MR Schedule Change
 

I have booked/paid for seven same-day MR in Jan 2014 (PHL-PDX) with UA (I am UA Gold.) Although not notified of a schedule change, I happened to review these reservations to find a schedule change which will get me into PDX 30 minutes AFTER the first of my return flights. I obviously need to do something.
1. Should I wait, or should I address this issue now?
2. I can find alternative return flights which will yield me less miles. Can I negotiate with UA to maintain the mileage on the original flights even if I actually get booked on alternative flights which will yield fewer miles?
3. The original itineraries did not include any red-eyes; will I be forced by scheduling to accept red-eyes if offered them?
4. I really do not want to cancel these MRs; if I cannot come to some agreeable alternative flights, what are my rights as a consumer/

Thanks to anyone who will give input on my situation.

there is a long thread about schedule changes in the UA forum here on FT

these can be your best friend or worst enemy

since you have an illegal connection due to the schedule change you can basically do any routing you want to get from O to D and back. generally it is recommended you find the routing you want and spoon feed it to a rep on the phone. note it has to be reasonable (ie you cannot ask for LAX-HNL-EWR in place of LAX-EWR, but you could ask for LAX-SFO-IAD-EWR).

if you cannot find another flight to your liking, simply call and ask for a refund, tell them that you looked for other itineraries that would work for you but did not find any. they are obliged to refund the fare.

The best routing :D

Find a reasonable route with maximum miles
 

I had the similar problem before: Richmond-Newark-Phoenix. The CS agent let me change it to Richmond-IAD-SFO-PHX. If you find reasonable (do not ask for routing through HNL) and creative routes, no CS agent can refuse it. He or she know that your trip is a MR with the goal of maximizing the miles. Good luck.

if you can change & get more mi, do it....if not, i would be inclined to wait....

may be more changes in the next 6 months.....

^
I was able to change, for example, AUS-DEN-BWI-LAX-SAN-IAH-AUS to AUS-LAX-BWI-LAX-SAN-EWR-AUS. Cpm went down from 3.69 to 2.46.
Another example was AUS-IAH-BOS-SFO-LAS-EWR-BOS-IAH-AUS. Cpm drop was to 2.06, but also the entire trip is a single itinerary now which I can upgrade to BF for 20K miles, ie all 8 segments.

I don't mean to brag here (I apologize if I come across this way). I simply trying to reiterate the great positives of changes to schedule for MRs. Negatives can be also formidable - I just never experienced them.

Another strategy is to wait until the last day before the run and rebook then to , typically, Y base fare.

Fly safe!

I thank everyone who contributed. Original routings were as follows:

PHL-SFO-PDX-IAH-PHL

I am contemplating requesting: PHL-IAD-SEA-PDX-SEA-IAH-PHL

Any other ideas which will further maximize mileage? By the way, all original flights were same-day return. I would like to keep it like that unless the mileage additions dictate otherwise.

Edit: Any chance of doing something outrageous, such as PHL-MIA-SEA-PDX-SEA-MIA-PHL, or substituting IAH or SFO for SEA, or is this ask?

Looks like routing via MIA will not work with UA, as there are no direct flights, and I am limited to 2 transfers both ways on original booked ticket.

MR Schedule Change, HELP!
 

Quote:


Originally Posted by ruthenium101 View Post


I was able to change, for example, AUS-DEN-BWI-LAX-SAN-IAH-AUS to AUS-LAX-BWI-LAX-SAN-EWR-AUS. Cpm went down from 3.69 to 2.46.
Another example was AUS-IAH-BOS-SFO-LAS-EWR-BOS-IAH-AUS. Cpm drop was to 2.06, but also the entire trip is a single itinerary now which I can upgrade to BF for 20K miles, ie all 8 segments.

I don't mean to brag here (I apologize if I come across this way). I simply trying to reiterate the great positives of changes to schedule for MRs. Negatives can be also formidable - I just never experienced them.

Another strategy is to wait until the last day before the run and rebook then to , typically, Y base fare.

Fly safe!

I thank everyone who contributed. Original routings were as follows:

PHL-SFO-PDX-IAH-PHL

I am contemplating requesting: PHL-IAD-SEA-PDX-SEA-IAH-PHL

Any other ideas which will further maximize mileage? By the way, all original flights were same-day return. I would like to keep it like that unless the mileage additions dictate otherwise.

Edit: Any chance of doing something outrageous, such as PHL-MIA-SEA-PDX-SEA-MIA-PHL, or substituting IAH or SFO for SEA, or is this ask?

Looks like routing via MIA will not work with UA, as there are no direct flights, and I am limited to 2 transfers both ways on original booked ticket.

United schedule changes are awesome, at least when you do not to be there at a fixed time. I turned MSP-YVR into a 5 leg saga in 2010. If you can get united.com to find it you can have it.

The rebook to full Y trick is great ^ .... except when there aren't any seats left the day before your departure on one of your segments :O

Change in fare basis:MR schedule change
 

As a follow-up to my situation: The original itinerary was booked in UA "N" fare basis. I have now decided to have the miles credited to TK Miles&Smiles which apparently does not credit UA "N" miles. I still have not contacted UA concerning these itineraries which are scheduled for Jan 2014. In addition to the rerouting issue which has been discussed, can I also have UA change the fare basis to something higher than "N" which would then allow this MR to ben fully credited to TK Miles&Smiles? How long shall I wait before doing this schedule change. Once again, UA has not yet notified me about this misconnection; I found out about this by accident in checking the future itineraries. I am UA Gold. Thanks in advance for any input into this situation. You people here are invaluable to relative newcomers as I am.

Ugh I just accepted a schedule change on UA (within the past 6 hours). I should have waited until closer to the trip to get moved to a higher fare class, and asked for a different routing.

Oh well. I'll know for next time. This is why I love FT :)

Edit: The above was a SFO-EWR-SFO same day return in September. I booked two. The other one is in the same state of wanting me to accept a schedule change. I guess I'll wait :)

What's a reasonable routing to request for SFO-EWR-SFO?

Transit a hub once should be reasonable. The most juicy one I can think of is EWR-IAH-SFO, and EWR-LAX-SFO is close (assuming 500 min).

It would be nice to turn that into EWR-NRT-SFO or EWR-HNL-SFO;)

I had looked at IAH.

Playing around on ITA, I found SFO-IAD-ROC-EWR-LAX-SFO, which is more, but I'm not sure if it would be acceptable.

I guess I can just call and ask.

Is it better to do this as soon as possible, or as close to the flight as possible?

I guess if I do it now, and there's another change, I could try to further extend the trip?

FYI, most SFO-EWR routing rules require non-stop only. You should be happy to find an agent to let you have a connection.

The timing is tricky. If you do later, you may be booked in higher booking class and thus enhance the chance of upgrades, but you may also have less options due to availability.

Yes, if you do now and another change hits again, you can change again.