Thanks, guys. I have spent hours after hours over the phone, talking to agents after agents. One agent did put them on a routing with AA flights and said everything is settled and I will receive an email notification. However, when I called back an hour later (due to no confirmation email received), I was told there is no record of the said itinerary. And the system rebooked them on the NRT-HNL(NH)-LAX-IAH-MEM. I argued for NRT-YVR(AC)-SLC-MEM(DL) and they declined the proposal, saying my wife won't know they need to go to AC gate. Well, how should my wife know they need to go to the NH gate then?

I am tired of all the nonsense I have heard again and again. The so called new UA sucks.

At the end, the agent said "well, we need to go through so many different airlines to get this ticket...". it really sounds like I am the one who started the problem... Is this the professionalism for the premier line agents? Although I have experienced IRROPS many times inthe old UA days, most of them were solved with a call to UA and none was as painful as this one. To make it worse, my (inexperienced) family members are experiencing the worst case.