jfidler

I've been OZ*G (Diamond) for a few years, and my current membership expires September of 2014.

Today when I went to do online check-in for a DCA-BOS flight on US, it has my OZ number in there but it's coming up as *S not *G. This means I'm only eligible for one free bag at check-in (*S benefit) instead of 3 (*G benefit).

The online boarding pass correctly lists my OZ number, but then clearly lists "Star Silver".

Has anyone else had a problem with this? I've flown US about a year ago, on the same routing actually, and no problems with *G recognition in their system. I flew UA domestic two weeks ago, and also no problems with it recognizing *G.

At this point, my plan is to show up at the check-in desk with OZ*G card in hand, to get them to override is so I can check my 2 bags for free. I hope they take that as proof over what "the computer" may indicate.

THD

I am D+ and have had problems with the US systems recognising the OZ status. My card was listed as no *G status but this was easily fixed on checkin. Points did not credit either and required manually sending in the boarding passes.

mogoy

I recently made several trips on US as *S and did not experience any particular problems with them... neither on miles accrual nor status recognition for that matters.

jon503

So far, my OZ Diamond status has always been recognized as *G on other airlines, including UA. I only once experienced a reverse situation when I first signed up to Asiana Club though. I still had my silver card and the TK check in agent at DUS appeared to have never seen a OZ card before. She gave it a confused look and then decided it must mean I'm *S. I was even given lounge access for who knows what reason. Needless to say I was quite pleased.

To get back to the OP's experience though, I would assume some sort of error occurred, and I hope everything got resolved at check-in.

jfidler

Sitting at the US lounge at DCA and did not get it resolved. It was recognized as *S at check-in, so I showed my OZ card to the agent, but they said they need to go by what's in the computer. They even got a supervisor, who tried inputting and removing my OZ number and every time it came up as Silver. So they refused to offer me *G benefits (in this case, I wanted to check 2 bags without charge). In the interests of time, I just checked in 1 bag, and I'm taking the other as carry-on.

They of course blamed OZ and said their computer system must not be sending it correctly (at first they said my status may have expired, despite how my card clearly states a 2014 expiration and I even pulled up OZ's site to show my status there being current), but I doubt that's the case since my OZ*G is properly recognized on UA and other *A airlines I fly regularly.

Basically the sticking point is they would only go by what their computer says, and refused to honor the *G stated on the card.

Any ideas for how to avoid this in the future? They told me to contact OZ, but I'm sure they'll just say it's being sent correctly. I'm surprised even the supervisor was unwilling to budge on this given the strong evidence (my card, and pulling up the OZ site on my phone) I presented in favor of me being a *G.

So despite all this, I got into the US lounge at DCA without a problem, and the person at the front desk scanned my OZ card and I assume the *G came through there.

jon503

That must have been extremely frustrating. I must say while I have no idea what was wrong with their computer, I'm unfortunately not at all surprised that they wouldn't budge. My experience with post 9/11 / airline crisis US carriers has been that they slavishly follow whatever their computer and/or standard procedure says because the check-in agents are neither disposed to nor authorized to react to unexpected situations in a spontaneous or flexible manner. I've found this to be significantly better with European carriers and somewhat better with Asian carriers. In the former case though, budget cuts and strict supervision are also slowly killing the flexibility I always appreciated with LH.

cfischer

Would have paid for the 2nd bag and then complained to US worse come to worse disputed the CC charge. I have seen many times that my SAG status was not displaying (correctly) and never ran into any issues.

Daniel-SYD

As long as it works on UA, I wouldn't bother. Isn't US about to leave star alliance due to their merger with AA?

ttuna3

Had a similar experience with US a couple of years back at FLL. Showed the a M&M *S and got told that I didn't get a free bag. Supervisor then swiped my credit card, saw my military ID and wouldn't issue a credit then and there (It's our error but we can't(won't bother doing to fix our mistake) do refunds). Only took 3 weeks and about an hour on the phone with US to get the charge reversed since the claims agent went on vacation and didn't check her mail for a week and a half. Have got proper *G benefits in the last year as a Diamond and Diamond+.

jfidler

So on the way back yesterday (BOS-DCA), same problem again. This time, I went directly to the US Airways Shuttle counter (in DCA, I went to the normal US Airways counter). The supervisor there said this happens somewhat frequently, mostly with UA FFs (I also doubt they see lots of OZ FFs in BOS anyway), and after about 5 minutes of tapping on the computer, he was able to check in both my bags for free. My boarding pass still indicated *S but that's fine with me.

Maybe I would have had better luck at the US Airways Shuttle check-in at DCA instead of US Airways standard check-in at DCA, like if they're more flexible because Shuttle flights have a lot of business people on it.

Well, as another poster said, US is going to be leaving *A soon. The BOS check-in supervisor says he thinks it will be by the end of the year. Not ideal for me, as my domestic flying is currently split fairly evenly between US and UA, but I guess not much I can do.

I do have two more US domestic round-trips in the next two months, but will only be checking one bag so *S recognition at check-in is fine for me.

jfidler

The big news yesterday was the US Government is trying to stop the AA-US merger: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/13/us/air...uit/index.html

so there is a decent chance US may remain in *A for a while to come. It's actually rare I have 2 checked bags, so recognition as *S in most cases will work out fine for me since I get 1 free checked bag then.

jefi99

I just checked in for two LX flights tomorrow. On my boarding pass it says "SILVER". So not just a US issue. I will see tomorrow, if they will let me in the lounge :/

TPJ

Both LX and US use the same Res system - HP Shares (IIRC Swissair atraXis was purchased by EDS after Swissair bankruptcy and merged with Shares - then EDS was purchased by HP). So if something doesn't work with US, it will not work with LX, either).

cfischer

lounge is no issue as physical card rules for access.

jfidler

Are there any other *A members using the same system? At least then I'll know in advance which to scrutinize more carefully for my *G status being handled properly. In a given year, I usually fly 5-7 different *G carriers.