channa

How was Air Malta business shorthaul?

hauteboy

See review/trip report here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...lh-j-km-j.html

It was an oldish A320 with EuroBusiness seating (2-2) so nothing special there. They served a meal on the 2 hr flight. Boarding was via remote stand at FRA (stairs) and there are no jetbridges at MLA.

Best thing was my invol reroute onto LH ORD-FRA was into J-class instead of P (175%/1.5 vs 100%/1.0 earning)

TA2468

Jumped on this back in April. I bought a few RT's. Did my first one last week all on UA. Ugh - the only thing about UA P is the seat - the rest was nasty/bored/lazy FA's, overcooked meals and aircraft maintenance issues. And I noticed the wines have gone low-end too. Who would ever pay $5K for this UA nonsense product? Anyways - anyone aware of the original fare rules for cancellation? I will try for schedule change refund but if that doesn't work - just wondering what the cancel rules were.

kluau88

I think the cancel fee for these fares was $450.

channa

So I'm done with my three (3) of these. Not a single one flown as ticketed:

1. SJC-DEN-IAD-FRA-MLA, MLA-FRA-IAH-SJC
- DEN-IAD delayed, misconnected to IAD-FRA, rebooked on LH IAD-FRA (barely made it), and making original connection (though LH said UA double booked me on FRA-MLA, but they cleaned that up). I said UA computers must mess things up a lot, agent says "always."
- FRA-IAH oversold, bumped and rerouted FRA-ORD-SFO. Operational upgrade to Global First FRA-ORD; FRA-ORD delayed due to them taking 1.5 hours to board a 747 with 2 buses and a single set of stairs , misconnected and stuck overnight in ORD, rebooked AA F ORD-SFO in the morning.

2. SMF-IAD-MUC-NAP, NAP-MUC-IAD-SMF
- SMF-IAD delayed, but made the connection. IAD-MUC delayed, looked like a likely miss, got rebooked while on the plane in IAD to AZ MUC-FCO-NAP. Diverted to Gander due to sick crewmember, dropped her off. Now misconnected to the AZ flight, no assistance at MUC arrival, they told everyone talk to LH for rebooking. UA had protected me on nothing, lounge agent got me on the next LH MUC-NAP for a 6-hour total impact. I commented on how UA is always late, LH agent laughed and agreed. Return, MUC-IAD was oversold, rebooked MUC-LAX (LH) LAX-SMF for the VDB.

3. SMF-SFO-IAD-MUC-PMO, PMO-MUC-IAD-SFO. SMF-SFO cancels the day before, UA protects me in Y SMF-IAD-MUC-PMO (double booked on IAD-MUC-PMO -- original J seats and protection Y seats ). Upgrade clears SMF-IAD. I call in to have them clean it up (rebook in P SMF-IAD and delete the redundant protection). Takes them 59 minutes to reissue the ticket (agent + supervisor). Get to MUC, BP won't scan at the SEN lounge, LH says UA dropped me. I told the agent that UA's computers mess thigns up a lot, agent says "all the time." She got me back on in a comparable seat. Only minor delays on the return (UA).

So overall:
- 14 UA flights booked, 10 UA flights flown.
- 10 UA flights flown, 4 UA flights on time.
- 8 LH flights flown, 8 LH flights on time.
- 1 AA flight flown, 1 AA flight on time.
- 3 misconnects, 1 with no rebooking whatsoever
- 1 cancellation
- 2 VDBs
- 3 OAL rebookings (2 to LH, 1 to AA).
- 2 botched rebookings due to SHARES interface issues with LH.
- and 3 LH agents bashing UA.

Mike Jacoubowsky

I really feel left out that I can't complain about anything regarding my flights on the super-duper deal. They were fantastic. United must like me better than some of you guys.

mattp1987

Me neither, but I only flew UA on the domestic portions of my trip. Well, my one complaint would be that my upgraded seatmate and I asked for the same meal choice ORD-IAH. She got it and I didn't, but based on other threads that seems to be policy if she was 1K or Plat. The UA club next to my ORD-FRA gate was pretty terrible and overcrowded too, but I only popped in there for a minute after spending most of my layover in the AA lounge. From an operational standpoint things went well, and the service on my two UX flights was excellent (although I might have been the only passenger not sleeping on the 6:15am VPS-IAH). I do have lots of pictures for a trip report I've been procrastinating on writing.

RNE

We are in AMS now on the P-fare deal. All UA metal. The soft product on the 3-class 763 was excellent, with very attentive flight cyborgs. However, I have to agree with those who opined that the 2-2-2 seating in C is subaltern. The seats are indeed too narrow for a true BF product, methinks. Still, I'm not complaining about BF for < $1500. We'll be flying home on the same equipment type, but not overnight, so sleeping is hardly a priority.

Thank you, OP.

KrnGrs

Not sure as there are too many flights to check but I guess you would almost be able to get back what you paid in fare though your bumps and delays (EC261 compensation!)

JetAway

I flew my SAT- IAH-AMS P-fare deal a couple of weeks ago on a two-class 777. It was excellent in every respect-food, service, seats, entertainment. Plus, we arrived in AMS early. UA may not have made much money on this fare but the good experiences many had with their flights should make it all worthwhile for UA. It's called "goodwill" and it's one of the most valuable assets a company can have.

SanDiego1K

Ditto! We got to enjoy the sCO biz class from EWR-MXP. I liked the 5 across seating as compared to the 6 across on sUA. Part of our route coming home was LH FRA-LAX with the new biz seat. We were delayed an hour out of FRA due to an unruly passenger and his luggage being unloaded. LH outshown UA on the food quality. It was one of the better biz meals I've enjoyed. Seat comfort was solid, but so was the UA biz seat.

Thank you many times over to the OP for posting the fare. It was great to get to choose the dates and routes we wanted to travel as opposed to spending many hours attempting to find award space. It felt so civilized.

arollins

I did my first flight on this deal last month, MKE-ORD-EWR-MXP-EWR-ORD-MKE. Everything was great, however on the return portion we where delayed departing MXP for about 1 hr, however we did manage to make our connection. The ORD-EWR portion with the rear facing seats was a bit odd, and I did like the 2-1-2 seating on the EWR-MXP flights.

Overall, UA service was great, no complaints on my part. My other flight will be end of this month, MKE-ORD-FRA-FCO-EWR-ORD-MKE. The ORD-FRA is on LH, will be on the upper cabin.

RNE

We are at Schiphol airport now. Had a great time, as usual, in Amsterdam. Drank way too much as The Old Sailor. Ate too much everywhere. But we ran 8 miles every morning at Vondel Park to burn it off. Too bad we have to leave so soon.

Wouldn't have made this trip were it not for the error fare.

Thanks, again, OP.

FTstudent

Finished the last of my two trips this week. TPA-IAD-FCO-FRA-IAD-FRA and TPA-IAD-FRA-VCE-FRA-IAD-TPA. I'm very happy they all turned out great, and didn't have any serious problems. My LH miles for the last trip even posted on their own!

Several segments along FCO delayed, which meant swift and direct movement to the next gate. Made it to all of them in time to board with group 1. The delays worked out good, cutting out most of the waiting around time.

I did make one mistake. I booked IAD-FRA on LH and got Old J. I thought I did my research and was expecting an A333 with New J. Needless to say, I was crying on the inside during boarding. Looks like I'll have to read that 51 paged “New J” post over on the LH forum to figure out what I did wrong. It balanced out when I was moved up to GF on my UA FRA-IAD.

I wouldn't have taken these two wonderful trips to Italy if it weren’t for the fare sale. I hope this happens again sometime, but not too soon. I'm not ready to go on another ticket booking rampage just yet.

vip66

I booked one of these tickets, MSP-YYZ-MUC-BEG-MUC-YYZ-MSP, back in April. Today I called BigO to see about possible changes I was trying to make when the agent informed me that some of my flights (MSP-YYZ and YYZ-MSP) were downgraded to Y.

This is ticketed on LH but the flight is on AC, so I called them to see what is going on. Basically, they changed equipment from CRJ-705 to CRJ-100, which has no C. The AC phone rep was not very apologetic. Not to mention, I was never informed about this change.

Is there any recourse here? I guess it's a short flight but still...