hobo13

My first two experiences with the SHARES auto-rebook engine:

1. 3/16/12. Scheduled to fly LAX-IAD-MAD. Wife (1K) and son (1P) are on one itinerary, I'm on the other. In the wee-hours of the morning (4AM local) I get an email stating that LAX-IAD has cancelled for mx reasons. Wife and I get rebooked for that evening, LAX-SFO-(overnight)-EWR-MAD. My son (a minor!) is booked by himself for the following day LAX-IAH-EWR-MAD. (I assume the itineraries got split for CPU upgrade purposes -- another 'feature' of SHARES.

Obviously, this is all pretty useless. Back in the day (3 weeks ago?), I had plenty of misconnects where .bomb was able to get me auto-rebooked before my delayed flight even arrived at the connecting city! This, on the other hand, is just a joke! All but useless. Is it because SHARES is programmed to only allow rebookings into the same fare class, rather than Y like .bomb used to do?

2. Yesterday. I check my itineraries and see that a trip in the fall has a schedule change. OK, I'm PMUA guy. No big deal, these happen all the time. Except now SHARES is demanding that I accept the schedule change on-line which has me arriving into IAD at 2PM despite the fact that my connecting flight leaves at 1PM! So I accepted it, just for kicks. I can't wait for the CO no-help desk to tell me 'tough luck buddy, you accepted it!'

What kind of algorithm is that? While I concede that #1 above might be a tricky rebooking situation, #2 should be really easy. You just move the connecting flight to the later bank!

What are your experiences?

mbluecpa

I have had this or a variant (illegal, too-short, or overnight connection created on a rebook) happen two or three times in the past couple of years. While the programming logic that allows this puzzles me (and the agent tha I end up speaking with), each time, a call has cleared it up without question.

hobo13

You make that sound so trivial. COdbaUA is still experiencing high call volumes.

And if every Tom, Dick, and Harry has to call about about simple little schedule changes that SHARES cannot properly handle, I guess we can see why.

Zone1

Just for kicks, I'd accept the rebooking and ask an agent if you could get a refund of the UM fees.

sbm12

Did you specify him as a child or an adult when booking?

Big assumption, and one that there is no evidence to support unless during the check-in process (were you already checked in??) you chose to split them.

hobo13

Just reporting what I've been told. You know more than everyone else, so perhaps you can enlighten us.

star_world

You're missing the point. Did you split the itineraries during checkin? Was your son specified as a child on the booking?

Relevant questions so we can attempt to turn this from (another) rant to something that might actually help people in a similar situation.

hobo13

No I did not split the reservation.

You're also missing the point -- as usual. I'm not really complaining about the splitting of the reservations -- I'm complaining about the ridiculous routings of the SHARES rebook engine.

Do you honestly think that it's acceptable to auto-rebook an itin that includes an overnight at another airport?

And what's your excuse for example #2???

sbm12

I asked the questions I did in order to offer better information. Unless you choose to split them when checking in the reservation should not split for CPU purposes. Had you already checked in for the flight? Did you choose the option to be added to the CPU waitlist at that time? Or were you upgraded in advance?
In some cases, yes. Without knowing what the loads were on all the other flights it is hard to know if there is a reason it did what it did or if it was just having fun and trying to screw customers.

hobo13

Not UGed in advance. Had to check-in at the airport because .nuke would not let me complete check-in on-line, claiming that it needed to verify docs at the airport. Never saw that before with UA, assume it is a SHARES feature. So we checked-in at the airport. Asked the agent to insure we were on the CPU list at the time, and indeed we were.

Then we discovered that our itinerary had been split.

AGAIN, I am not complaining so much about the splitting of the reservation. I am irritated at the regression in technology that has occurred between Appolo and SHARES. Even setting aside potentially high loads that could have made rebooking tricky last week on example #1 (I admitted that in the OP), what excuse can you offer for the itinerary in Sept?

How can a computer not realize that it just rebooked an invalid connection???

ColoBill1

Maybe not, but this is exactly what happened to my flying buddy and me for a COS-PHX run we made this past week.

I booked us under one PNR, as I am still 1K and he had dropped a notch for 2012. When he checked us in online, SHARES unilaterally placed him under a new separate PNR.

Air Houston

When two people are one one reservation the only way to be on the standby list for a CPU is to split the PNR. If the upgrades are processed before 24 hours then both passengers stay on the same record. Not sure if this explanation is on the website or not, but UA Insider has previously confirmed this is the case and it has been my experience pre 3/3 on PMCO.

Yes, the re-booking option given was terrible. And certainly the system should not have booked an invalid connection.

The way the automated system worked historically on PMCO (and I'm assuming the way the system is operating now, although since lots of other things have changed this may be an inappropriate assumption) is that when a flight (for which you are not yet checked in) is cancelled the system starts accommodating displaced passengers using available UA flights where a reservation can be confirmed. It does not require the same fare class to be available. If the first available flight is in 3 days then you get automatically rebooked in 3 days. If you want to change to a different UA flight (assuming you can find one that is available) or cancel the booking for a full refund you can normally do this on-line. If you want to be routed onto a different carrier or force a booking on an over-sold flight then you need to speak with an agent. If you want to be placed on the waitlist for a flight that is not showing available (but which might or might not end up having seats open) you have to speak to an agent.

If you are already traveling when the flight is cancelled then you are automatically placed on the waitlist for the next flight (unless you can be confirmed, in which case no waitlist is needed).

By the time the system got to your son's record, the flight that you were booked on may have been full. (Perhaps there were only two seats available and you and your wife were assigned those seats due to higher status.)

Thunderroad

I know this was a serious, distressing situation for you, but it's also so ridiculous that I had an LOL moment when reading about it.

What ended up happening in the end? Hope it all got worked out decently.

pigx5

I had once gotten the SHARES rebooked me as a platinum to 2 days later (not only over night) while my friend who had no status kept on the same flight on the same day.
What a great software which could kicks you out of a oversold flight and rebook people to 2 days later.

hobo13

Thanks. I thought I had read that explanation. But it is being flat-out denied up-thread.

And I love your FT handle -- you don't happen to have cousins named Air Newark and Air Cleveland do you?