Originally Posted by
canadiancow
This is even more perplexing. Booked on a 014 ticket, on UA 6623 operated by AC 8658?
Is it possible Expedia created two PNRs for the booking, with a 014 on the outbound and 016 on the return? I have definitely seen that before with OTAs where it's cheaper to book two one-ways, so you end up with one Expedia reference, and one airline reference for each direction. Except in this case, you might have ended up with four airline references given the mishmash of marketing and operating airlines.
I've also had AC say "you're not booked on AC 123 today" because it's not on the PNR loaded on their screen, even after repeatedly stating "it's a separate booking and I can provide the reference".
So if you provided them with the outbound reference, then they may not have done the "look up PNR by flight number and name".
But this is obviously highly speculative. I just find it extremely unlikely you'd end up with a 014 ticket with a UA-marketed AC-operated segment.
I think this is what happened as well, the so called return trip was two
separate one way tickets. That is to say, one ticket with one booking code outbound from a Canadian origin, to New York as final destination, and one ticket with a different booking code that has an American origin and Halifax (I presume) as the final destination.
I say this because If you use Google search for flights, you can get a quote for one and the same itinerary with two different prices, even if the entire itinerary is within Canada, on Air Canada and the direction on Google is 'book with Air Canada' in both cases. The cheaper itinerary will be the one marked 'separate tickets'.
But it is cheaper because there's a catch.
With two separate tickets you have TWO 'origins' and TWO 'final destinations.' So I suspect one of your tickets originated in Canada and that was the ticket with a booking code issued by AC. One originated in the US and that was the ticket with a booking code issued by United. As with all separate tickets the contract for the ticket with the earlier departure date does not guarantee you being informed about a change to a 'return' portion of the journey that doesn't exist, because that's not what Expedia booked for you. Their instruction to check in with Air Canada strikes me as odd, if my speculation is correct. Here is why.
Air Canada took you to Newark as a
final destination on a one way ticket, so I suspect that when you showed up at Newark to 'go home' that confused them. It didn't confuse United because they understood that you or rather Expedia had booked a ticket originating in the US and hence United was responsible, even if the plane was an AC plane with AC staff. It is lucky that you did get to the airport on time for the changed flight time of the second ticket's itinerary. Yes, you had to book a hotel and someone missed a day's work, but had you not noticed the flight time change and shown up late, you could have been charged a horrendous last minute purchase ticket to get you home.
I too am speculating since I may have misunderstood but like others, I am not sure small claims court will be much help here.