pdxp2b

I filed a customer service issue on my cancelled flight mentioend on page 6 of the thread, a week later still haven't heard anything from United Airlines CS. I did, however, get a call from United Airlines Corporate office this morning(at 7:26 a.m. local) letting me know they had received a complaint forwarded from the DOT to them and would I please call them back.

I haven't had a chance to call them yet, I'll update the thread with their solution.

channa

What is your desired remedy?

You can always ask them to book you on the flight as a revenue pax and eat the cost.

pdxp2b

Good point. Why would I want to make them accountable for their incompetence when I can spend my own money?

channa

I mean have them eat the cost.

That's what I would push for if I were in your shoes.

pdxp2b

Ah, I see. Good, you aren't insane then I just read your comment to mean something different. Good idea.

Jaimito Cartero

Or, if no Y awards are available, to put you in J or F, at their expense.

ben237829624

I think UA is not the single one to blame. *A is such a huge network with more than 20 members, and each members have their own computer system. It's tremendous work to connect the system with all their partner, so having some incompatibility is inevitable. This one, I think it's on OZ's end, as you can see UA confirmed the seat with OZ, and ticketed the reservation. It is OZ's system messed up the reservation and cancelled it. Furthermore, I have several reservation booked through united with partners like ANA and Air China, never had any problem like this.

channa

I believe one of the theories is that the ticket number never gets sent over from UA to the other airline.

Seeing that SHARES is the common factor in these dropped partner reservations reports (it was a problem with CO before, it wasn't a problem with UA, and now it is since UA moved to CO's systems), I think it's pretty clear that whatever they're doing in SHARES isn't very reliable with respect to partner awards.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

I'm inclined to agree with this - it seems the ticketing airline failing to send the ticket number to the carrier. I have had this two times with tickets issued by US Air for travel on partners. That's why it is always essential to call the airline you are flying on and asking specifically 'do you have a ticket number against this booking?'. You must do this within 72 hours, and preferably within 24. That way any errors can be corrected before you lose the seat.

Having a PNR and being able to select seats or meals is no guarantee your reservation is ticketed!

worldflavor

I got to the airport today and was told I couldn't get on my flight that I booked on United.com with my miles for a Star Alliance partner (Asiana). I got a normal looking confirmation and no advance warning. When I went to the Asiana Airlines desk, they told me that United never told them about the reservation. It was cancelled before that stage because they didn't think 1 hour was enough to make a connection.

Do I have any rights here? Can I demand compensation or anything? For awhile it looked like they weren't even going to reschedule my flight until a week from now. Even now, I have to wait an extra 2 days. I don't know if it's important, but I was trying to fly from Korea to Mongolia with a connection in China.

njcommodore

Did you get an email from UA saying the ticket had been issued? If so, did you go into the reservation and see an Asiana confirmation number?

shortkidd

How long ago did you book this? pre/post 3/3?

Often1

OP - In order to assist you, please post the full details of the itinerary. For each segment, the departure/arrival airport & times, the operating carrier, the ticketing carrier. You should not post your actual confirmation numbers on a public website, but please do post the fact that you have (or don't have) an actual Asiana (not UA) confirmation # and an Asiana (not UA) e-ticket #.

The reason for all this detail is that on intl. legs, it's possible to have a reservation which isn't ticketed. The ticket is what attaches Asiana's payment and Asiana won't board a pax without being paid. All of this is arcane and speaks of a system which still operates as though there are envelopes filled with cash stapled to paper ticket coupons, but it's the system.

We can all speculate about this, but there details matter.

Steve M

In this case, they would have both a UA and an Asiana confirmation number, but only a UA e-ticket number, not an Asiana one. If you book a ticket with United miles (or purchase a revenue ticket from United), it will be issued as a UA e-ticket, regardless of the operating carrier, codeshare carrier, or any other factor. This is true even if it's simply a flight entirely on another carrier with no codeshares.

What can cause problems is if the other carrier gets the reservation, and thus has a confirmation number in their system, but never gets the e-ticket number. Some carriers don't care, and will reconcile this at time of check-in. Other carriers do care, and will cancel a reservation after x number of days if they don't receive confirmation that the ticket has actually been issued (which they do by receipt of the e-ticket number).

As for compensation, it's going to be difficult. Assuming that the scenario is as I describe above (which is usually the case in similar situations), nobody will take responsibility, and it will be difficult to even track down the root of the problem. UA will say they sent the e-ticket number to the other carrier, and the other carrier will say they never got it. It will be impossible to unearth the actual cause.

worldflavor

Here is exactly what I sent in my UA e-ticket. (I booked in May)
Wed, 29AUG12 OZ3331 X SEOUL, REPUBLIC OF SOUTH KOREA
(ICN - INCHEON) 1:00 PM BEIJING, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
(PEK - CAPITAL) 2:00 PM 777-200
Wed, 29AUG12 CA9552 X BEIJING, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
(PEK - CAPITAL) 3:00 PM ULAN BATOR, ULAANBAATAR MN
(ULN) 5:20 PM 737-800