dorsien

Hi everyone!

We're taking a trip around the ring road in Iceland this summer and I'm trying to book rooms along the way. I'm finding it almost impossible to search for cities on the portal with non-standard characters and the transliterated spelling doesn't work either. Also simple city names like "Vik" produce no results even though there are tons of hotels. When I call they seem to just be trying the same approach as me. Suggestions?

WestCoastPDX

I have to admit, I haven't figured out how to get most hotels to show up on cxLoyalty...

I used to use the Chase Portal for almost everything - but primarily booking hotel nights with points.
Now...

I keep hoping this is early days, and it will get better. But, I'm getting nervous.
I travel full time, and burn millions of URs a year this way. Hope it's not gone and broken forever.

CowboySeth Senior

I booked a flight w sun country airlines. The price was $5 more than on their website. I used points. It also would not let me pre-purchase bags at the same time and because I was not allowed to purchase bags at rhe time I purchased my flight they charged me sun country did an extra 10 dollars.... why is this portal so not user friendly in redeeming. Oh and I called and they wouldn't price match the flight. Any recourse to recover the extra 10 dollars for the bag and the 5 dollar fee for the cost even though I used points?

BeantownFlyer

I can’t believe I am the only one exasperated by the horrendous UR phone reservationists - but I did a few searches and did not catch any relevant threads.

I booked business class tickets on Turkish Airlines that have connections through IST. I completed the reservations online and used my UR points to pay. My daughter’s reservation now has a schedule change that leaves her with a 50 minute (illegal) connection in IST on the return. The TK system notes the schedule change, has all kinds of warnings when I bring the reservation up on their website, but they have not rebooked her automatically (which is apparently the norm with TK) - even though we travel within the next 30 days.

I have now spent over 4 hours on the phone with UR. You initially get connected to offshore agents who seem to know little about doing anything other than the most basic tasks. I finally figured out I need to ask to be transferred to the US-based help desk - it still seems to take 20 minutes to get to them. The help desk folks are an improvement, but not much. Today’s call was over 2 hours. I have now had two agents tell me they need a special code in order to rebook my daughter due to the schedule change without repricing the itinerary and they can’t find the code. They say they can’t get through to TK on the phone, and they have sent an e-mail but have not received a response.

I called TK, and they told me there is no special code, and because the agency issued the tickets TK can’t touch them unless its within 24 hours of the flight, and I need to go back to UR.

There is no ability to manage the reservation myself on the UR website.

The TK website seems to want to let me make changes - but then it wants to rebook my daughter in economy, even though she has a business class ticket, so I gave up doing anything there.

The only other thing I can think of is going to the TK ticket counter now, but I am pretty sure they will also tell me they can’t touch the reservation since it was ticketed by an agency. (TK also insisted it was a private fare, which is not the case.)

Any thoughts on how to get to an experienced agent at UR? This literally should take 5-10 minutes at most to fix! Lesson learned - avoid booking with UR unless its a last resort.

craz

Sorry I cant be of any help, just wanted to say the sentence quoted above should say Lesson learnt NEVER book with ANY CC travel agency. I had problems with Citi yrs ago besides with UR when Covid hit. Chase was finally resolved but Citi wasnt

Thats why I booked an Intl May trip using UA miles and paid apx 20k more but I can CX the trip up until flight time and get everything back. Had I used my UR pts and saved the 20K Im stuck with what I have. that said it also would have been a Swiss tkt so alot of status benefits wouldnt have been offered eg 3 bags at 70 lbs it would have been 2 @ 50 and no E+ seating. I see the extra I paid using my UA miles as an ins policy, and the 1st and 4th flights were on UA metal too boot as a LX code-share

Now I only will transfer my UR to an airline or Hyatt and then cash in for what I want, costs more but I know I can sleep very soundly at night knowing I dont have to deal with the reps from CCs travel dept

sabbasolo

I had a similar problem with UR and a UA ticket - UA cancelled a leg - and UR said to contact UA, UA said only UR could fix it. Eventually a UR agent checked with UA whilst I waited on the line, and got "permission" to change the reservation. It did take nearly an hour on the phone!

HUCA is what I would recommend if they say they can't help - suggest they call the airline (they should have different phone numbers). Or ask TK to put a message in the PNR asking UR to change it (I did that once).

BeantownFlyer

thanks - I have done all of the above except the idea of asking TK to put a note in the PNR. That’s a great idea!

mollyTN

Hi all -- I'm new to the forums and to Ultimate Rewards so I apologize if this is an obvious question.

I'm trying to book an Air New Zealand flight through the UR portal (LAX->SYD) and I'd like to book the SkyCouch option. I won't be using points. When I go to check out, it won't let me select seats and therefore I can't select SkyCouch. The seats are open and available on the ANZ website.

Can I add (and pay for) the SkyCouch option once ticketed? I don't want to book this flight unless I can get SkyCouch, so trying to be absolutely sure I can add that option after purchase. Flight is in November, BTW.

Thanks so much! And if this is a better question for the ANZ forum please let me know and I'll re-post there.

Mwenenzi

mollyTN Welcome to the forum & AU when you get here
Look at these threads in the Air NZ forum

• Has anyone purchased and used Skycouch for two
• Economy SkyCouch -- extra fee or included with the seats I selected?

From my reading

• Skycouch is not sold NZ<--->AU. Many/most of the aircraft used will not have that seat type on the TT route. Your flight will be LAX-AKL-SYD
• Cannot add skycouch after buying a ticket. But not 110% sure of that. Normally you can pay for extra leg room seats after ticketing, so unsure why skycouch would be different.

Airlines USA<--->AU are QF, UA, AA, DL, JQ & HA.

mollyTN

Thank you for your reply. Sorry, should have been clear -- yes, the SkyCouch would just be for the LAX-AKL leg, with AKL-> SYD in regular economy seats.

I did read those threads, and the second one seems a bit of a different situation. 3 tickets booked on the United site vs. 2 ANZ tickets booked through UR portal, and adding the full SkyCouch row afterwards. But adding it after the fact does seem to be an issue. My only real motivation to book through UR is the extra points, but perhaps I'll forgo that to ensure we get what we want.

Thanks again!

philemer

Wise decision and welcome.

qofmiwok

Hi, hoping someone knows the answer. I just bought a United economy ticket through the Chase portal with Chase UR, but I want to buy an Economy Plus seat upgrade which is $152. It asked me to choose a seat and I chose the one I want but it didn't show prices and never charged me. So I assume I'm not really getting that premium seat. How will I be able to pay for that seat? So far the ticket isn't showing up as a trip in my United.com account. Will it eventually show up there so I can buy that seat? Otherwise I want to cancel the ticket and pay cash through United.com with the seat.

AutoSlash

Typically, new bookings take from a few minutes to a few hours to ticket. Either way though, you should be able to pull up your reservation using the PNR (6-character confirmation code) at United.com. If you can't, something is wrong and you need to contact Chase ASAP.

philemer

You can only buy what they offer for sale. You'll have to deal with UA now. Try to UG through them.

sabbasolo

To clarify answers above - you don't need to cancel the UR booking - just proceed with seat selection etc on UA.
The only disadvantage is that sometimes UR bookings are done with special fares, and the PQP and PQD are different than you would expect. They are not very transparent from that point of view.