I'm posting this on the CO board, but it might ought to go on United's; I'm not sure. This is about redeeming points for flights through CO, but the actual flights are all on UA. Thankfully the flights are not until November so there is time to correct the mess, but oh! what a mess.

I don't fly anywhere near what I used to, but I have learned to book FF redemptions as far in advance as possible. Since my friends call me Captain Plan It, that isn't a problem for me. And as Mrs. dwcatty and I take a trip to the four corners area every year at Thanksgiving I start looking in late December to book flights for next year's trip.

This year it so happened that our return flights would be 337 days from Christmas day. During the week up to Christmas I checked the outbound flights I wanted and they were there and available for redemption. On Christmas morning I logged on, saw the return flights I wanted, and went to book. Every time I did so I completed the entire booking process, credit card & TSA info etc, and then got an error message.

So I called CO, and a very nice CSR working on Christmas day attempted to help me but was just as flumoxed as I. She could see the flights available, but could not book them either. Ultimately she said she just didn't know what to do for me, and we both gave up.

I attempted to book the same flights for several days, and on the 4th or 5th day voila! confirmation. Who knows why, but now I was booked. Since it was still between Christmas and New Years I figured I'd wait until after the holiday rush to call United for seat assignments. I always feel better knowing I have seat assignments, even if the flights are 11 months away.

Two days ago I called UA and a rep assigned me all my seats on all the legs, and then pulled up my wife's reservation (since she was redeeming points on her accounts we have two separate reservations). The rep assigned the seats on the outbound leg and then began her "is there anything else I can do for you" spiel.

"Yes, assign the return seats," I said. "There is no return on this itinerary," was the reply.



Well that just wasn't correct - I was holding the printed confirmation in my hand. The rep and I discussed this for awhile, she put me on hold twice, and finally she told me this was a problem that Continental would have to deal with since I booked the flights on CO.

SO I called CO. Aftr 45 minutes on the phone and two agents trying to assist me I had no resolution. Plus it was 5 pm and my wife and I carpool and she was coming to get me to go home for the day. So I gave the agent my phone number and asked they call when they got it figured out.

Two hours later the phone rang and now I have a third agent working with me. He gave me some airline lingo about CO having to buy the seats from UA and such, but the bottom line was they were not yet in a position to be able to assign my wife seats on the return yet. His supervisor was involved as well, and they would keep working on it and let me know when it was all worked out.

That was 36 hours ago, and while I figure that they will get this all worked out between now and November, I have to ask the question that is the subject of this thread. This is the first time I have ever redeemed points for flights with CO. Is it always this difficult?

No, it's not always this difficult, and sounds like it's a techincal glitch that you ran into.

One thing to suggest is that if CO serves your destination, you may want to suggest to CO that CO could accommodate the both of you on CO metal for the return. The reason for that is that they ticketed you on UA, and it apparently didn't confirm the return, so CO has to pay UA for those seats now. It may be easier (and cheaper) for them to crack open a couple award seats on CO metal and resolve it this way for you.

I'll suggest that to the rep the next time I talk to them, if they can't figure it out themselves. Thanks.

Try upgrading some CO tickets with UA miles one of these times.

The list of the number of calls that you need to make to get it done right is currently 2 to CO and 2 to UA. Assuming you get competent people on each call.

Do I understand correctly that you are worried about seat assignments 330 days out??

Really?

No, it sounds like the OP can't get confirmed seats on the return, CO seems to have only booked one direction (if I'm reading this correctly).

It sounds like CO booked RTs for both pax, but it only confirmed on UA's side for 1 pax.

CO has had a lot of this sort of technical issue since they joined *A.

Correct. I made the res on the CO website, and it turned out all the flights were on UA. The res showed no seats - all those dashes made me feel uncomfortable so I called UA to get the seats assigned. It is also a level of security in case the equipment changes.

It was when I called UA that I discovered that ~they~ did not show Mrs. dwcatty coming home with me, although my confirmation email from CO showed her return. Matter is still unresolved. I'm not overly stressed (yet).

My time spent booking a pair of free roundtrip tickets is now approaching 5 hours (not counting posting here). Why does it have to be so difficult? I had issues with redemption on AA last year; this is becoming a pattern. Maybe it's just me.