JerseyCityS

I, along with a friend in a seperate record, was ticketed on 2/1 PHX SFO EWR, flying PMUA and then PMCO on a one way ticket.

First issue is that upon checking in, you are not waitlisted for first on the second segment which was CO. Nobody could seem to figure out why, or could get me on the list. Wasn't that upsetting becuase there was little change of clearing, but that doesn't make the problem acceptable.

The disturbing part is that the UA flight (PHX SFO) took a 10 minute delay, I had 1:20 connection in SFO, so not remotely a big problem. About an hour before departure I received a trip alert that my PHX EWR flight was ontime. No idea where that came from. Went to the UA gate, showed the agent my email, and he said I was just protected due to the delay, even though there was no chance of misconnecting at this point. He seemed very smart, and assured me I wouldn't be unseated on my original flights.

Boarded my PHX SFO, and arrive in only 10 minutes late. Immediately go to the APP, and see my seat on CO SFO EWR available. Of course no UA agents anywhere in SFO can help, so make a mad dash to the CO gate to find an agent saying "Sir, you're not on this flight, you're on PHX EWR". Frustrating. Upon looking, she saw I was canceled, and could offer no explanation of how this could happen.

She reinstated my reservation, and of course 8C and 8A on the 757 which we had were gone by other savvy travelers (can't blame them). All left was last row.

I realize there was little she could do at that point, except unseat those who took our seats, which wasn't going to happen. I told her they were economy plus seats, and she insisted CO has none. Very frustrating since all 757-200s have been finished. Uninterested, and uninformed employees. Anyhow, no offer of apology, nothing. Just basically suck it up.

The worst part was that as the crew was boarding, they recognized me from the previous day as I was in first EWR SFO, and they had the same return. They asked me what was wrong, and I told them, and one of the FA's yelled, yes, yelled, "its' your fault". She had a horrible attitude.

I just let it all go and boarded. Just venting. It's just disturbing how easily you can lose your reservation, and in today's customer service climate, nobody cares, and nothing is done about it. As an elite, at LEAST a drink coupon or something. If this had been a full flight, I would have been out of luck.

The only excuse the CO agent in SFO had is that "its' due to the merger". Lovely.

mduell

CO's systems rebooked you from one CO flight (SFO-EWR) to another CO flight (PHX-EWR). Would this have been different pre-merger?

UA767400

It's NOT your fault. Plus its NOT the mergers fault! You did not do anything wrong. Its too bad that you did not have the excellent customer service that we normally get, but i am sure many would disagree. They should of placed you back on the San Francisco in Phoenix when your flight was departing and would make the original flight. In JAX in December due to a maintenance delay I was put on Us Airways (a completely different airline than united and continental), but my flight was going to end up departing before the us airways flight and i was able to get back on the other flight automatically. Too bad about the flight attendants reaction! If I was the flight attendant or an agent I would have apologized even if it was not my fault.

Ps your title is fine! It's a good title, it caught my eye, and it relates to your story. Thanks for sharing and I hope you get some compensation!

uwr

+1

Please try to be more specific in thread titles. "Merger Problems" doesn't give anyone a clue about this issue.

JerseyCityS

I apologize, the reason I called the thread "merger problems" was that was the only lame excuse the gate agent could give for something that should have never happened. The frustration lies at the complete lack or care or compensation for an error that the company caused for a customer. In years past, even though my original seats couldn't be reinstated, some form of "sympathy" would have been offered. Under Bethune if this had happened to an elite member, some nice gesture would have made up for the unhappy feelings.

The FA's remark was ridiuclous. Other people in the gate couldnt' believe it. she was brazen, obnoxious, and vocal throughout the flight about her displeasure with CO/UA.

UA767400

The title is fine. The flight attendant was WAY out of line!

TWA Fan 1

In my experience so far, the two worst aspects of the merger have been the glitches due to systems integration, and the wretched drop in morale among front-line employees, especially on the PMCO side.

I can understand they are unhappy about the deal they are likely to get from management, but I don't see why they take it on customers.

edcho

From my past experiences, you need to check-in on CO separately after checking into UA to get on the upgrade list -- they don't play nicely and probably won't until the merger. If I fly UA then CO, I've done this by just arriving at the airport and asking for my boarding pass at the CO desk after checking in my luggage at the UA desk (this isn't always possible -- I know).

As for the other incident about you being canceled, I think (just a guess) your reservation might have been rebooked after your flight (possibly) reported delays longer than 10 minutes and the UA system took over thinking you were going to miss the flight. I've had incidents where there was trouble at the gates and had the UA system rebook me with me arriving only 10-20 minutes late with having plenty of time for my connection. However, the UA system would've booked me on a later flight with a weird routing. I usually take it and hope for Y credits though .

I'm not sure why your reservation would be canceled -- that remains a complete mystery to me.

JerseyCityS

My record wasn't really canceled, the odd part is that while I was in the air flying UA PHX SFO with a connection to EWR, I was rebooked PHX EWR nonstop. While in the air! I learned that later. So the company rebooked me to a flight I could not have possible been on, and in the meantime, My friend and I lost great seats = 8a and c in economy plus. Some lucky others got great last minute seat upgrades. Nobody was in 8b.

channa

I'm going to take a stab at what happened.

PHX-UA-SFO-CO-EWR is the route.

One nuance is that UA protects but will not cancel downline space same day if you no-show a previous flight. CO, OTOH, will cancel the rest of your reservation if you fail to show for a previous flight.

So, PHX-SFO may have had issues (even posted a much later delay and then was brought in as someone suggested) and/or someone at the local PHX station or club was looking out for you and protected you on PHX-EWR in case PHX-SFO crept further (you know how short-hauls into SFO can get if there's weather). They may have been trying to do you a favor.

Using UA's procedures, no harm, no foul, right? If you end up taking your original flight, that's fine, you just no-show the PHX-EWR protection that you didn't need.

However, CO saw the reservation from their perspective as the CO flights only: PHX-EWR, SFO-EWR. From their perspective, you no-showed PHX-EWR, so the computer cancelled the rest of your itinerary based on CO's procedures -- hey, this guy isn't around, so free up the space for someone else.

uwr

It would have been appropriate for the GA to give your original seats back to you, as you had reserved them in advance. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

nigos

We had a similar situation but with a different outcome. We were on paid first class tickets on CO from HNL to IAH (arriving early morning) continuing on to BOS. The original booking had a 1.5 hour connection time but schedule changes reduced that to 45 minutes. Because of late inbound equipment at HNL, we departed 15 minutes late and then lost another 10-15 minutes on the way to Houston. We are now down to less than 20 minutes between flights. We exit the aircraft first and a red-coat tells us we were rebooked on a flight at 7:30 PM which was unacceptable. We ignored her and ran to the gate. When we arrived at the gate ~11 min before departure, the GA said "oh - you must be coming from Honolulu". She then escorted two people off of the aircraft and we got our seats to BOS as originally booked. I realize it doesn't usually work out this way.

aacharya

I would've had my BP there, and forced them to move the folks who took those seats. One reason I don't like mobile BPs or the App. Very hard
to ignore a printed BP.

TWA Fan 1

Agreed.

I know this sounds crazy, but I always use the mobile BP (when possible, some airports still don't have the scanner) and then print up a dead-tree BP as a back up, just in case I need verification.

I prefer using the mobile BP, it's just easier to carry around and I don't have to worry about putting it down somewhere and losing it.

But it's nice to have the hard copy for verification.