SFOTerry

Forget about other airlines, UA won't even notify you when a United flight is cancelled or changed.

They won't even flag the flight on the "Change/View Existing Reservations" page.

oblisk

Small Tangent,

I have an award flight on Asiana booked for two of us. Both of us have seat numbers, I should be fine correct? Is there anything else i'd need to do to verify we are still booked for the flight?

flyingmusicianlax

Yeah, I had a flight booked to Thailand in Feb with the first leg on VS (this was through CO). Not only did VS change their schedule so that the flight I was booked on ceased to exist, but UA kept telling me I was confirmed for it. Luckily, I was vigilant and got routed through MUC on LH. But, if I hadn't watched closely, I would have shown up at the airport for a non-existent flight.

I had hoped this idiocy would eventually die with the merger, but hearing that it still happens gets a big from me.

dinoscool3

The same thing happened to me recently. Luckily when checking the flight, it was discovered that the reservation had been canceled. UA was called, and the great agent was able to rebook us. This is (unfortunately) OZ's fault, not UA's.

sbrower

The advice above is solid. Seat assignment is nice, but worth nothing. Call and get your PNR on the partner airline. Call about every two weeks to check that there have not been any changes to the flight times, etc. and to make sure you are still on the flight.

Or, just wait until the day of departure. Probably everything is okay. But maybe not. It is up to you if "maybe it is not" is worth calling every couple of weeks.

channa

No it's not. It's UA's fault for not sending over E-tickets to partners and not having its interconnection issues with partner carriers sorted after this sort of problem has been happening for 10 years or more with SHARES.

What's changed is that the frequency of this sort of thing happening to partner reservations has increased exponentially.

While it has been a problem with CO for years (CO used to drop AF segments back in the SkyTeam days), the problem became more prevalent when CO moved to the Star Alliance and there were more partners. More partners means more flights to drop.

When UA moved to the CO computer system (SHARES) it compounded the problem because of the large number of frequent flyers with mileage that came from UA, and the fact that the CO website they're now using makes it easier to book partners, so now there are likely more partner reservations than ever.

The same partner segment dropping issue that was a minor blip for CO 10 years ago is a much bigger problem today.

jmk2135

This is a terrible situation; five legs to get home from Asia to the west coast is pretty absurd. In my experience, the CSRs are generally terrible at finding decent routing options with available award space. You're much better off doing that work yourself and then force-feeding the information to the CSR.

Returning from Seoul on 9/25 to the west coast, for example, there is

Biz space on Air Canada's flight (AC64) ICN-YVR
Biz space on Asiana (OZ112) ICN-KIX and then United (UA886) KIX-SFO

There's tons of Biz and F space available via Europe, e.g., ICN to Frankfurt to the US

tods27

I think that the OP is booked in Y, not F, so these routes are not really options.

DarkHelmetII

international award on partners = check online and call up operating carriers very frequently

DianeDakota

Five legs on your return with all those layovers that are not long enough to get a hotel and rest are intolerable. I hope they do something for you so you don't have to go through that nightmare although trying to get it resolved is a nightmare in itself.

jmk2135

A FTer in whY? I'm shocked. But seriously, in Y, there is WAY more availability.

On 9/25, he can book Singapore's ICN-SFO flight. There are probably 30 other routings available with a connection as well. There is even availability on intra-South Korea flights such as PUS-ICN.

pdxp2b

Thanks all for the suggestions, as I wipe the idea that you book an award and show up for the ticket from my naive mind. I plan to raise hell, the segments are ridiculous but the fact that now I've learned it's a known issue makes me grind my teeth. I plan to file a complaint with the ~~FAA~~ DOT.

channa

DOT would be the appropriate venue:

http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/CP_AirlineService.htm

bobbybrown

When did you book? You need to call Asiana and make sure your reservation is fine. (see if e-ticket number is well transferred.) This is all you need to do. Once it's confirmed, you don't need to worry.

I don't think having seat numbers is a good indicator.

FridayHarborFlyer

Wow, the exact same thing happened to me. Booked & confirmed off of UA, and then we were going to buy a companion ticket, kind of like a BOGO. Gone...Poof! Oh, I didn't call to confirm. Obviously UA knows this is a problem since they immediately confirmed me onto their flights, but UA was $1000 more for a biz class seat then Asiana...now we are flying E- hoping to make it into E+....lesson learned!