Originally Posted by mherdeg

I am now 46 minutes into a phone call attempting to book a flight EWR-ORD-TPE-SIN-xxx, last sector on SQ. TPE-SIN arrives at 1430, and SIN-xxx departs the next day (just barely) at 0020. There is an earlier flight SIN-xxx departing about 6pm but only available in X (not I).

The journey involves a 7hr 40m connection in SIN and the rate desk says "that's not a valid itinerary." The phone agent I'm talking to has proactively offered EWR-ORD-TPE-BKK-xxx instead (which autoprices just fine, of course). She says that after getting a "no" from the rate desk, she escalated to her supervisor, who instantly declined to price the itin because there is obviously a non-permitted stopover in the itinerary.

She says that her supervisor has told her the following things:

"On an international award ticket, a stop of more than four hours is now considered a stopover."
"Because it's an invalid routing, we need to book the SIN-xxx that's available SOONER -- which is only available in X, not in I."
"We think this is a special rule for trips involving Singapore Airlines."
"Of course, if there are no seats available, we'll consider a 'forced connection'."

I quietly expressed my disbelief — wait, are we concerned that a 7h40m stop is a stopover? Lol. That's a new one, ha ha. Let's see, is that in the contract of carriage? Hmm, let me pull it up. Ha ha, how do we feel about the part of the CoC that says "For International flights… if there is no connecting departure scheduled on the date of arrival, departure on the next day within 24 hours of arrival shall not constitute a Stopover."

The agent offers to transfer me to her supe directly (LOL) and I am totally thrilled to have one of Those conversations. Obviously there is no way I am going to be getting this itin priced or booked today. I don't know if she seriously expected me to talk to her supe directly or not but I said, absolutely yes, let's see if we can learn something new about United! That sounds like a lot of fun! She says her supe is on hold with the rate desk so can't talk to me right now, ha ha.

I don't know why I'm still on the phone. I think basically just because it's a quiet weekend and I'm enjoying some levity.

I originally wanted to work with this same phone agent to book another one-way itin representing the return portion of this trip, but with a proposed journey that involves two 20-hr connections and two changes at co-terminals, I am thinking maybe that's a bad idea based on who seems to be on call on the rate desk right now.

EDIT: This agent tells me that her supe is now telling her that the award requires a maximum of "3 connections" and that this 4-segment itinerary has more than 3 connections.

EDIT: I had a hilarious 10-15 min conversation with a supe who was absolutely insistent that an itin with 4 segments has 4 connections.

EDIT: the supe told me that when she types in 'xxx-yyy' into her system it gives her a routing 'xxx-ord-sfo-yyy', which is a double connect, and that is the most connections which must therefore be allowed. I ask -- how many connections are there in that trip, the double connect one? She says, well, there are 3 connections.

EDIT: pretty sure the agent I was talking to stopped talking in the middle of a sentence and hoped I would hang up. I took the time to check whether she was still there (just one "hello?") then waited for her to come back then went off and read the CoC definition of a stopover and transfer out loud just for fun. She came back about ten minutes later and said "um, you said 'wait a sec', did you want me to wait while you did something??!!". Amazing, lol. I apologized profusely for the misunderstanding (?) and said, I am so so sorry! Look, we seem to be at an impasse about why this itin won't autoprice, would it help if I went ahead and booked an itin with a VERY similar shape (same # of connections, just connecting in BKK instead of SIN?) and asked you why that one autoprices and this one doesn't? Let me just pick dates that I definitely intend to fly and can use, although it's great that as a 1K I can always flexibly change them, ok, these dates look good, not my preferred routing but we can change that … OK, here's the PNR. Can you take a look at this and let me know why this one autopriced versus the other itin with the SQ instead of BKK that didn't autoprice? She put me on hold: "OK, it looks to me … Give me one moment."

It has been more than one moment but, you know, that's fair enough after the ten minutes' silence she says my poor communication caused her. LOL.

EDIT: the supe came back to me after about 10-15min of hold with the following group of explanations for why this itin would not fly, transcribed almost verbatim:



OK I give up. No one is learning anything tonight. I surrender. I feel like the sad person attached to one of those faceless arms on the "When the fun stops" problem-gambling brochures available at every casino loyalty booth in Vegas. This isn't fun anymore, it's pain. I want off this ride.