Originally Posted by
chris1234
Just had this happen to me. Flight was HKG-PEK in I / PEK-LHR in O, all on 4/26. Got cancellation email in chinese on 4/23. Phone agents were able to restore ticket and book the flights that I looked up, via BKK and BRU, since nothing else available, and 12h earlier. Award stayed at pre-1/31 rates.
My suspicion was that the PEK-LHR flight was full/oversold, since it was not available for purchase anymore on that day, I was considering switching to a paid ticket. The broker/waitlist theory makes more sense though.
I've asked United to provide me with more details about the cancellation, like logged in or not, IP address.
Hopefully seats will open up on BA/CX direct flights, or at least some 1 stop options, but seems like a very busy HKG-LHR weekend...
This is extremely unfortunate and absolutely nerve racking for everybody who booked a UA award with CA segment(s) - the once-thought smart choice now looks pretty lame. I still had a hard time to figure out why UA has formed a task force to handle the fallout but meanwhile still fails to address the origination of the entire problem.
However, when something impacts UA's interests, it took a totally different approach; during the last promotion (the system-wide $5 airfare) UA took immediate action to kill the fare first, and then handle the aftermath later. Wonder why UA can't close the loophole this time first.