Originally Posted by icurhere2 (Post 14126168)

The 2+ hours this morning of missing - but in the airport - FA broke my itinerary after 5 delays; would have spent the night in ORD involuntarily. This afternoon has been late inbound, crew change, and ??? (eighth delay just posted). Have now been at IAD 10.5+ hours.

Originally Posted by xFF (Post 14125122)

So I just talked to the other half in Colo. where it's cloudy and chilly with thunderstorms. Here, of course, the heat index is triple digits. So I said, just as a trial balloon, "maybe we should get a place in Ecuador: 70 every day of the year." Her response was that there are two words in America for that: California, and Oregon. Countered with the very low cost of living, along with universal free health care. Response: she wouldn't even let them cut her toenails in Ecuador.

It's going to be a very hard sell.

Originally Posted by Olton Hall (Post 14126343)

I take it you are finally on board?

Originally Posted by sdm1130 (Post 14127004)

Wow, The Box is dead tonight!


The unpacking is almost done! :-:

Originally Posted by Flyer_70 (Post 14126451)

Good news is (for now) I still can haz AA 777 F. And I'm going to do my damnedst to have AA cancel the LAX-SFO leg and just send me home from LAX.

Originally Posted by msv (Post 14127021)

That was a quick unpack.^

Originally Posted by Steph3n (Post 14126663)

What did the FA do to you to break your itin? That must have been a serious fight!

Originally Posted by sdm1130 (Post 14127004)

My wife and I have been married for a little over 10 months now and I just read through our wedding cards. :eek:

Originally Posted by icurhere2 (Post 14127023)

Still hoping that works out for you. Someone needs luck at the airport today.

Originally Posted by icurhere2 (Post 14127015)

After 11+ hours at IAD, I finally got aboard an ExpressJet ER4 with XM Radio (didn't know about that).

Originally Posted by Anglo Large Clawed Otter (Post 14126425)

No more "I'll sleep in teh aeroport" trips...

Originally Posted by CO 1E (Post 14126443)

How long did you end up sleeping there?

Originally Posted by Driving by DCA (Post 14126454)

Warning, long story to follow...


It appears the three-call rule works with CO customer service.

The reason for me needing to be in OKC on Tues and Wed morning just went away, so decided to check into heading home on Monday afternoon. Pulled up the fare rules for my ticket (trip home is on UA) and sure enough after departure just the 150 change fee if the same fare bucket, all original fare rules other than advanced purchase met, same first flight coupon, etc. Looking good.

Pulled up availability and there is same fare bucket availability for the Monday version of my Wed. flights. Good again.

Called TA, and I hate it when these things are booked through TAs rather than directly with the airline, and get "it looks like CO has control of your ticket now...call them." Okay.

Call #1 to CO. Nice agent says, "we have flights through IAH on CO." I say, "no, I need to be on UA so that I don't have to re-fare the ticket, just pay the change fee." She says, "okay, I see the availability, I need to talk to a special desk for UA stuff, hold on." Ten seconds pass. Agent comes back, "It looks like your ticket was booked as two one-ways and so it will cost {string of numbers none of which resembles either the 150 change fee or any fare currently in the the market} for a total of {huge amount} to change." I reply :rolleyes:, "thanks, I guess I'll just keep my Wednesday flights then, please don't change anything."

Now I'm confused. I suppose it's possible that the TA booked two completely separate tickets, one each way. Except of course that I could see the complete itin on .bomb under the UA PNR and the CO agent was able to pull up the UA flights using the CO record locator. But maybe there was something I was missing so....

Call into the 1K line. "Hello Mr. DbDCA, how can I help you?" Me, "well, I need to change this flight I have." Nice 1K agent, "okay, let me see....hmmm, it looks as though that is ticketed on CO stock, so you'll have to call them." Me, "okay, I had a strange answer from them, can you just look and confirm for me that it is issued as a round trip with the outbound on CO using a CO fare and the return on UA using a UA fare?" Her, "Yep." Me, "and is the fare basis XXXXX?" Her, "yep." Me, "oooookay, guess it's time for round two." Her ::laughter::

As an aside, say what you will about the agents at UA, but I've always enjoyed the fact that they seem to have a good sense of humor about the :rolleyes: that is the reality of the airline business.

So....now it's time to talk to CO again. First I get to fence with the IVR system for a while. After I gave it my record locator, date of travel, last name, origin city, destination city, and told it what kind of tree I would be if I were a tree, it decided it couldn't find my reservation and sent me to an agent :rolleyes:. Friendly agent #2 "How can I help you." Me, "I have a flight on UA that is ticketed on CO ticket stock and need to change the date." Her, "Okay, let me see, yes I see your flight and yes it is on CO stock, what can I do for you?" Me, "I need to just take the same flight number but on Monday instead of Wednesday." Her, "You can fly CO through IAH that leaves at 1PM and gets in at {something or another}." Me, "no, I need to stay on UA so that I just pay the change fee instead of having to pay a higher fare. Just grab flights XXX and YYY for me on Monday." Her, "okay, I have it here and see the availability, I need to talk to my rate desk, hold on please." Me....:confused: thinking: rate desk, it's not a re-fare, I say, "okay."

Five minutes....ten minutes....15 minutes....::click::.

In COs defense, I was on a cell, so maybe I dropped the call. But still.

::deep breath:: :: pace for a while to build courage for try number three::

Try #3. CO IVR picks up. "Please say your record locator." "I'm sorry, I couldn't understand you, please say your six letter record locator." "I'm sorry, I'm a piss poor piece of technology that doesn't seem to actually transfer any data to our reservations agents anyhow, please say your six letter record locator again. "What is the airspeed velocity of a fully laden swallow?"

Finally the IVR gives up and dumps me to an agent.

Agent "How can I help you?" Me, "I have a UA return flight as part of a reservation that was ticketed on CO stock and I need to change the date." Him, "Okay let me see {asks for and received record locator...helpful IVR and all}. So you're travelling to Oakland?" Me :confused::confused: "No, I traveled to OKC on Friday, now I'm returning from OKC." Him, "Okay, and when did you want to change your return to." Me, "Monday afternoon." Him, "Okay, I see a flight to IAH at 1 and that will connect to...." Me, "No, I need to fly UA, the same flights I was booked on, just two days earlier." Him, "Okay so UA from Oakland." Me, "Oklahoma City." Him, "right."

At this point I'm looking up one-way award tickets to get home on Monday and just get out of this mess. It would be 12.5k miles instead of a reimbursable change fee, but there is a limit and I would have bet good money this guy wasn't going to come through.

Agent, "Okay so I have you on UA XXXX connecting to UA YYY, hold on for a moment please, I need to talk to another desk to get this done." Me, "okay," ::clicks to select award flights, mouse hovers over the button to book::

Time passes....

Agent, "okay, you're all set, I just need a credit card for the $150 change fee." Me, :eek: he actually got it right, "okay, let me grab my card, can you read back the new flights?" Agent ::reads back correct flights::. Me, "and the cost is just the $150 change fee?" Agent, "correct." Me ::gives credit card number::.

Checked .bomb a moment later and the new flights are confirmed. Guess the same rule applies to CO as on UA...if you don't like the answer you get, especially when you know you're right, hang up and call back.

Originally Posted by icurhere2 (Post 14127015)

After 11+ hours at IAD, I finally got aboard an ExpressJet ER4 with XM Radio (didn't know about that).

Originally Posted by icurhere2 (Post 14125920)

Down in the IAD low-A :rolleyes: RJ farm. For those who've never experienced, UA's daily failing / poor attempt to board 7 flights out of one gate in 30 minutes.

Originally Posted by FT Lurker (Post 14125973)

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.57 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

I'm on a boat!

And yes, I'm drunk.

Originally Posted by sbm12 (Post 14127065)

The XJ-branded operations had the XM. I guess they never removed it.

Originally Posted by ConciergeMike (Post 14127034)

We have already resolved not to be That Couple. The prompt thank you card is a near-dead artform.