Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
And the counter example -- a few days ago I had a flight on rolling delays and I had an airport agent protect me on a flight to a different NYC area airport later in the day. My original flight left final (4 hour delay) before the protected flight. The protect flight clearly showed in my online reservation info.
Go figure --- maybe airport agents have greater freedom. BTW, I called on arrival to make sure the reservation was clean -- the protected flight segment was gone and the return was in fine shape. ^
During my conversation, the agent also said "one cannot have the same segment on two different flights for the same day anymore".
So, that may be the reason why your trip worked:
e.g., No protection if you want: IAH-EWR/IAH-EWR
but protection offered: IAH-EWR/IAH-LGA
No idea what is the reality in UA.
Airport agents are of course way more powerful. But, it is definitely rough to get anything done properly with agents when a lot of stranded people are waiting with you during IRROPS.......