kgbaru

My wife and I recently had a stressful experience flying from AMM back to SFO via FRA with a codeshare flight on UA/LH.

We booked the entire trip (SFO-FRA-AMM-FRA-SFO) months in advance on United's website. Four weeks before departure, Lufthansa unexpectedly cancelled the return leg (FRA-AMM) due to schedule changes. We contacted UA to rebook that leg.

At AMM airport, the check-in agent couldn't find a ticket number for our return flight and refused to issue boarding passes. I called UA and was told that the tickets were good and were asked to contact LH. The agent finally managed to fix the issue by calling LH directly and we got the boarding passes for both legs: AMM-FRA and FRA-SFO.

Relief turned to panic when we were denied boarding at the FRA gate. The agent claimed there was no record of our booking! Despite explaining the previous phone calls with UA, she offered minimal help with a negative attitude and asked us to call UA again to rebook on the next flight. With the gate closing in 15 minutes and everyone boarded the plane, my wife pleaded with her to contact the airlines directly. Thankfully, after the agent finally called UA, they confirmed that LH had changed the booking but hadn't reissued the tickets. The agent made another call to LH to reissue our tickets just five minutes before the gate closed! We boarded as the very last passengers.

I'm hoping to learn from this experience to avoid similar problems in the future. Any advice on how to better manage codeshare bookings and prevent such communication breakdowns? Should I file formal complaints with UA/LH or DOT?

zrs70

This sounds really annoying… But it’s hardly a nightmare. A nightmare would be the flight having an emergency. A nightmare would be getting stranded for a few days at a connection city. A nightmare would be getting sick on the plane.

A nightmare is not the minor inconvenience of the ticket, not lining up – being able to fly the flight anyway.

Stressful, yes. A nightmare… no.

kgbaru

While it might seem trivial now, being stuck at the gate, frantically calling UA/LH to avoid missing the flight, while the gate agent seemed completely unfazed and joking with colleagues, was a nightmare for us. Maybe for others, it wouldn't be such a big deal.

cfischer

Please don’t write such trivial things to the USDOT. This is a customer service problem and the USDOT has a lot more important things to do.
You flew as scheduled. You had issues on the return likely due to the re-booking that was caused by extraordinary circumstances. It’s not great when that happens and if they had denied you boarding it would be a different situation. As it is, take a deep breath and move on.

notquiteaff

I disagree. The OP only flew because they were insisting and had the ability to make phone calls. I see many people on my international trips who would probably have been stranded.

Issuing a ticket correctly is basic airline procedure and should work 100% reliably. We read way too often about tickets not getting re-issued correctly. UA and LH apparently have a problem doing such basic things and the DOT should force them to explain. And since complaints show up in the DOT stats and a bad placement on the “airline rankings” is presumably “not appreciated” by someone at the airlines, maybe it helps them prioritize the fixing of this issue (whether it is a system issue or an employee training issue).

notquiteaff

One person’s stressful situation is another person’s nightmare. I don’t think it helps the OP to quibble about terminology.

curt

Sounds like a UA problem. You booked with them, so it‘s UA‘s problem to sort out tickets etc.

kgbaru

I appreciate the feedback everyone provided. I've filed complaints with both UA and USDOT as I think airlines should ensure accurate ticketing and reflect the true booking status (showed Confirmed but not actually ticketed).

aster

The OP called UA and was told to call LH, so it seems like the issue was also with LH after all. The OP even mentioned that the situation was only resolved (at the first airport) when the agent agreed to contact LH directly.

Seems like things only got worse from there with the need to contact both airlines at the next airport to sort out something that should already have been sorted. What a mess...

Glad the OP managed to get things sorted right in the nick of time, though I'm wondering what would have happened if he and his wife would have missed that flight. What if that was the last flight of the day? Which airline (if any?) would take the blame, pay for a hotel room and meals, etc.?

curt

No, UA telling the OP to contact LH is plain lazy. They held the contract of carriage with the passenger. There obviously was a hickup at LH‘s side but the ultimate responsibility to rectify it was with UA.

aster

So you're saying that UA could have solved the entire issue on their own without the need for the gate agent to contact LH instead?

oliver2002

United as the owner of the ticket should have sorted out the reissue of the ticket after the changes. Once the tickets are reissued they should normally synch with the operating airline's systems. Evidently this didn't happen in the OPs case. LH gate agents only have limited access to other partners systems and if the computer say no they don't board you. OP could have called United and insisted that the agent on the other end contacts their helpdesk who can check with LH what the exact issue is and resolve it.

aster

Good to know. Next time I'd check the price on the same route but via the LH website since in the end LH was the most useful carrier and UA simply ditched all their responsibilities...

gusd

Wasn’t the ticket by then in airport control?

hdogan

There were no tickets.