United not able to combine 2 UA interaries to send baggage though.
I had booked a RT SFO-SJU several months ago. In the meantime I relocated to Colorado. I booked a separate itinerary ASE-SFO. I of course wanted my baggage checked through to SJU. When I checked in in ASE, the Agent said that COdbaUA recently made a software update to Shares to accommodate Interline bookings, He went on to say that it is now much easier to rebook and combine segments with other carries but the programmers forgot to do one thing...THEY FORGOT TO PUT UA on this new program so they can combine segments with OTHER airlines but not within themselves. He apologized profusly while taking jabs at COdbaUA, he mentioned I would have to go out of security and pick-up my bag and recheck!... Luckily I had purposely booked an earlier flight to spend some time in the city. If I hadn't there would not have been a way to do all that if I had the standard 1 hour connection. WHERE is COdbaUA getting these programmers? They forgot to add their own company to this " new software"
Last edited by RONINASPEN; Jan 13, 13 at 7:19 am..
Reason: Spelling
I had a similar situation last week - folks flying to IAH on a separate reservation and then another reservation from IAH to CCS.
Took 90 minutes for the Help Desk to "tie" (tell the computer) these reservations were in conjunction and walk me through the bagtag issuance. What complicated things was there were four passengers on four separate reservations. Also one had name spelling different - i.e, to IAH was SmithJones/Mary and the other reservation from IAH to CCS was Smith/Mary.......this made it extremely difficult to conjunct. The gal at the Help Desk said "they (UA) have to do something about this".
Ya think ?? Luckily these passengers were early and it got done but it was so grueling I needed a tranquilizer and doctor after that !!
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The view and opinions expressed here are my own. I am NOT speaking for my employer, United Airlines.
I've had the same problem a couple of times over the past year. I heard from the agent last June that it was easier to route bags to a different airline than compared to combining a different PNR on UA.
One preCO agent in PDX was able to type the keyboard commands in about 5 minutes. All other stations, have had to call the help desk.
Programs: UA Gold, HH Gold, Marriott Silver, Hertz 5*
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I was able to check in DTW to combine both DTW-ORD and ORD-EWR-TLV, it took them about 20 minutes (and 4 employees) and they ended up creating a new reservation and splitting up me and my fiance. but they were able to check the bags.
I had an agent in Cleveland come up with a very simple system: she used a hand-written baggage tag. It included my name, contact phone number, and the two PNRs. It took three or four minutes: she just had to verify my onward connection, and then write out the tag information. She then entered the handwritten bag information into SHARES.
It's true that offline interlining is oddly quicker, but I thought the handwritten system was a clever work-around.
I have seen frequently how sub-par and maybe even lazy agents who do not want to do the legwork blame SHARES for everything.
It is what pmCO used to do; answer no and hope you will go away.
This may really be a SHARES problem but I have grown very skeptical of anything CSR or check-in staff tell me.
Programs: Formerly over-entitled UA 1K, now under-entitled UA PP.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RONINASPEN
I had booked a RT SFO-SJU several months ago. In the meantime I relocated to Colorado. I booked a separate itinerary ASE-SFO. I of course wanted my baggage checked through to SJU. When I checked in in ASE, the Agent said that COdbaUA recently made a software update to Shares to accommodate Interline bookings, He went on to say that it is now much easier to rebook and combine segments with other carries but the programmers forgot to do one thing...THEY FORGOT TO PUT UA on this new program so they can combine segments with OTHER airlines but not within themselves. He apologized profusly while taking jabs at COdbaUA, he mentioned I would have to go out of security and pick-up my bag and recheck!... Luckily I had purposely booked an earlier flight to spend some time in the city. If I hadn't there would not have been a way to do all that if I had the standard 1 hour connection. WHERE is COdbaUA getting these programmers? They forgot to add their own company to this " new software"
It has always been possible to interline bags and to combine UA itineraries. After $mi$ek replaced UA's system with craptinental's system, what used to take 45 seconds now takes 30 minutes. But, it could always be done.
Now, you're saying that they "enhanced" the system so that interline can still be done, as it has always been done, but the cut out the ability to combine UA itineraries?
As an aside, the check-in desk for international at SFO has been decimated. Capacity cut more than 50% and only a few legacy sUA agents remain, the rest appear to be between 8 and 12 years old. If you ever find yourself in a strange situation like this, always worth seeking out the one remaining experienced sUA agent who is usually serving the F line or hovering around. Most of the time, "no, no, no" can change into "yes" when you do that.
I have combined PNRs many many times and your right pre-merger UA used to take a few seconds by punching a few keystrokes. Now it seems to take a minimum of 30 minutes and many times an hour. But with this " new software update" it appears it can't be don't at all, since it works with OTHER airlines perhaps next time if they can't check my bags through I should insist they change the carrier on my forwarding flight so they can Interline it there so it makes it without having to go outside security and recheck the bag.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyingNone
I had a similar situation last week - folks flying to IAH on a separate reservation and then another reservation from IAH to CCS.
Took 90 minutes for the Help Desk to "tie" (tell the computer) these reservations were in conjunction and walk me through the bagtag issuance. What complicated things was there were four passengers on four separate reservations. Also one had name spelling different - i.e, to IAH was SmithJones/Mary and the other reservation from IAH to CCS was Smith/Mary.......this made it extremely difficult to conjunct. The gal at the Help Desk said "they (UA) have to do something about this".
Ya think ?? Luckily these passengers were early and it got done but it was so grueling I needed a tranquilizer and doctor after that !!
That is interesting since I arrived in ORD at 5:00 AM and had a long layover before the flight to SJU I noticed several agents at the empty Customer Service Center. Since I had time I stopped to question them about this new software and how they could combine UA and other carriers but not UA to UA. 2 Agents chimed in " since the merger " it's been a disaster everything takes way way longer to do" They also mentioned that many many employees have have to go for psychological consoling with the added stress that Shares has brought.
Last edited by iluv2fly; Jan 13, 13 at 2:01 pm..
Reason: merge
It would be funny if they sentenced S$sick and the entire COdbaUA management to have to fly everyday on UA with NO status just to see what their reactions would be. Actually I take that back, with NO status they will probably be offered cheap upgrades and be sitting in the front of the plane. On a side note my last segment ORD-SJU there were still a dozen people on the upgrade list before they filled up. I sat next to a lady and her 2 friends directly behind. She mentioned they did an upgrade for $149 at check-in, obviously fly very little if at all, FA had to explain where lap table was in arm had to explain how to get it out etc. I guess COdbaUA new philosophy is they rather collect the $149 from these people that fly once if that a year than the $14,900 that even a lowly silver might spend in several years.
The process is very simple in SHARES,
Add the segment to the itinerary, then recheck in the customer and [X] (change) the bagtag then remove the added segment to put the seat back in inventory, should take about a minute.
Location: What I write is my opinion alone..don't read into it anything not written.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cbmaz
The process is very simple in SHARES,
Add the segment to the itinerary, then recheck in the customer and [X] (change) the bagtag then remove the added segment to put the seat back in inventory, should take about a minute.
Yes, you bk the space, but one cannot bk their own metal in their own crs system. Bk works for offline space, but online space needs to be HK which is an active, not passive crs request, and would decriment the inventory. Also the bag tag data would not be appended to the 2nd itin, which is minor except for intl ppbm, but there is an ez workaround for the last part.
Edit: spell check changed "HK" to "HKG", I guess iPhone does learn, but "HK" (crs status reflecting an inventory allocation that deducts an addl seat and reflects "holding konfirmed" Also "decriment" became "decriminalize" in spell check...I guess I need to learn to spell.
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