I understand the beef. First I don't know why they don't just send another plane to ANC but I get it, they don't have them sitting around and they would need to find a crew. Still a massive inconvenience to passengers to backtrack.
Second the rebooking process. Sometimes the tech works great and you are automatically rebooked on the best available option. But I often find that not to be the case. Like OP I have tried to rebook through the app and chat function - the former is impossible and the latter never seems to work out as the chat agents are incompetent IME. The best option is to call UA but by the time you do so all of the best options are gone, as OP noted. and of course you can't call when you are up in the air and the delay is costly in terms of missing the best options.
In an ideal world UA would have a special line for rebooking elites who encounter IRROPS. But if you're not GS, fergedaboutit.
Originally Posted by
krispykrme
This was end of the year MR for me to keep status. After getting to KUL- I dead head back to Tokyo then to Rome via ICN.
I had some sympathy for you but now I see it was a mileage run. Seriously I didn't think these were a thing anymore since we moved from EQM to EQD.