abhilife2001

Was looking at an intl ticket leveraging UA miles with domestic connection on AI.
AI23 had the best connection but for seems this flight is now not being shown on their website for any date in April?? Heck, I checked for a date I have a confirmed ticket on AI23 and booking engine does not even list the flight with few others showing "Unavailable" ! I do see another flight departing CCU 5 mins earlier AI536. Has AI23 been merged with AI536?

Current ticket is AI23 onwards to UA (Del-SFO), so wondering what happened to AI23 ? In tmanage my booking it still shows AI23 !

abhilife2001

Also, whats with most afternoon/evening AI flights departing CCU for Delhi being shown as "Unavailable" in their website?

PiperAtGatesofDawn

They may have axed AI 23 and since they've not assigned you a new flight yet it's still showing up on your reservation. Check AI's time table on their website and then call in. "Unavailable" pretty much means they've cancelled it.

oliver2002

The AI 2x series to/from CCU-DEL has been suspended since quite some time as the international domestic arrangement is suspended for now. Instead they have spliced in the 536 and kept the 70x & 40x domestic rotation. Why United sold you the 23 is a mystery. In any case the 536 is operating normally and perfect for your purpose as you have to report to United at the landside checkin desk anyway.

superboi

At present the only functional international connectors to/from DEL are the four-digit series AI 1102 (BOM/AMD), AI 1173 (BLR), AI 1126 (MAA/HYD), AI 1105 (COK) and you can only book these if you have an international AI connection at DEL. All the erstwhile 2-digit connectors 00xx (to BOM/DEL) have been suspended.

abhilife2001

oh, interesting.
Reporting at landside is fine, it was more because we could not see the flights. Seems will need to call United.

United informed me about a schedule change but that was a change in schedule for the SFO - PDX leg and the CCU-DEL leg still states AI23 departing at 20:30
It seems AI is showing the direct flights between CCU - DEL which depart afternoon / evenings as "Unavailable" for most of April / May, which is surprising considering then pax don't have the choice of AI for those time frames and evening is usually a popular time between these metro cities.

PiperAtGatesofDawn

It's now a question of how flexible and sensible UA is. I have recently held reservations (from AI) on some of these legs that became "unavailable". When I called AI asking them to shift me to a different flight of my choice they refused till they had officially and properly cancelled the flight!

And AI cares about that because?

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Deleted - duplicate post.

oliver2002

Since United is waiving the change fee on awards you should be able to switch without any issues, provided AI has award inventory on those flights...

Keyser

there have been a lot of rule changes regarding covid testing & quarantine for flights coming into ccu from del....perhaps for those reasons the number of flights have been drastically reduced....'unavailable' pretty much means the flight is not operating as of now....

abhilife2001

Yup, thinking about changing the dates too as mom recently got her 1shot, so want to give some time after she gets her 2nd before getting on a long flight journey.

yeah, seems CCU- DEL on Vistara is probably a better bet at the moment.

oliver2002

Enjoyed AI 536 last night, as usual, like AI23, the flight was 80% transfer pax. All AI intl transit pax were segregated just after deplaning and taken air side by AI staff. Tje A320neo was completely packed with not enough bin space for cabin bags. Checkin in CCU was a major drama, as the doc checks and exact timing on covid tests was a major issue for all the US pax. So make sure to show up early.

abhilife2001

Thanks for the update.

abhilife2001

So finally UA changed the ticket and gave the afternoon AI flight to DEL which meant that a long 13 hr transit in DEL. For whatever reason UA was not showing availability for the evening 8.30 AI 770 even though AI showed availability. Online change showed 0 routing options for the whole month of April which made me call their CS and that person after initially asking for more miles due to no saver awards available, spoke to their seniors and got the whole itinerary rebooked for another date we requested.
Now, while I have got the e-ticket & confirmation number from UA, trying to check the same on the AI website and it cannot locate the itinerary. This itinerary has the AI770 on the 1st leg. How can I ensure that the ticket is correctly booked since the AI website not showing the same.
I am not sure, but do I need to get another locator for AI ? I don't recall doing that earlier.

Keyser

you do need to get the ai pnr....call ua & they will give it to you....