I decided to use some of my orphan UA miles to book a trip on AC from YYZ to YVR for next weekend. I called UA on Sunday and the agent set up an itinerary which required me to overnight in YEG on Thursday night and continue to YVR on Friday morning since there was no award availability for a YYZ-YVR flight on Thursday. UA faxed me an itinerary showing my flights as CONFIRMED. Accordingly, I went ahead and booked my hotels for Edmonton and Vancouver.

Today, I called UA back to check if I could change flight times on my return (presently booked YVR-YYC-YYZ and I wanted a nonstop). I drew a totally unhelpful agent in Chicago. She advised that no seats were available on the nonstops and then turned her attention to the outbound segments.

Evidently award seats on YYZ-YVR for Thursday had opened up since I booked. The agent noted this and told me that I would have to change my outbound flights to go into Vancouver nonstop on Thursday instead. I told her that this was unacceptable since I had already made plans and hotel reservations for Edmonton. She curtly told me that "these are Air Canada's rules".

I asked for a supervisor and was put on hold. After 11 minutes, I gave up and called back, reaching an agent in Seattle this time. When I provided the PNR to her, she informed me that my itinerary HAD BEEN UNILATERALLY CHANGED by the agent in Chicago and I was now flying into Vancouver on Thursday.

Needless to say, I was not pleased. The agent very helpfully checked the history and found that the changes had indeed been made recently. She tried to reinstate the original itinerary, but there were no more award seats on either YYZ-YEG for Thursday or YEG-YVR for Friday morning. After about 20 minutes of tapping around, she finally managed to book me on a YYZ-YYC-YEG flight on Thursday and a YEG-YYC-YVR flight for Friday morning.

Is it worth writing to UA to complain about the agent in Chicago and to praise the girl in Seattle? Or will I likely receive some canned response?