Hate it when e-Ticket takes hours (days)
 

Just booked a flight EWR-LAS in a couple weeks. I didn't get an e-Ticket within 2 hours so I called them. They told me that the reservation should be fine and that the ticket should e-ticket within 48 hours!, and to call if it hasn't cleared by then.

My colleague needed to make a last minute change, so now I am trying to call in to make a chance on a non-ticketed ticket, because the 24 hour change policy apparently applies to the 24 hours within booking (not within e-ticket).

No point, just complaining in case someone is listening out there.

Oh yea, and 25 min wait time at the "One Pass" desk.

If you're changing it and it's non-ticketed, just ask to cancel it and start over.

That is the upside of CO's slow ticketing.

Many airlines have instant ticketing these days, so it can be really frustrating.

Weird. I have never had an e-tkt take longer than a couple minutes to be issued. I wonder why that happens to come folks :td:

Really? Usually they take 15 minutes to an hour for me, but I've had CO tickets stalled for hours, particularly in the evening.

What's funny is if you book an OAL segment or a codeshare on there. After it's ticketed, it takes CO several more minutes to generate the receipt and display the ticket number. In that time, you can use the OAL's website and see your ticket number.

In the 5 years I have been a CO flyer, 99% of the time my flights get ticketed within a minute or two. I think I only remember one instance that took more than 20 min or so. But if it is happening to other folks, it is annoying indeed, although I don't think to the point where it would matter.

Maybe things have gotten better in the past year that you have not flown on them( ;)) and these things don't happen very frequently anymore?

I've found when you have a slew of partners in a PNR it can sometimes stop up the ticketing process, but never for more than a few hours tops. For comparison I've also seen the same on UA and AA when dealing with reward tickets.

On revenue tickets CO seems to take anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours to get them issued (as does AA, FWIW) but I've found UA to be almost instant 100% of the time.

Not sure what accounts for the difference.

Did exactly that.

I've probably had to call in half my requests this year.

The majority tend to be itineraries with mileage/copays though. So if you want to book anything with mileage/upgrade, save yourself the headache and call (when call volume is down).

I reserverd ticket yesterday, thought since now I am still waiting for confirmation of last segment (LH-CO-CO; CO-CO-SN) on Brussels Airlines. If I check for the same trip now, cheapest is over $200 dollars more than then and they told me to reseve that and pay more. Reservation is valid until tomorrow's midnight.

I kind don't feel this is right, because how then can I ever reserve something on Continental.com, since it's like lottery and I can never be sure it will go through. Any suggestions from more experienced, is there even way how to make them issue e-tix or am I stucked with possibility of reservation cancelled tomorrow without anything possible I could do?

What do you mean by "reserved?" Did you buy the ticket yesterday and it's still not issued? If so, call CO and have them make sure all is well. They should honor everything so long as you put your payment info at the time.

As for booking tickets, if you want ticketing instantly, the answer is simple. Don't book directly with CO. Just use a third party site if it's multi-carrier, or book through united.com if you can get the same flights/prices.

If you book directly with CO, expect that you may have to babysit the process until you get tickets. If it tickets faster, you should be pleased. If not, you knew what you were in for.

Reserved = I have itinerary that is not yet ticketed due to delayed confirmation of SN flight. When I called and asked, still not confirmed. They have payment info, but CC was not yet charged.

I will not book on co.com again, but I was not aware that theirs systems are this bad.