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They created a record locator for me on United but told me I would not earn any miles on the flight. What should I check? |
I have a lot of health issues so I cannot tolerate complications. I am surprised you have found business class to Italy at the price. Did you book very much in advance? |
Originally Posted by beautifulangela
(Post 31426571)
They created a record locator for me on United but told me I would not earn any miles on the flight. What should I check? You can double check the fare class or booking class, but this strongly smells like a mileage broker. It is an invalid ticket because it violates the T&C of the UA FF program that miles cannot be sold and money cannot be paid for FF (award) tickets. You have been warned. BTW have you checked the record locator yourself directly on the UA website or just on some attachment they people sent you or on their website? Clicking from an email or third party website could send you to a fake PNR created by a sophisticated fraudster. |
Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
(Post 31426556)
That was my first reaction in my post above as it's been reported that a typical MO for a mileage broker is to get back to you with details of what they're offering, presumably after they do a search for an available award ticket and of course award tickets don't earn FF miles etc. The description also tries to suggest that they might (also?) offer some consolidator fares. Once OP buys a ticket from this outfit, it's totally nonrefundable and nonchangeable, so you ccan't purchase first and then (hopefully) inspect the fare code or fare class or booking class. There is also no easy way to find out who is behind the company — The company has the typical rave reviews on T******* that sound bought — the “XYZ was so helpful” and “ABC listened to me and got the best deals” — and many from one time posters — but for people that had more than one review several of them also have rave reviews on the same companies — sure, sounds legit. |
Originally Posted by beautifulangela
(Post 31426571)
They created a record locator for me on United but told me I would not earn any miles on the flight. What should I check? I buy buy my business class tickets between 3 weeks to 3 months in advance. airlines do have fare sales. if you have health issues it is better not to have a middle man with an OTA — |
Originally Posted by arttravel
(Post 31426637)
Well that sounds dubious. Have you called United to ask about the record locator? I buy buy my business class tickets between 3 weeks to 3 months in advance. airlines do have fare sales. if you have health issues it is better not to have a middle man with an OTA — Good point about the health issues. What if OP needs to change the return travel date for medical reasons? With a normal ticket purchased from UA, one would call UA and at worst pay the change fee and fare difference, but with a good chance for at least the change fee to be waived when medical evidence is provided to UA. With this outfit, OP would need to buy a one way ticket home, which could easily cost more than the price of this dubious RT ticket. |
if this is a mileage broker ticket ... easy to cancel. Call UA tell them you paid for this ticket ... UA will cancel it for you no problem ... then you file a simple dispute with your CC company. Problem solved.
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There are plenty of options out there for you to book without booking through this 3rd party site. Simply decide about how many days you want to be in Rome and about when and search google flights. I see lots of options from DCA or BWI in that price range for Nov, Dec, Jan, although they do have one stop(I am not going to look too hard)
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Originally Posted by sevastras
(Post 31427008)
There are plenty of options out there for you to book without booking through this 3rd party site. Simply decide about how many days you want to be in Rome and about when and search google flights. I see lots of options from DCA or BWI in that price range for Nov, Dec, Jan, although they do have one stop(I am not going to look too hard)
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Avoid using mileage brokers...
Originally Posted by beautifulangela
(Post 31426449)
.... Does it matter how they bought it if I know I don’t have connections or changes? I’m sorry to ask these questions. I don’t travel much so this is all new to me. [/left]
Chances are that company is a mileage broker. Using a mileage broker comes with high risk and bad consequences. The following master thread is a good start to learn more about mileage brokers: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/info...solidated.html
Originally Posted by beautifulangela
(Post 31426287)
... I have never used miles or a third party company, but need to access less expensive first/business class fares. Is using a company like business-class.com a bad idea?
Welcome to FT! |
Originally Posted by cfischer
(Post 31426822)
if this is a mileage broker ticket ... easy to cancel. Call UA tell them you paid for this ticket ... UA will cancel it for you no problem ... then you file a simple dispute with your CC company. Problem solved.
It would be easy in principle with credit cards like AmEx, but I wouldn't want to try this with a debit card. |
So, tomorrow or the next day have passed. What happened OP? I am curious whether UA let you travel or not. |
If it's an award ticket purchased through a broker, the more interesting question will be whether UA allows the OP to use it to travel back home. Airlines seem to prefer to strand people abroad in situations like this, where it's likely to be even more costly and inconvenient. |
Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
(Post 31437734)
If it's an award ticket purchased through a broker, the more interesting question will be whether UA allows the OP to use it to travel back home. Airlines seem to prefer to strand people abroad in situations like this, where it's likely to be even more costly and inconvenient.
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Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence? |
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