I had 5 held reservations, attempted to ticket one, and got a message with the "confirmation" that said "Your ticket has not been issued. Please call us immediately to complete your purchase. Your reservation was created, but ticketing has not been completed. To guarantee your fare and complete the ticketing process, please call united.com customer service immediately at 1-800-589-5582. Your record locator number is: UA-xxxxxx" I called the number, and while I was on hold tried to ticket two more of the held reservations, receiving the same message for both of them.
After being on hold with the web support number given with the non-confirmation confirmation message for about 55 minutes, a very helpful gentleman with an Indian accent helped me get everything ticketed with no trouble, just a little more time on hold. He verified all the credit card and billing information, then put me on hold - he said the fare had gone up, so he would have to re-enter the lower fare that I had reserved. Apparently manually reentering things takes some time, because I was on hold for about five minutes twice as he got everything worked out for all three trips, but now all of them are ticketed and confirmed at $129.61.
So, a somewhat long hold (while idly surfing the web, which I would have done anyway), a well trained, patient, and courteous phone technician, and I'm on my way. May all of you be as fortunate!
Last summer I was happy to spend two weekends in New York on LAX-JFK tickets for $200. But going in the fall for $130...
