jasondc

I purchased two separate tickets on United.com over four hours ago. I received emails for both of them telling me that it could take up to 3 hours to ticket the reservations, and that I'd receive receipts and ticket numbers immediately upon ticketing. The e-mail also said to contact them if I didnt receive this within 3 hours. Well, now it's been over four hours, no tickets, and I cannot get through to anybody. Will I lose these reservations?

BryanIAH

Were these flights on UA or a partner? Partner flights will occasionally take more time.

jasondc

UA operated flights ORD-LGA-ORD

dstan

I had a similar problem, but perhaps not exactly the same - UA SFO-SAN-SFO. The first three times I tried to complete the purchase, the website kicked me to the home page. My reservation was listed in my profile, but said:
...along with a statement that it'd be on hold thru midnight, March 8, SFO time. No email.

However, apparently fourth try was a charm, as it seems to have gone through. Received a confirmation email that the reservation was processing.

Looks like I picked a dandy time to be booking on UA for the first time in many years!

steve81zh

Lucky you. Same issue here, but have been trying so far way more than four times, still no luck. Go figure. I just want to spend some money, and they won't take my purchase...

jasondc

.... well for me it issued confirmation numbers for both tickets, but still, it hasnt ticketed or purchased. Come on!! I just want to buy a ticket!

mherdeg

I usually ask: "Hi, I'm just calling to check on the status of a reservation. I have the confirmation code whenever you're ready. OK, it's {the PNR spelled out in NATO spelling alphabet, e.g. tango hotel echo papa november romeo}. Yes, that's the one! I just wanted to call to double-check that it is in a ticketing queue." If they push back, "Can you please check just once more? I usually ticket within an hour of purchase unless something is wrong with the record."

Recent problems have included: (1) flight was a codeshare on a partner and needed to be "confirmed" by them, then after it was "confirmed" all my saved payment information was deleted from the record and the reservation never would have ticketed if I hadn't called; (2) award flight on a partner carrier experienced a "schedule change" immediately after booking (erroneous schedule data?) and after it was accepted all payment information was deleted and it never would have ticketed. Have never seen an all-CO or all-UA flight take more than a few hours to ticket, but would not at all be surprised if it happened.

Wasn't instant ticketing great? I really miss being able to buy an international flight and instantly confirm an upgrade.

mduell

You could call reservations and see if you can get through before it tickets. Would be an amusing race.

artieb78

I had a similar issue where a reservation would not ticket for 3 days. I called to UA 1K desk and it was determined that the "PIN" number of my account was not added properly. I think it was because I logged in with my password, and not the PIN.

After they added the PIN number to the reservation, the ticket issued in 15 mins.

jasondc

I've been trying. I cannot get through to reservations. They say they are too busy and it hangs up. I understand that they're busy because of the integration, but the e-mail made it seem rather urgent that I call if the ticketing didnt take place within 3 hours.

Again, this is a simple ORD-LGA-ORD roundtrip. all on UA metal

Daringdoo

At the risk of muddying things... what if you try making an entirely new booking? You have 24 hours to cancel so if you end up with two bookings, you can cancel one of them. It's probably not something we all want to be doing all the time but perhaps it's necessary in this situation since you can't get through to res.

Just a thought.

DD

elbejt2

Exactly what I did today.

Daringdoo

So, what happened? Did you end up with two bookings?

Once UA works out the kinks, I'm sure this will no longer be necessary but in the meantime, you gotta do what you gotta do!!

DD

mherdeg

You can cancel an unticketed reservation on united.com without much difficulty.

I would just avoid having two identical reservations for too long -- the old UA had overnight sweeps that arbitrarily cancelled one reservation if you were listed on a flight twice to prevent double-bookings, and I can imagine that CO might have the same thing (but have never seen it).

jasondc

over 12 hours later and reservations still are not ticketed. What happens if 24 hours comes along and I'm still not ticketed? Will they simply cancel? Have held for over 2 hours on the phone and cannot get through to an agent. Any advice?