ariyo15

For ease of typing, I won't include, dates, times or flight numbers, but will say all flights were in February '13...

Original:
YVR-SFO (UA F)
SFO-ICN-SIN (SQ F)
SIN-SYD (SQ F - destination)
MEL-SIN (SQ "R")
SIN-ICN (SQ regional J)
ICN-LAX (OZ F)
LAX-YVR (AC F/J)

Flown:
YVR-SFO (UA F)
SFO-ICN-SIN (SQ F)
SIN-SYD (SQ F - destination)
MEL-SIN (SQ "R")
SIN-ICN (SQ regional J)
ICN-SFO (UA J)
SFO-YVR (AC Y)
(SFO-PHX-YVR was scheduled after the change, but was changed again DOD to the direct SFO-YVR flight due to a US delay)

When did these problems first arise? Great question! It all started sometime in January, when I noticed something out of whack on our online reservations pages *note, we booked on separate PNRs. On mine everything looked fine except for the fact that my ICN-LAX flight simply wasn't there. Voila, gone! So now it seemed as though I had open-jawed ...SIN-ICN//LAX-YVR. Weird. Then, I checked my wife's and noticed she too was missing a segment; but for her it was the SIN-ICN flight! ...? Haha. Her flights now seemed to route ...MEL-SIN//ICN-LAX... This obviously worried me, but I figured I should first reach out to OZ and SQ as they were the operating carriers. After very short calls, they said they had no idea what was wrong with my online US reservation, but they see everything perfectly - my seats, confirmation/ticket numbers, flight times, special meal requests, etc...

Perfect, I thought to myself. I then carried on with my life thinking it was a simple US web-glitch. If only it were that simple. Fast forward two days...

I get a call around dinner time from a US CSR informing me of a schedule change on several flights and asking if I noticed. I informed her that I didn't know there was a schedule change, but that I had spoken to SQ and OZ earlier and they had said all of the flight times were still the same. Then, I mentioned the weird issue on the US site and she said it must have been because of the change. "Don't worry," I said. "I've spoken to SQ and OZ in the last few days and they said all of my seats, meals, etc... are still confirmed. Thanks for the call, but there's no need to change anything - I'm all squared away."

"Oh, that's great!" she said, as if a huge burden had been taken off her back. "That'll make my job much easier. Have a great night!" Wow! That was nice - they even called about the problem! Well, no worries, it's all taken care of now. Hmmm.... If only... Fast forward about one week.

As I always do about a week before a big trip, I returned to the US site to verify all of my flight details. This is when I got REALLY worried. All of a sudden, there was no open-jaw. Great! But wait, why am I flying into SFO? And why then onto PHX? What? United?? BUSINESS CLASS?!?! What the #$@& is that "I" doing next to that 10-hour flight? Everything should be "O" (except the on "R" for the SQ MEL-SIN flight)!! Let's play the how helpful are the US supervisors game!

Ring ring... Ring ring. "Welcome to USAirways, blah blah blah..." No time for the gate-keepers, I need a supervisor. "Can I ask what this is in reference to?" Yea, I'd rather not - I always have a tough time doing this politely, but I sure do try my darndest. Once the supervisor got on the line I explained everything above (in a bit more detail).

"I'm really sorry sir, but when there are schedule changes like this one there's little we can do. We just book you on the next available flight that is as close to what you booked as possible." I tried pleading, explaining there was really no schedule change and that I had spoken to the operating carriers (and even a US CSR) a few days earlier and was told everything was in tact! Why would US then go ahead and do this?

In a futile attempt, I asked, "Any way to get those OZ seats back?" Haha. Nice try. In any case, the best she could do was wave the change fee if anything came back before the date of original departure.

Of course, nothing did. I tried calling again from ICN, to no avail. Then I sent an email to CSR, GOLD and spoke to a supervisor here, but for what? What should I really be expecting?

The rest of the story is pretty simple:
-Flight to SFO doesn't have kosher meals
-Get to SFO, are told the US flight is delayed and 45 minutes won't be enough connection time in PHX
-Given BPs for AC's SFO-YVR direct (in coach). "Don't worry you're bags will be sent over."
-No bag in YVR (for three days)

So? How would YOU handle this one?