Those of you who use DTS, this is a question for you. I've already asked my travel office and they'll talk to the TAC but no one knows for sure. When I try to add a Continental FF#, it refuses to take it. It ends up either being interpreted as United and a null entry or taking me back to United's #.

There is a suspicion from my travel office that it is because Continental didn't bother bidding for any city pairs or that United is going to be the name on the system in the end. Either that or some confusion about the merger.

I'm just worried that after everything switches on UACO's side, they'll still be entering an old UA MP number when it's apparently the Op account number that is going to survive. Having dealt with the two of them doing the two fat hippos on ice dance to get their systems to talk to each other now, i have little hope they'll do a better job later. Anyone with any luck getting a Continental Op # to take in DTS? I realize this isn't a very good question for FT, but I know there must be other people who suffer with DTS like I do.

In the interim, can you call UA reservations and have them manually apply your CO# to every reservation you book? Doesn't the DTS system give you a PNR?

More often than not it seems like you can select your FF # in DTS, it will stick to the reservation on DTS, but when you pull up the PNR on the website it won't be there. Sort of have the same issue with Rental Car reservations. I usually never select seats on DTS and immediately go to ua or co.com once its booked to grab Y+ or exit row seats. That way I know that SHARES will save the seat assignment. Doesn't have to do with CO not bidding on the city pairs, but just screwy technology that doesn't seem to communicate....case in point is that most of the time I am upgraded, the DTS reservation will still show coach on the CTO screen....makes me fear the chance dupe segments exist.

As long as you have the PNR you can just go onto CO.com and enter the number there. I wouldn't trust seat assignments (have you seen the 6 abreast 3x3 seat map for a 763?) and most people I talk to seem to always get to the airport and not have their original seat assignment. Going forward once they establish OnePass# with MileagePlus program, you can just go into your DTS profile and modify it.

When booking through DTS, I have noticed that if I fly USAirways or Continental and want to credit to MileagePlus, I have to call the airline up directly to make sure my number is appended to the reservation. DTS was not set up to allow application of frequent flyer numbers for airlines other than the one you are booking a flight on.

Not my DTS experience at all. I have successfully used my CO number many times for flights on US (thank you, 500-mile minimum!), and my DL number for flights on AS.

Yeah, I have this same problem. I use my MP number for *A flights and every time I get booked on US the number gets passed labeled as US, not UA. Have to call US customer service and have it changed to UA. I even submitted a helpdesk ticket to DTS on this issue. Got a nice reply saying they would elevate the issue, but it still happens every time I fly US.

On the other hand, this can't be a high priority change, so if they do proper configuration control on the software it will probably be a while before any such change finds its way into a production release.

I thought the operating airline determined mileage awards? I do use my MP number on US flights, but never get a 500 mile minimum.

That's one of the (current) differences between CO and UA -- for elites, CO grants a 500-mile minimum for US flights. UA does not. Pays (until 31 December, at least) to credit your US flights to CO instead of UA.

My only concern withe the PNR is whether they'll issue one before they cut the ticket or not, which only happens 3 days out.

I would usually just blame DTS, and since I've been a 1P, just going in and changing it, but since I drop next year, I'm trying to not make my life suck more than it needs to. Calling UA seems to be the fix.

I do see the issue with UA MP going across as US when flying US, which is annoying and I have to correct doing a manual check in or it doesn't get fixed. That's what agents love at 6AM at DCA, retyping things.

In the end it doesn't matter since there's no funding after Friday unless someone gets their act together and the flight won't book anyway.

I always get a PNR as soon as the flight is booked. Always have to go in and change the seat the Government procures for me, too.

We also get charged the same ticketing fee regardless of when the ticket is actually purchased, so asking to be ticketed early does not cost my agency anything extra. Sometimes, waiting until the last minute to ticket does, however, as I have seen fares go up between booking and ticketing.

The PNR is in the flight summary screen; note that this is different from the record locator CTO references which is listed on the top of the summary screen.

I always request advance ticketing. Too many times I have shown up to the airport only to find my reservation was never ticketed.

What will be interesting going forward is how they will process upgrades on codeshare flights. Currently if you buy a ticket with US code operated by UA they will allegedly only process it day of departure. I know on CO with codeshare flights that isn't the case, have always been upgraded at the EUA window.

This is exactly my experience with every trip I've taken for the past decade and more.

US ticketed UA metal government tickets are only upgraded the day of the flight and generally only at the gate. I've done many of these in the past two years and it's a pain in the backside (literally) sometimes.

Good to know about the CO codeshare difference. I'll have to try that one sometime.