A couple of nights ago, I booked a flight IST-BRU-IAD-IAH. The flight didn't ticket immediately. My credit card was not charged and I got this message:
One of the flights in your itinerary has been cancelled or is still not confirmed. To make changes to your trip, you can select "Change flight". Or, if you'd like to cancel your trip, you can select "Cancel options". If you require assistance, please contact United Reservations,.
Then about 36 hours later I got this message via email:
Thank you for booking your travel on United Airlines. We are unable to ticket the above-referenced reservation. Some airlines require 24 hours to confirm a seat on their flight. In this case, we were unable to confirm your flight(s) on Turkish Airlines. If you are in the US or Canada, please call us at 800-UNITED1 (800-864-8331) so we can assist you in making alternate arrangements.
So I re-booked the ticket this afternoon to fly IST-FRA-EWR-IAH, and I got the first message again. As of right now, I have a Turkish airlines confirmation number, and the entire itinerary is showing on the Turkish airlines website, but still no ticket. I can route via several European cities, but I do eventually need a ticket back to Houston, preferably on United metal over the Atlantic. And unfortunately Turkish airlines connects to all of the routes I'm looking for except for a miserable 6am departure on Lufthansa which I'd prefer to avoid. Any tips for dealing with this? Should I keep re-booking different routes until I find one that tickets? Is there any way I can see the likelihood of success on expertflyer or anywhere else? Or should I just give up and try another airline?
ps. In case anyone is wondering, the reason I am booking double connections is to maximize upgrade chances. Anything EU-IAH is a disaster for the day I'm traveling