in cash for it.
Programs: UA 1K MM, Hyatt Plat, Marriott Silver, Hilton Silver
Posts: 19,447
Quote:
Originally Posted by demosthenes1
... So, she will be 16 hours later than if I had acted, but I think its not a disastrous outcome all things considered.
Sorry to hear of the IDB (but I suspect a use for the $700 will be found ). Thanks for the update. It great to have a guardian angle / parent over looking the travel in what tends to regularly be a difficult travel season for less frequent travelers.
t all seats are assigned in advance and she is likely to get one when she gets to the airport.
). Thanks for the update. It great to have a guardian angle / parent over looking the travel in what tends to regularly be a difficult travel season for less frequent travelers.
