Hi Everyone,

Has anyone recently experienced an increase in the number of system auto-cancellations for flights that might overlap with other flights? In non-Covid life, I’m a very frequent traveler and frequently may have multiple itineraries in a week. Sometimes, due to scheduling changes (especially given the realities of Covid), I may have two flights booked while I determine how locations/schedule will firm up.

There is no rule (that I know of) that you can only have one flight booked at once on a given day. But, in the last few weeks as travel has picked up, I’ve been receiving system generated reservation cancellations from United without out any notice for itineraries where I may have flights overlapping, even if on very different routes without any inquiry about which flight should be cancelled. For example, today I had the last leg of a LAX->HNL->EWR->LAX cancelled when I also had a HNL->LAX reservation that was the same day since I wasn’t sure I’d need to go to NYC for work or not). When I called the 1K desk, they told me that due to a system change about 1 year ago, I can not have two flights that overlap, meaning I have to give up the 3 week fare discount for early bookings on one of them.

Has anyone else experienced this recently? I find it to be hugely inconvenient, putting the onus on me to track when these auto cancellations come through (at arbitrary times) via email only. I understand that United might want to solidify routes, but this seems to inconvenience some of the heaviest flyers.

Any other experiences or thoughts?

Thanks!