This posting has been modified from its original version. It has been edited for content and to fit your screen.

Regular Mileage Run readers already know about how I snagged one of the SJC-JAX roundtrips for $156.50 ... which became $146.50 ... which became $136.50. Then, in the last round of schedule "improvements," United eliminated SAN-IAD service on Saturday evenings, and quietly changed my SJC-LAX-SAN-IAD-JAX outbound into SJC-LAX-SAN-ORD-IAD-JAX. Never mind that the ORD-IAD flight would arrive an hour after the flight to Jacksonville had departed! And they left it that way.

Although the "gift" of an extra segment was appealing, taking the later flight to Jacksonville (and turning around immediately) was pointless. I called United Reservations to see what could be done to restore sanity to the ticket.

At first, the Reservations agent wanted to salvage San Diego; I assured her this was no longer possible, and I would have to be rerouted. She said she had to try anyway, and, after a few minutes, arrived at the same conclusion. I said, given that the most cost-effective and rational thing United could do (simply sending me back to Los Angeles) wasn't permitted under their rules, the only practical possibilities would be San Francisco and Las Vegas. I also told her that, under the circumstances, San Francisco made the most sense. At first, she protested, claiming that travel has to be in one direction. I explained that I had read the fare rules, and this was indeed a valid routing [I'm permitted to transit both SFO and LAX, in either order]. She said she had to put me on hold while she checked this, and came back a minute later saying it was OK.

She then restored the seat assignment that had mysteriously vanished from the [unaffected] first flight segment, and gave me seats on the Los Angeles-San Francisco and San Francisco-Washington Dulles segments.

Normally, this would have been sufficient, but I reminded her I had a paper ticket. "Well, you'll have to exchange that. You can wait until you get to the airport, but it's better if you go to a United ticketing location and take care of it as soon as possible." I thanked her and said I'd stop by a City Ticket Office.

The Nightmare Begins

I returned to the same CTO where my invalidated ticket had been [re]issued only five days earlier. What should have taken a few minutes turned into hours. The agent said she couldn't exchange my ticket because there was no pricing record with my reservation, and she'd have to call her supervisor. So she called her help desk (and got put on hold). After some conversation, she then claimed that when a reroute is necessary, she can only issue a ticket for the most direct routing. I informed her that she did not have to do this; Reservations had already made taken care of everything. She insisted again she could not do this, that she did not have the authorization! This made no sense to me.

I asked if there was anyone else she could call, and she said, "no, I can only talk to my supervisor." "Well, your supervisor clearly doesn't understand what to do in this situation." Then she claimed I booked this myself over the Internet, clearly to get more segments, and she would have to refer the matter to United's fraud department. "Fraud department? There's no fraud here. I have a valid reservation, made by a United Reservations agent, in full compliance with the fare rules, and all of United's terms and conditions." "Well, you can't just accumulate Mileage Plus miles by booking a ticket; you have to actually fly those segments." "Well, of course! I fully intend to fly those segments." By now, I think, she realized she wasn't going to dissuade me.

Time for Plan B. "How about if I call Customer Relations and see what they have to say?" She dialed Customer Relations for me and handed over the phone.

Customer Relations was pleasant, but unhelpful. The Customer Relations representative was able to call up my reservation ("Wow ... you have a lot of flights ... did you book this to get a low fare?" "Well, I don't think I'm going to get anything much lower."), didn't see a problem, but said she couldn't help me; the CTO agent had to call someone else. "Who's that someone else?" "Her supervisor." I explained that we had already tried that, and that's why I was talking to Customer Relations. Exasperated, I blurted out, "if you can't help me with this, exactly what is it that you can help me with?" "We deal with problems after you've flown somewhere; we don't handle things that go wrong before your flight." "OK, then who handles my situation?" "That's a different department. You'll need to speak with a Reservations supervisor." "Would you speak with the agent, please?" I handed the phone back across the counter. The Customer Relations representative gave the agent a Unitel number to call. The agent claimed she had never seen that number before; she called ... this, too, didn't solve my problem.

So, once again, I called United Reservations. I explained what happened, and said I was calling from a City Ticket Office. The reservations agent was incredulous. "There shouldn't be any problem; the City Ticket Office should just issue you a ticket." "I know that. You know that. The last reservations agent I spoke with told me that. But she insists she isn't authorized to exchange my ticket." "Are you in the office now?" "Yes." "May I speak with the agent?" "If you can hold for a minute; she's helping another customer at the moment."

So, the two of them talked for a while: the CTO agent being obstinate, and the Reservations agent beginning to share my frustration. Several minutes go by, with a lot of typing into computer terminals. Eventually, the CTO agent issued my ticket, and handed the phone back to me.

The Reservations agent apologized profusely for my inconvenience, and started giving me the speech on how much United values my business. "So, can I expect better treatment once my 1K status shows up in your system?" "Well, ideally, we'd like to treat all our customers the same way." I smiled at that diplomatic reply, and figured it wouldn't hurt to ask for something tangible. "Well, I'm not supposed to do this ... but I can send you a «something good»."

Making Lemonade

So, assuming the «something good» shows up as promised, I'll be way ahead before ever setting foot in an airport. Plus, the longer reroute means I'll now accrue a few more status miles.

Persistance pays off, and knowing the rules--and exactly what I was (and was not) entitled to--yielded an outcome in my favor.

Most recent events described occurred last week.


[This message has been edited by EPS (edited 07-24-2001).]