UA makes big mess of ticket after making changes the day of departure
I'm a 1k member and I was traveling on a paid Turkish Airways ticket from JFK to Istanbul to Male. I used my mileage plus miles to get my husband a ticket to Male as well, although he had to take a different set of flights to meet me in Istanbul. No big deal.
On the day of travel a week ago, we noticed a direct flight available on UA to IST so I called the 1k desk to see if he could get on it. The very nice woman said, yes, we can do that. Now, there wasn't much time between this point and the flight - about 4 hours, so my husband headed out the door to EWR instead of JFK once she said it was all booked. I was asked to hold again after it was confirmed.
About 20 mins later, the agent came back on and said there was a problem because one of the original flights had the airport checking him in already for some reason. We didn't know why. She said he was booked on the new ticket, but the old one was preventing it from going through. She said she would fix it, but another 30 mins on the phone came back with not being able to do it. She said I would need to call Turkish, which I did, but they said they couldn't do anything. Meanwhile, my husband is off to EWR rushing to get the new flight which I was told was confirmed. Apparently, the old flight couldn't now be retrieved any longer but she was confident this could be corrected.
Well, it wasn't. I was promised a call back from the agent who was working on the issue. My husband was trying to check in at Newark, and they wouldn't let him. Before you know it, the cut off to the flight was in effect, and he still had no ticket. The agent at the counter threw up her hands, and my new agent on the phone didn't know what to do.
We were now freaking out. They kept the IST-MLE portion, and somehow rebooked him on a EWR flight to Geneva, which was departing in 40 mins. I said, there's no way he'll make this - he's not even checked in or through security yet!! Next, she booked him on a Swiss flight from JFK at 7:45. She said he was confirmed. He rushed to JFK to get this flight, and Swiss said it wasn't enough time to get him on it. UA said there were no other flight options, although I listed multiple flight options that came up on the website, but she insisted she couldn't do this, although this was completely the first agent at UA's fault for messing everything up and saying we were good to go.
With no flight options left and him stranded at JFK, and no other possible flights to MLE as an option, we had no choice but to buy a $1500 ticket on Turkish for the 11pm flight, and still had to use the mileage for the 2nd leg.
This obviously was a mess, and incredibly stressful. Agents that couldn't do anything, and when they did, they made things worse. Running from NYC to EWR to JFK all within hours is not cool. Then having to pay for a flight after all that?
Honestly, I don't know what to ask for here or who to ask, but shouldn't UA do something?
Last edited by FlyinHawaiian; Dec 31, 12 at 10:14 am..
Reason: edited thread title for clarity
My experience in booking an F award last few weeks makes your story 100% believable.
There are MANY agents who are completely clueless or straight up lie, then you hang up call back and get an angel that takes care of everything in minutes.
I did the same months ago but with my return and not my Outbound, but the changes were done within a few hrs of my Outbound that simply messed Everything up. In the end LH got it sorted out at JFK .
But I learnt the hard way do NOT redo any of your flights after T-24 to your 1st segment! Once you have flown your Outbound its OK to change your Inbound as it wont mess up the Outbound any longer, any change and CO will reissue the tkt which causes the problems as the Outbound Carrier will see a CX on your res and not the new res as there will be a new tkt # that they would not receive in time
Retkting isnt done in a sec with Shares, so yes they can get the space but till they hear back if it tkted or not LookOut! and most likley what they CXed will be long gone and they wont be able to get it back again
I know it shouldnt be like this but it is like this! Thats why I wont change anything once Im < T-24 to my 1st segment any more
My experience in booking an F award last few weeks makes your story 100% believable.
There are MANY agents who are completely clueless or straight up lie, then you hang up call back and get an angel that takes care of everything in minutes.
It is unreal.
This is the truth from my my recent experience trying to book F tickets. Even managers were giving me false information and quoting rules etc. I then called back and everything was done fine without any issues. It was a TATL to Asia that I was being told is not possible and illogical. Needless to say it is a legal routing.
On the day of travel a week ago, we noticed a direct flight available on UA to IST so I called the 1k desk to see if he could get on it. The very nice woman said, yes, we can do that. Now, there wasn't much time between this point and the flight - about 4 hours, so my husband headed out the door to EWR instead of JFK once she said it was all booked. I was asked to hold again after it was confirmed.
This stuff can happen on any airline - don't mess with your tickets 4 hours prior to departure, too much can go wrong.
This stuff can happen on any airline - don't mess with your tickets 4 hours prior to departure, too much can go wrong.
+1 - More importantly, I would not mess with a ticket or an airport change. The only way I would do this is if the change of carrier & flight did not involve a change of airport and I would then wait until I was physically at the airport.
Doesn't excuse UA here, but this stuff happens on other major carriers too when changes are made at the last minute on phone transactions.
The sad thing is that most UA ticketing agents have no experience with airport check in procedures and control. Once a ticket goes into "Airport Control", the ticket in effect, gets locked and even with flights changed, the ticket will not longer correspond and in effect, the new reservation will not have a ticket attached to it, nor can the ticketing department exchange the ticket.
I chime what others say here. When you are flying with international carriers, stay with what you have. Sometimes as you have learned here, in trying to cut short a flight turned it into a much longer fiasco !
Sorry to hear this. Just to echo what others have said . . . I would be terrified to trust the "new United" personnel working with Shares to be able to execute this so close to departure time. The PMUA 1K personnel, yes, but not the current bunch with an awful booking system.
You guys all make sense. No airport change nor change in such a short amount of time. But what to do about this situation with united? Can I ask them for anything to make up for the last minute ticket I had to buy? They said all was fine.
You guys all make sense. No airport change nor change in such a short amount of time. But what to do about this situation with united? Can I ask them for anything to make up for the last minute ticket I had to buy? They said all was fine.
Oh, definitely. Document everything and send in a complaint. You deserve some sort of compensation.
Oh, definitely. Document everything and send in a complaint. You deserve some sort of compensation.
Sorry to say not much imo, especially since it seems the OP+ decided on their own to purchase the $1500 TK tkt (I understand why but that doesnt negate the fact that no one @ UA told them it would be AOK and that they would be refunded the $$). When you do something on your own then you must expect to be the 1 havng to pay for it.
I wonder if the Return tkts are even still in place, usually if you dont take the 1st segment all the rest of the flights both Out & In Bounds are CXed
OP did you or your husband do OLCI for the original flight? If yes did you make that known to the rep when you called to switch flights? If you did and the rep didnt 1st call TK to Off Load him then you may have a leg to stand on
I also understand that at times it can be hours for a res to be tkted, so it seems once the rep said I was able to book the new flight he jumped out and got to EWR ASAP , had he waited till he was told hes tkted he might not have had enough time to get to EWR. Unfortunately you gambled and unfortunately lost , since it seems when the rep came back you were told the res wasnt able to be tkted and now there wasnt enough time to get to JFK for the flight he was tkted for.
Bout all Id say UA is responsible for is the Refund of the Miles for the tkt not used
OP did the rep ever tell you he was Tkted on the new flight or did they say they were able to book it, its 2 different things.From the way you posted it seems by the rep telling you to hang on that they Never told you he was tkted, that takes liabilty off UAs hands Im sorry to say
Yes, OLCI was done, and that was told to the Agent. The agent never did call TK and when she finally did, she said they were being unresponsive and she wasn't getting anywhere. She also said it was confirmed, as did the new online record.
Yes, OLCI was done, and that was told to the Agent. The agent never did call TK and when she finally did, she said they were being unresponsive and she wasn't getting anywhere. She also said it was confirmed, as did the new online record.
Well if TK didnt want to cooperate I dont think theres much UA can do nor are responsible for. Had you not been checked in then UA should have been able to do what you wanted although you still may have hit a number of bumps fr same day change
Being Confirmed and being Tkted are 2 Different things. Go make a res now for a fully refundable trip. Look online and you will see the PNR but there will also be a message basically saying its in the process of being tkted. Till its tkted you dont have a tkt but do have a res, and as you know a res wont get you onto the flight w/o that res being tkted. Sometimes it takes a day or 2 till my res is tkted, usually a couple of hours, other times they can call the Rate (tkting) desk when tim eis short an dhave them Rush it thru. Till they try and tkt it they dont know 100% if the res will be or wont be
I would have thought as a 1K that you were aware of this Had you been tkted and ran into these problems youd have aleg to stand on, having just a confirmation w/o a tkt# imo you dont. But lets not forget it seems that on your own w/o any approval from UA you Decided to purchase that $1500 tkt, thats where being SOL on the refund is in UAs hands.
this forum is full of threads where people have been delayed even at UAs fault and ended up renting a car to go from EWR to ALB,BOS,DC etc etc and UA refused to refund the costs. They needed to be at their destination for whatever the next morning. They didnt clear it with UA or whomever they simply did what they Had to, and most were stuck with the bill, getting back a small amount for the leg not flown $ wise but far from the amount they paid for the walk-up 1 way rental
Once a person decides to do something on their own Dime they should still try and get back all or any part of it, but they must look at it as they wont get even a Dime , if they never sort and received the OK from a UA rep to do it.
Most goods purchased are the same , a person cant simply take an item anywhere to get fixed if they didnt get prior clearance. take your recalled car to a local mechanic and not an authorized dealer dont expect to see any $$ back unless you were told its OK prior to doing it and had your record noted as such. Why should this be any different? You decided what to do w/o getting approval to do it, and to be honest I would have done the same as you did under your circumstances but I would have done so knowing most likely I will be on my own to pay for it and not get a dime from UA
This stuff can happen on any airline - don't mess with your tickets 4 hours prior to departure, too much can go wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Often1
+1 - More importantly, I would not mess with a ticket or an airport change. The only way I would do this is if the change of carrier & flight did not involve a change of airport and I would then wait until I was physically at the airport.
Doesn't excuse UA here, but this stuff happens on other major carriers too when changes are made at the last minute on phone transactions.
Of course this can happen on any airline, but that (as Often1 said) does not excuse this whatsoever. The OP (nor any pax) should have to worry about a ticketing change if the agent is telling them it's confirmed. If what the OP wanted to do was not possible then the agent should have just said that. Period. When an agent of a business tells you something then as the customer you should have no reason to not believe what they are telling you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by spaceman3
You guys all make sense. No airport change nor change in such a short amount of time. But what to do about this situation with united? Can I ask them for anything to make up for the last minute ticket I had to buy? They said all was fine.
I would call United Customer Relations and speak to them instead of trying to write. This story will be told much easier over phone than in writing. As the ticket in question was "purchased" through UA via an award redemption and UA is the one who screwed everything up (regardless of how silly some may think it is that you did this with four hours to spare) then they are responsible for the situation. Will you get your $1,500 refunded? Probably not, but at the very least you should get your miles returned and a healthy eCert for all the trouble. As a 1K this should be a no brainer.
Call Customer Relations. Do not write.
Quote:
Originally Posted by craz
Sorry to say not much imo, especially since it seems the OP+ decided on their own to purchase the $1500 TK tkt (I understand why but that doesnt negate the fact that no one @ UA told them it would be AOK and that they would be refunded the $$). When you do something on your own then you must expect to be the 1 havng to pay for it.
I wonder if the Return tkts are even still in place, usually if you dont take the 1st segment all the rest of the flights both Out & In Bounds are CXed
OP did you or your husband do OLCI for the original flight? If yes did you make that known to the rep when you called to switch flights? If you did and the rep didnt 1st call TK to Off Load him then you may have a leg to stand on
I also understand that at times it can be hours for a res to be tkted, so it seems once the rep said I was able to book the new flight he jumped out and got to EWR ASAP , had he waited till he was told hes tkted he might not have had enough time to get to EWR. Unfortunately you gambled and unfortunately lost , since it seems when the rep came back you were told the res wasnt able to be tkted and now there wasnt enough time to get to JFK for the flight he was tkted for.
Bout all Id say UA is responsible for is the Refund of the Miles for the tkt not used
OP did the rep ever tell you he was Tkted on the new flight or did they say they were able to book it, its 2 different things.From the way you posted it seems by the rep telling you to hang on that they Never told you he was tkted, that takes liabilty off UAs hands Im sorry to say
Totally disagree with your post. Compenstation is certainly due and this is not a gamble. The OP called UA and asked a question. The agent answered the question and gave an assurance that everything was ticketed and good to go. Why shouldn't the OP and her husband believe this?
I get that conventional wisdom and the experiences of a lot of us here tell us that this had problem written all over it, but that doesn't relieve UA of the responsibility of what happened.
