Originally Posted by infinitium

To be clear, I am not out for personal profit nor have UA compensate me in pocketable cash.
I'm simply pursuing what I think is the right thing to do on behalf of my company (and as a fellow stockholder in my company, as all employees are; I work in a Fortune 500 tech firm and as a fellow 30-year veteran in the company that's seen it thru from bust to boom cycles, I'm very proud to be employed in this firm and will do anything I can do ensure the principle is upheld.

Originally Posted by Kacee

They would only have responsibility if the flights are on the same ticket. It's possible UA systems would auto-rebook you based on the two flights being on the same itinerary, in the absence of any obligation to do so.

Have you checked the actual ticket numbers? Do you have two of them, one on UA stock (001) and one on SQ stock (081)?

If they are on the same ticket, there should be no charge for rebooking the SQ flight, as the IRROPS would override any such charges.

Originally Posted by Kacee

Note that one reason to book the two flights on separate tix is because the lower priced fares on UA and SQ are not going to be compatible, i.e., capable of being booked on a separate ticket. The correct way to book this itinerary would be either all on UA or with an SQ codeshare (likely AS) for the LAS-SFO/LAX segment. Not actually sure SQ is presently codesharing with anyone for that routing though.

Originally Posted by jsloan

Did you have checked luggage? If the missed flight was on the UA record, the computer might well have tried to rebook it (and, if you had luggage checked all the way through, UA would have had to put the SQ flight on the UA record). It�s even vaguely plausible that you might have been able to board, as Star Alliance has an alliance-wide agreement to allow for reissuance of tickets during IRROPS. So even though you didn�t purchase a ticket from them, it�s possible that they were trying to help you out. It doesn�t create a legal (or, IMO, ethical) responsibility on UA to pay for either a hotel or the fare difference. (It�s also plausible that you would have tried to board and would have ended up with a very confused gate agent, because the boarding computer would have thrown an error about a missing ticket).

I disagree. Unless OP comes back and says that the two ticket numbers were both sequential, OP was definitely on separate tickets.


The zeal that you�re employing to try to wrest compensation from UA would best be used trying to find a travel agent who actually acts as your agent. Handling IRROPS is a big part of their job, and they absolutely should not be asking you, as the traveler, to intercede with the airlines. That�s Office Space levels of �what would you say you do here?�


I suspect the costs were a fare difference. And it was likely the correct amount, and it was caused specifically by their insistence upon booking you on separate tickets in the first place. Instead of buying you a contract with either SQ or UA for transportation from LAS to SIN � which could have still involved both carriers � they bought you a contract with UA from LAS to SFO, and then a separate contract from SQ from SFO to SIN. Therefore, when you were unable to appear on time for your SFO-SIN flight, SQ was not obligated to accept your ticket without it being reissued based upon the current advance purchase (one day) and inventory.


OK, fair enough. But your travel agent let UA off the hook here. I respect your principles, but I still believe your concerns are misdirected. You�re asking UA to compensate your company for something that was out of their control.


It is possible that UA will decide that the corporate account is worth the money and will reimburse the costs.


What they stand to gain should be the same as what UA stands to gain: your corporate account. Put my comments aside for a moment � perhaps you think I�m biased. Pretty much every respondent on this thread has had the same general comment: �You need a new travel agent.� With 30 years of experience in your company, I presume you have enough connections to get the a message through to your leadership that your current travel agent is incompetent and is costing the company money.


Agreed, although UA probably would have tried to rebook only on the UA flights even if the ticket was originally for an SQ flight.


Agreed.


(There�s a typo here � Kacee has been flying American Airlines too much recently. ;-) UA tickets begin with 016).


Right.


Agreed, although FWIW this itinerary would normally have been ticketed on 081. So it would have been a question of getting the UA flight onto a 081 ticket, not the long-haul SQ flight onto a 016 ticket. That should have been substantially easier � though Kacee is correct that the LAS-SFO/LAX segments might have needed to be on AS to get it to price nicely.

Originally Posted by infinitium

Checked bags -- yep, I had checked bags at LAS, all the way to SIN.
Given I missed my long-haul connection SFO-SIN, my bags were stuck in SFO. I had to trundle all the way to UA's baggage office @ SFO upon arrival, and to get them to retrieve for me.
The entire process took about 5 hours. (no typo there).

I filed the baggage retrieval request at 11:00pm. Sat at the bag carousell for the next 3 hours waiting in vain. Decided at 1:00am to abandon all hope, and made my way to the Hyatt SFO (which my corp travel agent had booked for me) to get some sleep.

Woke the next morning, checked my AirTag tracker and saw the bag had made its way from purgatory back to the UA baggage office, so I AirTrain'd back to T3's UA office to retrieve the bag. Fun times.

"I suspect the costs were a fare difference." -- again, yep... you are likely right. I'll reconfirm later today when my corp travel agent sends me their booking receipt, which has the breakdown of that $1,500 cost (which, for the record, is associated w/costs on rebooking the SQ long-haul, and nothing to do with the domestic leg.)

"But your travel agent let UA off the hook here. I respect your principles, but I still believe your concerns are misdirected. You�re asking UA to compensate your company for something that was out of their control." -- Good point. I don't disagree. I will lean hard into my travel agent to get them to claw back those costs... either via insurance claims or other backroom channels they have with UA.

"It is possible that UA will decide that the corporate account is worth the money and will reimburse the costs." -- possible. A boy can dream 😅
Once I talk w/my corp travel agent later today during my daylight AM, I'll email UA's top exec outlining my case and politely/respectfully ask them to make this right by reimbursing both overnight SFO hotel + the SQ rebooking charge.

Originally Posted by infinitium

I have 2 ticket numbers indeed --

• UA domestic leg LAS-SFO: 016XXXXXXXXXX
• SQ intl leg SFO-SIN: 618XXXXXXXXX

Does that help?

Originally Posted by infinitium

Yep, there was no SQ codeshare on the LAS-SFO segment, and likewise, no UA codeshare on the SQ long-haul SFO-SIN. Typically, in past biz travels, I'd always ask my corp travel agent to book codeshares... w/the goal of keeping all flight segments with the same carrier (thinking ahead for situations like this, where dealing with a single carrier is infinitely easier).

Originally Posted by infinitium

Checked bags -- yep, I had checked bags at LAS, all the way to SIN.

Originally Posted by infinitium

Given I missed my long-haul connection SFO-SIN, my bags were stuck in SFO. I had to trundle all the way to UA's baggage office @ SFO upon arrival, and to get them to retrieve for me.
The entire process took about 5 hours. (no typo there).

Originally Posted by infinitium

"I suspect the costs were a fare difference." -- again, yep... you are likely right. I'll reconfirm later today when my corp travel agent sends me their booking receipt, which has the breakdown of that $1,500 cost (which, for the record, is associated w/costs on rebooking the SQ long-haul, and nothing to do with the domestic leg.)

"But your travel agent let UA off the hook here. I respect your principles, but I still believe your concerns are misdirected. You�re asking UA to compensate your company for something that was out of their control." -- Good point. I don't disagree. I will lean hard into my travel agent to get them to claw back those costs... either via insurance claims or other backroom channels they have with UA.

"It is possible that UA will decide that the corporate account is worth the money and will reimburse the costs." -- possible. A boy can dream 😅
Once I talk w/my corp travel agent later today during my daylight AM, I'll email UA's top exec outlining my case and politely/respectfully ask them to make this right by reimbursing both overnight SFO hotel + the SQ rebooking charge.

Originally Posted by jsloan

That indicates that you had one ticket with United (016) and one with SQ (618). I think an incorrect ticket prefix for SQ was posted earlier; I just looked it up to verify. This is exactly the situation that you described originally. There have been a couple of suggestions that, since UA was able to see your SQ segment, maybe you actually had one ticket, since a ticket can span multiple ticket numbers. This is definitively not the case � you had two tickets, and thus two contracts, and it led to all of the problems you ran into.

Codeshares are a red herring. They�re a sufficient, but not necessary, element toward getting what you want, which is a single contract (single ticket) from origin to destination. A quick search of singaporeair.com for sample dates in March comes up with options via Seattle or San Francisco on Alaska Airlines (AS), or via Los Angeles on a SQ codeshare of a UA flight.

My guess is that your travel agent was trying to obtain a cheaper fare by booking SIN-SFO and SFO-LAS separately. Many of us � myself included � have done the same thing when flying for leisure; the shorter SFO-LAS leg is a �positioning flight� in this context. However, I would never do it when traveling for business, and if the travel agent insisted upon doing it, then I would not expect the airline to honor the contract that I didn�t purchase. I�d either expect the travel agent to take care of it � if it was done without permission / contrary to company policy � or I would bill the company without a second thought, as the costs you experienced are all the direct result of this decision.

This is one way that UA knew about your SQ leg, and almost certainly resulted in the UA rebooking notice.

Originally Posted by jsloan

There was no need to retrieve your bags from UA. They would have eventually arrived in SIN � you�d have filed a baggage irregularity report with SQ when you arrived. UA may have been able to offer an amenity kit if asked, but the Hyatt probably had just about everything you�d need for the night anyway.

Originally Posted by jsloan

We�re speaking past each other. You�ve clearly made up your mind on next steps, and that�s fine. As I said, they may be successful. But if so, it�s not because any of this is or was UA�s responsibility; it�s UA bribing your company to try to keep its contract, essentially. Your company / travel agent would be trying to have its cake and eat it too here � trying to get the discount by booking as two separate tickets, but then get UA to honor the protections that would have been baked into the more expensive ticket if you�d purchased it that way.

Originally Posted by infinitium

Checked bags -- yep, I had checked bags at LAS, all the way to SIN.
Given I missed my long-haul connection SFO-SIN, my bags were stuck in SFO. I had to trundle all the way to UA's baggage office @ SFO upon arrival, and to get them to retrieve for me.
The entire process took about 5 hours. (no typo there).

I filed the baggage retrieval request at 11:00pm. Sat at the bag carousell for the next 3 hours waiting in vain. Decided at 1:00am to abandon all hope, and made my way to the Hyatt SFO (which my corp travel agent had booked for me) to get some sleep.

Woke the next morning, checked my AirTag tracker and saw the bag had made its way from purgatory back to the UA baggage office, so I AirTrain'd back to T3's UA office to retrieve the bag. Fun times.

"I suspect the costs were a fare difference." -- again, yep... you are likely right. I'll reconfirm later today when my corp travel agent sends me their booking receipt, which has the breakdown of that $1,500 cost (which, for the record, is associated w/costs on rebooking the SQ long-haul, and nothing to do with the domestic leg.)

"But your travel agent let UA off the hook here. I respect your principles, but I still believe your concerns are misdirected. You�re asking UA to compensate your company for something that was out of their control." -- Good point. I don't disagree. I will lean hard into my travel agent to get them to claw back those costs... either via insurance claims or other backroom channels they have with UA.

"It is possible that UA will decide that the corporate account is worth the money and will reimburse the costs." -- possible. A boy can dream 😅
Once I talk w/my corp travel agent later today during my daylight AM, I'll email UA's top exec outlining my case and politely/respectfully ask them to make this right by reimbursing both overnight SFO hotel + the SQ rebooking charge.

Originally Posted by infinitium

...I'll email UA's top exec outlining my case and politely/respectfully ask them to make this right by reimbursing both overnight SFO hotel + the SQ rebooking charge.

Originally Posted by physioprof

How much of your time & effort is all of this mishegas worth? It is centrally within the job of your company's travel staff to deal with stuff like this... Altho, based upon your posts here, it does seem like this is an enjoyable puzzle/challenge for you... 😹 😹 😹

Originally Posted by dcpdxtrans

I feel sorry for the OP who appears to be wasting his time with UA and not directing his energy at the source: the travel agent (and his company's policies). Shocking that a travel agent would tell its principal to correct the former's mistakes when that is his/her job.

While reading (parts of) this thread, I had the same thought: with 5h, buy a walk-up ticket OAL, make the SFO flight, and work to get the bag to the destination. I assume UA would get the bag there even if OP was not on 1st flight (UA) on a separate tix--correct?

Originally Posted by infinitium

...There was another SouthWest flight that also left around that time. It departed from a faraway gate. Asked UA's agent-on-demand if I could be booked on that into SFO, but was told No. (Assume it's because SouthWest isn't part of *A and therefore that airline isn't on UA's available-partners-to-rebook-affected-passengers list?)....

Originally Posted by IAH-OIL-TRASH

That was a good option if you could have gotten to it (and if you didn't check a bag w/ United). Southwest is a loner - you would have had to buy a walk-up ticket at the gate.

Originally Posted by infinitium

Indeed... if I didn't have a check-in, I would have likely tried to make the SW flight, or at the very least, pursue that option more aggressively. We live and learn.

Sadly, I had already checked a bag with United... didn't want to make my SFO flight to SIN, and end up having to deal w/the nightmare of an abandoned check-in bag that's now stuck somewhere in LAS/SFO (add in the addtl shivers of me being back in SIN v.s. being state-side, which makes following up w/UA that much more difficult & nail-biting.)

Originally Posted by infinitium

However, as I've outlined in another reply, my company travel firm has a very -ve rep for being helpful, much less trying to pursue a case where they've already pocketed their travel fees (by making the booking).
After all, they stand to gain exactly 0 benefit from a presumably long-drawn, back-and-forth case with UA, which adds to my pessimism that they'll be helpful.