Originally Posted by
Outoftime
I am flying from Ithaca, NY to Hong Kong via Newark. The Chinese travel agent who booked them did it as two separate itineraries., so I can't check the bag through here in Ithaca.
The Bigger concern is that while there is a decent 2 hour connection time in Newark, the inbound flight has an abysmal on-time record, with nearly 20% canceled. My worry is that if I do not make the HKG flight in Newark I will be treated as a no-show and have no recourse.
I called United, they said they could not help, I called the travel agent, they were not even able to understand the problem. I went to the airport yesterday, no help there.
I know that if I see I am going to miss the connection I can have someone at United call someone else at United, but is this sufficient?
You've called your TA and went to the airport. Have you actually called United? You may have to "hang up and call again" until you get a good agent, but they should be able to help or at least explain why it can't be done.
Beyond that, I can't help with the actual possibility of a mis-connection, but the agent at ITH should be able to check your bags through - just have both itineraries handy. (I say this not knowing how good the ITH agents are). It helps if you show up early and hope the agent isn't busy, as this can take a bit of time.
The best advise is that if the ITH segment gets delayed be sure to start calling as soon as you can and explain the situation. Are these both on UA, or at least on UA tickets? (the ticket number will begin with 016-...) That will help as they should see both in the UA system.