breakthrough37

After the first couple of days of hearing the same answers I knew there were some serious problems with the website. I started to find other ways to work around the problems on the site as the airfares were staring to rise. All the agents were very courtesy, they all seemed to have to be reading from the same script try back in a couple hours or a couple of days all the way up to Level Three Supervisors. There was no web support available no one knew one the site would be up and running.I checked several website for the best airfares from LAX to CNS and SIN to LAX. I purchased the ticket then requested reimbursement from Chase. I waited two weeks trying two or three times a day receiving the same error message contacting different offices at Chase before purchasing my tickets.I did receive a survey from chase@twitter a couple of days after the file was closed.

Happy

@breakthrough37

Did you receive a Statement Credit to offset the LAX to CNX airfare you had to purchase at the end, then the correct UR pts are deducted from your UR account?

I hope this is what you meant by all your issues are resolved by the twitter team.

Or they added UR pts at the 1.5x conversion to your UR account so you can redeem the amount as statement credit therefore offset the cost to buy the tickets?

This is what the community would like to know - as to HOW Chase resolved the issues, so we would have a remedy when things dont work.

Thank you for sharing the details.

breakthrough37

Happy

Thank you very much for the additional information - very helpful.

We hope after you and may be others, have endured this mess, Chase and Expedia finally realize there are a lot of issues with the interfaces between the 2 and they would fix it.

At least now we know the Twitter team is an avenue should everything else fail.

Again, really appreciate your sharing the much needed DPs.

Now we are hoping to see a solution on the Jumping Prices reported by MisterMechE on post 236.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30781646-post236.html

breakthrough37

Thank you. I am always happy to share information with others.

I was promised 10,000 Courtesy Points on the third or four day of my calls when I was unable to book my flights.
I visited my UR account today to check on my Courtesy Points there was a posting of 5,000 points about three weeks ago and there was additional 5,000 points added after I contacted chase@twitter.

Happy

Good to know the 2nd 5000 apology pts are finally in the account as well.

To summarize the resolutions of the ordeal (it really was an ordeal and very encouraging to learn you prevail!) -

1) There is no tech support of any kind that could address the issue.
2) Contacted Exec Office did not work as hoped for, i.e. no assistance had come/
3) It is the Twitter Team finally has made things happened, i.e. someone is assigned to fix the problems that causing you to make a cash purchase.
Thanks again for the link to Chase Twitter Team.
4) They credited back 1.5x UR pts into your account so you can either redeem it as a statement credit to offset the cash purchase or leave that in your UR account.
5) The promised 10K courtesy pts only had 1/2 showed up but after another contact with the Twitter Team, the remaining 1/2 also posted.

I hope the above summary has correctly described what have happened during the several weeks you attempted to get the LAX-CNS tickets booked and the eventually workaround way to get the issues resolved.

Meanwhile we know the UR site has not been stable - up and down and still spitting out wrong prices.
However you were finally able to book the LAX-TPE tickets despite it initially errored out and the site went down.

Is the LAX-TPE a flight by an US airline? Or a codeshare flight i.e. operated by EVA but ticketed by UA?

MisterMechE could not purchase a foreign airline issued ticket, when the end price jumps hugely while other OTAs and Google flights show much lower prices and can readily be purchased else where. I wonder where the potential problems lie.

Happy

For those who want to use UR pts to book cruises

Here are what I have found, and these are not good news.

1) It seems UR can only book cruises show up on Expedia site, even though the cruises can be found on cruise lines own sites, as well as showing up on site like Vacationtogo.
There is a 15 nights Celebrity Constellation cruise from Abu Dhabi to Rome, sails on April 17th, is not showing up on Expedia site but found on Vacationtogo site.
UR cannot book it.

2) The prices shown on Expedia are higher than on cruise lines site and Vacationtogo site, both are public offers, i.e. first timer passenger can get that rate.
An example is a 15 nights Regal Princess Transatlantic from Ft. Lauderdale to Copenhagen sails on April 14 - Expedia prices on all cabin categories are higher ranging from 10% to 17% with the inside cabin being the most jacked up prices at $899 while it should be $769.

breakthrough37

There is no technical support only ticket takes. I don't think any numbers are given out so given out so you can check on the status of the problem.
I am not sure if it was Twitter or my two weeks of calling. I did receive the call from Arizona on my cell phone a few hours after my first posting on Twitter.
The points were placed in my accounts to use whenever I need them.
Chase preferred media seems to be Twitter.

I did ask about the Courtesy Points sometimes when I called about the flight received different answers. I never received advanced noticed of the Statement Credit. I logged in in to my account and the Statement Credit was posted.

I am Star Alliance Gold and Premier 1K with United. I was okay with the fares on UR for United. The first attempt to book there was some type of an error. I returned to the search screen all the information was saved. The booking with completed without any problems. United assigned my wife in different seats on all the flight LAX to TPE and return. I logged in changed the seats on all the flights

I contacted Twitter received a reply that only 5,000 points was posted and 5,000 additional Courtesy Points will be posted. The points were posted in a couple of days.

I haven't run into any pricing problem with UR. I prefer to fly United LAX to CNS and SIN to LAX the cost would be over $3,000.00 it would be lower on other Star Alliance carriers EVA or Singapore about $1,500.00. I selected American the lowest carrier with the best connections. The prices on UR were in line with other search engines.

We will have to look into wide price spreads.

Happy

You should earn both EQD and EQM on the LAX-CRN flight I think, also the LAX-TPE flight. But you may not want to credit to AA on the LAX-CRN which you said is AA 001 ticket if I understand correctly.
I believe you still be able to credit BR or SQ flights to UA but subject to the partner earning chart.

Apparently I misunderstood on how the statement credit is handled. I thought it was handled as what mia suggested - i.e. deposited 1.5 UR pts into your UR account.

However your latest post seems to indicate it is handled the way I would prefer - a direct statement credit posted to your account to offset the cash payment - then the correspondent UR pts in the amount of Statement Credit divided by 1.5, were deducted from your UR account.

I myself might need to book Egypt Airlines (another Star Alliance member) from Europe to Cairo in coming weeks. I plan to use UR pts to pay for this and hope I dont run into pricing error or error of any kind! Hopefully by that time Chase and Expedia have worked out the majority of bugs that have been plaguing the system.

Thanks again for being the persistent customer and then sharing the battlefield DPs with us.
You would have a great cruise.

breakthrough37

The Statement Credit was posted by the cost of the ticket @ 1.5 points about 108,000 miles for $1,625.00
I looked at all options on my flights going to Cairns, Australia using Star Alliance. There were no direct connection. Delta and American both have Code Sharing flights, American had the best connections and the shortest times on the LAX to CNS and SIN to LAX. I prefer Delta but the spread between Delta and American widen while I was waiting on UR.
LAX to TPE is a separate trip that I booked a couple of weeks ago on the UR Portal. The first try I ran into an error. One good thing about UR all the information was save the FF, and Passports numbers, address, phone, email and seat preferences. I return to the flight search and completed the booking and verified the booking with United a few minutes later.

I have never been on Azamara before they are owned by Celebrity. I have been on Oceania a few times they are similar.

Happy

So you are saying they gave you a statement credit of $1,625 and then deducted the equivalent UR pts 108K from your UR account at the 1.5 ratio. This would be my preference to have the mess cleaned up.

I dont know which program you could credit to on the LAX-CNS flight - it is a long way so even at 50% distance flown, still in the thousands. It is AA code share, wonder if you could credit to AS which charts are cheaper, in some cases, a lot cheaper than AA charts.

Azamara was Royal Caribbeans attempt to get into the market compete against Seabourn at the time but it never took off as hoped. So RCL rebranded it with an itinerary focused market. Celebrity is owned by RCL, there are also Celebrity Exploration class, that only sail around Galapagos and are ultra expensive...

Azamara has only 3 ships with the Azamar Journey is the old R6 and Azamara Quest is the old R7 (The defunct Renaissance which was ahead of its time by getting rid of agents using booked direct method - then 911 killed it). They were built in 1999 and 2000 IIRC. The Azamara Pursuit is equally old but from another line(s) We saw an Azamara at Korcula, Croatia 2 years ago when we were doing a 2 weeks driving trip in Croatia. Last year we saw another Azamara at one of the Italian port but I forgot which - they both looked OK to us for 18 to 19 years old ships.

Oceania also have 2 old R ships. They are just too old to us. The new Oceania ships built after NCL acquired the line, are much nicer.

If you like Oceania, esp if you dont mind the R class ships, you would enjoy Azamara. Like you said, they are similar class. Though for us we prefer newer ships, Those old Renaissance ships are just too old for us. We feel we could not sacrifice the amenities for a more interesting itinerary.
My husband also dont like small ships - using his words "I cannot stand seeing familiar faces every night for several weeks." lol.

I am sure you know both RCL and NCL have shareholder benefits just like CCL. Though they are harder to use because RCL treats the shareholder benefits as "coupons" that carry restrictions while CCL treats the shareholder benefits as what the name says and can be applied to any fares even the very very cheap fares.
NCL also restricts shareholder benefits by the fares paid. A few years ago Brother in Law and his friend had booked an Oceania with a 50% off deal with free air. NCL denied the shareholder benefits, saying their fares were too low.

Next time you may want to check out the Viking now they venture to ocean cruise after being very successful in the river cruises.

breakthrough37

I did select Alaska Airlines FF Program. I try to fly United as much as possible. I need 50K for 1,000,000 with United. I earn 11 miles per dollar spent as a premier member on United compared to .25 or .50 on other carriers. On Delta the fare now is $1,410 the miles earned 6305. On United I would earn 15,510 miles if they were flying the same route and a general member would earn 7,010 miles.

I like Oceania because you have free water in your room, specialty restaurants, free Wi Fi and there is a Laundromat. I like Celebrity because of their Loyalty Program, their specials on laundry and Internet. Azamara fare include Beverages, Laundromat and Gratuities and next year free Internet. I read the bathrooms in the cabins are very small.

I was on NCL a few times. One time on the Norway when the ship lost power for a couple of days.

I have been on the Marina about four time one of their two largest ships. I received a call from the Oceania Cruise Line with an offer Cape Town to Rio 14 day with three day pre-cruise package including air, hotel city tour and one day Safari. I said I would do I own air. I asked do you use Marriott Hotels in Cape Town? The agent said she would get back to me about the hotel. She called me back about twenty later and said they could arrange to have me stay at the Marriott. I used itasoftware and lowest fare was on Turkish Air Star Alliance member routing LAX to IST two days in Istanbul at the Marriott. Non-stop flight IST to CPT. GIG to LAX on United miles.

The Online Vacation Center ONVC sells about 1.60 a share must own 500 shares to receive a 5% rebate on cruise tickets purchase. That is the net amount less all the taxes and fees. The stock pays .04 cents a share once a year. The stock only trades a few hundred shares a week very thin. I have purchased cruises from them a few times. I always checked my prices.
There are several websites to find cruise fare even one that you can bid on.
Some cruise companies will not give the shareholders benefits if you obtain a discounted rate.

Happy

Wow MS Norway - that was the ship that had the boiler room accident many years ago at Miami when it was drydocked.

I forgot Oceania price includes airfare. Therefore one should be able to get some credit if one does own air. That is good to know because the free air is coach only. It would be better to use business class award. I wonder how much air credit one might get back, probably not a lot as the cruise lines get very good "consolidator" pricing from the airlines.

TK is nice even though they are behind the retrofit of new business class seats but the old 777-200 seats are lie flat, very roomy without any restriction at the foot area. Foods onboard are good, services are attentive, and the lounge at IST is great. Though they are still in the midst of moving the operations from the old airport to the new airport as of now, already several delays. So if you are flying TK, you may want to keep any eye on this ongoing saga.

The Cape Town to Rio repositioning is very good. Cape Town is very beautiful. We have done 3 land trips in South Africa. 2015/16/17, with the last 2 trips including Kruger NP for self-drive safari.
By the way, for Cape Town, I would highly recommend Radisson Blu Waterfront, over any Marriott propterties - from the Marriott which is North of the Cape Town city - we stayed one night there in 2017 because we wanted to go to West Cape NP for the wild flowers, the NP is much further north) to the Westin near the Convention Center and various Protea (incl the upmarket brands) - they all have certain drawbacks.
Radisson Blu Waterfront is very close to V&A waterfront shopping and entertainment area (can even walk there) on one direction and the other direction is the seaside park.
Anything you want to know more about Cape Town you can PM me. We are so familiar with the town by the 3rd time we went, we did not need GPS to drive around...

Istanbul also is a very interesting city - though the current political situation makes it a tough place to visit. Our first visit was a Post Cruise after disembarkation at Rome and 3 days there we flew to Istanbul, spent 8 days in the region. It was during the Icelandic volcano eruption and the volcanic ash had caused major air traffic disruption.
The volcano erupted when we were still on the last few days of our TATL cruise. Holland America was very accommodating - opening up free internet for people to rearrange their travel plans - ship was fully booked on the next sailing so many had no options but to disembark. We had 3 days in Rome planned so we lucked out. Each day when we were at Rome, the planes roaring above our head were the best music in our ears. lol.

We have returned to Turkey both with a 10 days driving trip and as a debarkation port after an overnight (in the same year too!) . The driving trip started from Adana to Cappodocia and then back down to the Med coast, up the Aegean coast and ended at Bodrum. Adana is no longer safe to go.

This fall we would again pass thru IST on a RTW award booked with Aeroplan miles. Just hope the new airport would be in operation - it has been put thru multiple delays already. I hope it would not become the new Berlin airport that 5 or 6 years after the new airport was finished, it was still not being certified!!!

You know the UA charts have some interesting "excursion" segments you can build into a R/T booking - that takes some "playing with the scenario" approach, but I was astonished by some outcomes - with your bank of UA miles this might be an interesting experiment!

Interesting info on The Online Vacation Center ONVC - thinly trade stocks scare me...

RCL and NCL do not give shareholder benefits for some deeply discounted cruises / cruise package such as the Oceania one you mentioned.

CCL would give to any fare, Princess brand even gives the same benefits to both active and honorable discharged military / National Guards with document proof. A very genrous program for thouse who can use it.
Shareholder Benefit - Carnival Corporation
PDF link on the site. Note the benefits are the same for the low end Carnival to the high end Seabourn with all other brands in between.
The way it works, it shows up as an OBC in your shipboard account without any distinction and directly offset any charges incl the daily gratuity (on the mass market lines). I guess for Seaboun it would be premium drinks ordered, or ship excursions booked as the gratuity / standard drinks are incl.

My husband wants to do a Suez canal crossing. If we dont do it very soon, then would be in Nov or even Dec. Given we return home from the RTW on Oct 23, I dont feel like to go to Europe in first week of Nov! So he may need to wait till 2020.

Enough for the OT. Very nice convo with you. If we want to discuss more things on cruising, we probably need to switch to PM.

Enjoy your trip(s)!

breakthrough37

I only have 500 shares of ONVC the minimum amount about $750.00 in an IRA account the year I purchased it the stock traded from about $1.25 to $1.65. The Market was crashing an the stock held its price. I purchased 500 shares with a limit order took a couple of days. Not a major investment nothing to chase.
You should join Cruise Critics lots of information on cruises. We did Abu Dhabi to Rome on Celebrity a couple of years ago. We purchased one way tickets on Delta codeshare KLM LAX to AMS to AUH. We stayed a couple of days in Rome flew to Munich used miles on United to fly from Munich to Los Angeles. You can PM we do two or three cruises a year.

Happy

AA miles can book EY from US to Abu Dhabi - it is just an hour or so drive between AUH and DXB. Too bad the spat between Qatar and Saudia / UAE continue - much longer than last time - so now it is a hassle to go thru DOH. QR is one of our favorite airlines to fly. There are a few routes using AA miles to fly QR are great deals. (US to Africa via DOH QR to QR, EU to Australia / New Zealand via DOH QR to QR, off the top of my head.)

Virtually all our international long haul air are business class awards with different programs depending on the availability and the routing. Star Alliance is much stronger for TATL, and TPAC too primarily because UA still allows routing thru Europe between Asia and US while AA does not. Aeroplan is almost anything goes only limited to MPM allowance. Therefore the AMEX Membership Reward pts to us are very valuable due to it is the primary way we gather our Aeroplan miles.

Abu Dhabi to Rome would sail thru Suez Canal. Celebrity Constellation has such sailing in March, but UR cannot book it. I dont like the itinerary primarily due to the arrival time to Aqaba too late at 10pm. By the time you get off the ship and with the over an hour car ride to Petra, you are there right around noon or 1pm - the hottest time of the day! No good. We were to visit Petra in a 2017 trip for Middle East and Asia. Alas, things happened and we modified the itinerary and dropped Jordan so no more Petra. Hence I would like to go to Petra on an itinerary that has Aqaba as port of call - but the Celebrity Constellation schedule makes it while possible would be very uncomfortable.

Also Constellation crosses Suez Canal at night with only the next morning for the last stretch - another poor schedule. The cruise is dirt cheap though at this moment, but the taxes are over $300. Still cheaper than Seabourn's $600 taxes on a reverse itinerary in the Fall. But Seabourn enters Suez Canal in the morning while Celebrity enters at night - may make a difference.

Yes, I used cruise critics for many years - usually would drop by a few weeks before a cruise to check on the latest, such transportation at the ports, if there are any interesting private tours posted on the Roll Calls, things of that sort. Our cruise agent was by referral thru a long time cruise critic member 10 or more years ago. Generally when I found a couple cruises we like, I emailed our agent and she would check on what prices she could offer, while she put the cruise on hold for 24 hours, often could be extended but not always. We tend to book cruises that are well after their final payment deadline - so the cruise lines have more solid ideas on how many unsold cabins therefore adjust their pricing accordingly. We use her exclusively but before that we used CruiseCompete and other sites before.

I will PM you when and if we pick an Oceania cruise to learn more on Oceania.

We do at least one TATL cruise a year, sometimes with the extension. (the back to back). There were years we did both directions - one in Spring to, and the other in Fall from. We had some really crazy years that had multiple long cruises, with long land trips in between. We really like doing TATL and then tag on weeks long land trip post cruise for the Spring crossing. We also add land portion pre cruise for the Fall crossing but we do less often the Fall crossing.

Can't do South America as needed Yellow Fever shots - family doctors both advise against the shot, and we dont want to take the health risk given the Yellow Fever outbreaks in Brazil in recent years, nor the health risk taking the shot. Hence Brazil and a good part of South America is a no go!