Originally Posted by
StacyN
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!
I used to do this a lot pre-COVID because I need flexibility on business trips. I now do my back-up bookings on other carriers. The removal of change fees by all of the airlines means there is no downside to booking multiple itineraries that you may not fly and just cancelling for FFC. Also, booking O/Ws increases your flexibility.
Last edited by zombietooth; Feb 25, 2022 at 8:29 am