I'll add my congrats on getting home (and getting your luggage as well!).
Originally Posted by
United737522
I am glad things worked out and even more for you.
However, that agent should be reprimanded severely. Rebooking into C on AF because of a wx cancellation is unacceptable when you are on a coach ticket. Talk about hurting UAs cash position.... That move was not cheap. I imagine that kind of courtesy wouldn't ever be extended to GS, let alone a 1P.
Definitely not a slam on you, as my finance mind and professional background would agree. However, there are a few good financial counterpoints to be made:
- The OP and companion were holding C tickets, regardless of u/g or not. In anything, the OP upgraded w/miles, so M/H-fares aren't exactly the cheap S and/or L fares that so many brag about on the $2,000 1K track. If anything, the fault lies not with the agent, but rather UA Revenue Management for low M/H-fare pricing. Conversely, I don't know if I'd want to upset a customer that buys higher-priced restricted fares and then on top of that uses his/her miles to upgrade (higher ticket revenue + reduced MP liability). Certainly in terms of $ for this flight (sans cancellation), this 1P generated more revenue than yours truly who would have used a SWU on a much lower W-fare.
- Given UA's limited presence at CDG, chances are agreements have been setup for these situations. UA probably paid AF a heavily discounted rate to fly the OP and companion home. If UA was paying full-fare for the AF flights, the agent wouldn't have even had the option to do it. The fact that AF had same-day C availability probably only drives this down further.
- If the OP and companion were delayed by a day or two, that could have gotten prohibitively expensive. Hotel, cab, meals (x2), incidentals (x2), all in EUR against a weak USD. If I was in the OP's situation, flying home in Y wouldn't have even been on the table. It is one thing to change COS on a cancellation from ORD-BOS; flying halfway across the world in Y on a M-fare and already redeemed miles would have been out of the question.
- Ten years ago this probably would have been SOP for UA (maybe not AF booking, but certainly finding alternative UA C options), to get the customer to his/her destination with minimal disruption, regardless of MP status. Certainly, our expectations have dropped drastically since then.
Originally Posted by
FBKSan
My first C experience, back in March, included this treatment. IAD-LHR our purser, John, came around and personally welcomed each customer (very friendly, very professional) and thanked us for traveling with United that day. Most impressive.
I know others have lamented about bad crew experiences to LHR, but I've been very fortunate with my C trips to LHR (whether ORD-LHR or ORD-IAD-LHR). The crews on these flights seem to be a bit more professional and lively, which is in contrast to the the rather lackluster experiences on the TPAC flights.
Originally Posted by
GoingAway
There are a lot of ways this could've played out and I'm happy that the OP had such a great turnout but expectations should not be that this would happen again nor that it was in ANY way deserved.
Definitely...this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, most likely never to be repeated. If this happens again, the OP should start buying lottery tickets.
I had three op-ups to and from LHR last Nov/Dec because they were heavily oversold. I never expected an op-up in the first place, and will never one again.