Occasionally things come up that make any number of people unhappy with the OnePass program. I recently had an experience that sort of puts it all in perspective...

I may have to air-commute to a client site once a week for the next few months. Unfortunately, it's nothing that CO, et al. serves. So, given that I could qualify on UA as their "gold tier" I decide to look into the program. I didn't really get a warm fuzzy when the "certificate" based program was explained to me, so I found that HP/US had a program similar to OnePass and, being part of *A, UA miles would accrue. The question, left unanswered by looking at the web-sites was "will UA miles count towards HP/US status?" Seemed simple enough, so off to the phone I go.

First call to their (HP/US) service center on Sunday results ina message that they are closed. No big deal. The OPSC is the same.

Second call on Monay was what I call "quality entertainment". I call the service center and get a res agent, who is clearly outsourced (I have nothing against this, as long as they "have a clue"). I posed my seemingly simple question. Answer, "Sure they do". Ok, so they count towards prefered status? "Oh, that's up to United". Well, can anyone tell me what the rules are here? "Let me transfer you to someone who can help". The next person gets the same question. Answer, "United? Hmm...United...Hmmmmmm.... Let me transfer you to someone who can help". Third person-and this is priceless-"Well, the segments sometimes do. Sometimes you get credit for one segment, sometimes two. It depends". Depends on? "I don't know. This is just what shows up on our computers. Sometimes if you take two flights you get credit for two segments, sometimes one. It just depends on United". Are there any rules for any of this? "No, I don't know. This is just how it shows up. sometimes you don't get credit". ...!? So no credit towards elite status? "No. Only flights on HP or US" (this is contrary to their own website). My choice made, I thank her for her time and hang up.

I'd be surprised if too many people ever experienced anything like this on CO.

It sounds to me like CO keeps the good people. There have been times when I've had to spend more time than I thought necessary on OP, but I've never had an experience like you have just had.

The real hoot is that you can probably go to the relevant forum here on FT and get clearer and more accurate information. Maybe US should suggest people register and use FT for all their customer service questions! A huge step up.

The funny thing is....when I was on the phone with them, I was thinking, "Shoulda just asked on the FT HP/US Forum".

I think it does point out a problem with outsourcing/offshoring the CSRs/RAs. If they don't understand the alliances, the geography, hubs, etc. how can they really help you when you really need to get to "point b" and creativity in routings is sometimes required (like when you miss the last non-stop from EWR).

This is definately an offshoring issue. On the rare occassion I had to call USAir reservations and spoke to one of their employees in Manila, they were so bad, they made the Delta Indian reservation people seem brilliant in comparison.

I don't think it's a people issue per say - these are not idiots. The Indians need to get travel agent licenses just to apply to work for Delta. The issue is depth of knowledge. Nothing will replace a reservation agent who has worked for the airline for 10+ years and has seen it all. The depth of their knowledge, skill and (hopefully) customer service savvy is what we see as the difference between onshore and offshore.

Also, these people are outsourced - they are not airline employees, and they have no vested interest in spending time to learn 'outside their cubes' so they have answers to complex questions.

To answer your questions - US/HP flights count towards UA status - period. All miles and segements count. When I used to do it - I occasionally had trips that didn't post but never two seg's showing up as one. Mailing in BP copies always fixed it quickly. Here's the CATCH: you can not upgrade using US/HP status if you are crediting to UA. And you can't wait for your upgrade to clear and then switch your FF #'s - the computer will rip you out of F and put you into 28B or 37E.

UA fights also count towards US status. There I have used UA miles (not certS) to upgrade UA flights while still crediting to US.