romadaro

I have a flight this weekend from IAD (Washington Dulles) to GEG (Spokane, WA) via SFO (San Fran) in both directions and just noticed that the return from SFO-IAD is on a Canadair Regional Jet 700 (Flight 5578)! You have got to be kidding me! I booked this flight prior to the merger and I am certain that the entire trip was on a 737 or an Airbus, since the seat map would have alerted me if it had been a smaller plane. Although I'm a Platinum Premier member and fly a great deal, I've never called and asked to change a flight because of an aircraft swap. Will they do that without charging me? I'm sorry, but flying across country on a Regional Jet is just crazy! Anybody else taken this flight or know of other transcons on RJ's?

aacharya

How can you be a premier platinum and not know how or see how "direct flights" work?

Your flight is a direct flight, routing through AUS.

But I totally agree - you should move the flight to a true non-stop.

rcheneyjr

I hope you got upgraded!!!

tods27

Wow, even worse - the "direct" flight nonsense rears it's ugly head again. They love to do this on the ORD-DEN route: "direct" flights that stop in MCI or OMA and show as the cheapest option between ORD and DEN.

To the OP: Do you have any confirmation email with the flights that you originally booked? It seem odd that you would have booked a UX flight number and not noticed. If they did move you from a non-stop to a "direct", call and complain. They should be able to move you to a true non-stop. If it was a schedule change and you accepted it, they may give you some trouble, but I would stick to it (assuming you didn't inadvertently book the "direct" flight that stops in AUS)

romadaro

I do know the difference between a direct flight and a nonstop, but I just located the original itinerary, which I booked through Travelocity, and it does show that there's 1 stop, but I assumed the stop was the connecting stop, which is usually the case. And the aircraft was an Airbus and I was in 7C in the bulkhead. The only schedule change is that the flight has a shorter time on the ground in Austin, but arrives at Dulles within a couple minutes of its' original time. So, I'm going to call the Premier Line and plead my case and see what happens.

Beerman92

Unless you are going for miles see if they can rebook you through DEN. Schedule permitting that will be the best routing to avoid RJs altogether

nwff

The 2 hour flight from SFO to GEG on a CRJ200 is no thrill, either. As Beerman92 says, try to rebook through DEN to get the 320 (while it lasts on this route...).

aacharya

Thanks. You wrote transcon and CRJ.....so one was led to assume that you didn't know.

romadaro

OK, we're knitpicking here, but isn't a transcon a flight across country? And doesn't CRJ=Canadair Regional Jet?

Jorgen

There really ought to be some kind of class action about this use of "direct" to mean something that the word "direct" clearly does not mean.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/direct

"14. proceeding in a straight line or by the shortest course; straight; undeviating; not oblique: a direct route."

because if you ask me what a straight-line, shortest course, undeviating route from San Francisco to Washington DC looks like, I can tell you quite firmly that it absolutely does not go through Austin, Texas.

Indeed, according to http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=SFO-IAD the great circle route from SFO to IAD doesn't even pass over Texas. Or Oklahoma. Or Kansas.

RobOnLI

Miles won't matter. Since the pmCO crediting system applies post-merger direct flights only post as A->C (non-stop) without the extra miles of flying through "B" (A->B->C). This is the way CO has always done it; UA did it the opposite way.

Also, pmCO requires upgrade space on both legs to be available before the OP can be upgraded. UA also did that differently from what I understand (but never experienced as I *always* avoid direct flights).

-RM

docbert

Yes to both. But IAD-AUS-SFO is NOT a transcon flight, as it's not a single flight across country. UX CRJ700 are not physically capable of doing a transcon flight (although technically they could go close, but I suspect they'd be seriously weight limited in doing so).

Often1

UA doesn't even market this route on united.com! OP chose a third party vendor which clearly disclosed the "one-stop" and the type of aircraft. He didn't look and he doesn't like what he got. He can try to convince Travelocity that it ought to change his routing, but dollars to doughnuts they hit him for the change fee + fare difference (which will be substantial because the AUS routing is undesireable).

There's no lawsuit to be had here and anybody who wants to try one can report back in 7 years and let us know how it went !

romadaro

I don't know who mentioned a lawsuit, but there was no thought of that and no intent. But, yes, I made an assumption and they definitely made an ... out of me. Nonetheless, I called the Premier line (not the third party vendor who issued the ticket) and argued the fact that the aircraft downgrade was unacceptable for a cross country flight that was already long enough without the stop in Austin and guess what.......I WON! No change fees, no fare difference and no argument. The agent simply verified the aircraft swap/downgrade and re-accommodated me on the closest connecting non-stop from SFO. Although it took 15-20 minutes to get through, when I was finally connected, everything was done is less than 10 minutes.

PHLyer82

Glad it worked out.

I do have a question. It sounds like the original flight was on a bigger aircraft. If that had not changed, would you have called to change to a non stop or just flown the original routing via AUS assuming you discovered the stop prior to traveling? Just curious.