SusanDK

I purchased a trip on SK in SAS Plus (premium economy) with domestic connecting flights on UA.

Itinerary is MCO-ORD-CPH (already flown) and CPH-IAD-MCO (upcoming).

After booking, I had logged into my UA account to select seats for the UA flights (MCO-ORD and IAD-MCO). I was presented with the option to purchase economy plus seats which I did.

I'm currently looking at options for upgrading the cabin on the return IAD-MCO leg, and noticed something strange when I dug out the previous receipt that was sent from the UA website (note that on UA I entered the SK confirmation number but UA assigned its own confirmation number to the trip).

The email receipt I received prior to the outbound flight is showing the two UA domestic flights as "Class: United First (P)." I had not noticed this previously, but if I "view ticket receipt" inside the UA website, it is also showing that the MCO-ORD flight had "Meal: Dinner." We had no option of selecting seats anywhere but basic economy, we had the option to purchase economy plus seats which we did, and we were presented with an option to upgrade to the FC cabin for $179 each upon check-in. We sat in the economy plus seats I purchased and were provided with a complementary bag of pretzels and soft drink.

Based on the UA receipt, should we have been seated in FC? (EDITED TO ADD: I am not asking this question to complain or reach out to UA about what is past. It is only for my knowledge for the next flight and future reference.)

Today, when I retrieve the itinerary on UA and have the receipt emailed to me, it now shows "Class: Business or First (P)" for both the completed MCO-ORD flight as well as the upcoming IAD-MCO flight. However, on the main page showing the itinerary, it says "Fare Class: United Economy (V)" and I am again being shown that I am eligible to purchase economy plus seats for IAD-MCO (already done) and can click on the "Upgrade Cabin" link although an upgrade is not available currently for purchase but can be waitlisted with 17,500 + $75 per person.

Why the discrepancy between my receipt which appears that we have "Business/First (P)" class on the UA domestic flights and the reality of where I was able to select seats? Is there a way to get UA to honor FC seating for the return flight based on the receipt?

Thanks for any clarification.

Often1

Call UA and ask them to assign you a seat in F for the remaining segment. You are likely due a refund of the fare difference for the leg you flew, but will need to address that with SK and it will likely be either nothing or very little.

SusanDK

Thank you!

Would UA refund me for the Economy Plus seats I purchased (for the flown segment as well as the upcoming one)?

amislove

I'm wondering if the fare class confusion is because the MCO-ORD and IAD-MCO legs were SK codeshares; P class on SK is an SAS Plus fare bucket. In particular, I'm wondering if UA's website is getting confused about the P class for the codeshare, and showing it as first on the receipt. For example, if you look at CPH-MCO on SK on Nov 03, you'll see the following, where P falls below Y (the highest SAS Plus fare bucket), but above E (the highest SAS Go fare bucket). SAS Business is C, D, Z, J, and R.

Often1

As this is a simple call to UA, doesn't that suggest a first step?

Kacee

lol you really think your average UA reservations agent is going to grasp the mapping issue identified by amislove? I think not

Calling UA about a very nonstandard issue without first having full information is rarely a good idea.

I can't really think of any scenario where an SK PE fare books into F on UA domestic segment. UA's PE fares don't do that.

RobOnLI

I'm curious...were the UA domestic flights booked as SK-codeshare flights? e.g. operated by United, coded as SK?

I agree with @amislove that this is just a mapping issue and United is incorrectly displaying the data.

-RM

jsloan

^

United.com does this regularly.

SusanDK

Yes, my receipt shows the UA flights with SK flight numbers.

The odd thing is that it is the receipt from the UA site with the UA confirmation number that is showing the First Class. But it isn't allowing me to reserve anything except basic economy seats and purchase anything higher (e.g. economy plus seats or upgraded cabin).

I suspect that the SK code share is what is causing the problem and it was wishful thinking that I was booked in FC.

However, I will call UA just to ask as suggested by Often1.

Thanks all!

Kacee

Different UA systems are reading your ticket/fare differently. The receipt is seeing P booking class, and mistakenly mapping it to a UA P booking class, which would be first class. The UA seat booking engine is looking past the SK booking class, and reading the ticket/fare correctly.

WineCountryUA

Best to assume the Fare Class is reporting the fare class of the flight marketer, in this case, SK. The problem is even in *A, not all fare class codes mean the same thing for different airlines. This is a case.

findark

Definitely a website problem translating the human-readable cabin name.

Your domestic segments are booked on SK flights in P class (which is SK PE), and this books into V class on a UA-marketed flight and the Economy cabin for UA metal: