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Is there a Flat-Tire rule for missing a UA award booked partner flight?

Is there a Flat-Tire rule for missing a UA award booked partner flight?

Old Apr 1, 2019, 2:13 am
  #1  
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Is there a Flat-Tire rule for missing a UA award booked partner flight?

My wife and I missed an United awards flight return flight back home to Tokyo ( we made the Tokyo to Seoul flight out). I called United on the way to the airport when I realized we weren’t going to make it on time. We also had bags to check in, though our seats had already been booked. They said the next two days were booked as well as the remaining Asiana flights that day (United itself doesn’t fly the Tokyo-Seoul route). Asiana itself (the star alliance member we were booked on) was even less helpful by phone, saying if we wanted to try and rebook by phone, we needed a Korean credit card.
Anyway, we arrived at the airport at 18:35 for a 18:50 flight, even though I imagine the flight didn’t leave on time as both our other flights left late (Tokyo to Seoul nearly an hour late, our purchased flight Seoul to Tokyo about 25 minutes late). We were told they had only business seats available that night, for about $460 USD each for the next flight, which we ended up purchasing. We looked into alternative flights on other airlines, but one had crazy routing through Hokkaido and the other didn’t leave until late the following evening.

Are we due any compensation? We noted to both airlines we had a flat tire in a taxi on the way, but Asiana wasn’t much help and there is no United counter at Incheon airport.
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 2:59 am
  #2  
 
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Originally Posted by Walter B Kasmer
My wife and I missed an United awards flight return flight back home to Tokyo ( we made the Tokyo to Seoul flight out). I called United on the way to the airport when I realized we weren’t going to make it on time. We also had bags to check in, though our seats had already been booked. They said the next two days were booked as well as the remaining Asiana flights that day (United itself doesn’t fly the Tokyo-Seoul route). Asiana itself (the star alliance member we were booked on) was even less helpful by phone, saying if we wanted to try and rebook by phone, we needed a Korean credit card.
Anyway, we arrived at the airport at 18:35 for a 18:50 flight, even though I imagine the flight didn’t leave on time as both our other flights left late (Tokyo to Seoul nearly an hour late, our purchased flight Seoul to Tokyo about 25 minutes late). We were told they had only business seats available that night, for about $460 USD each for the next flight, which we ended up purchasing. We looked into alternative flights on other airlines, but one had crazy routing through Hokkaido and the other didn’t leave until late the following evening.

Are we due any compensation? We noted to both airlines we had a flat tire in a taxi on the way, but Asiana wasn’t much help and there is no United counter at Incheon airport.
I doubt it. The operating airline's flat tire rule applies. That's Asiana, not UA. And there was no space in Y on any Asiana flights for 2 days, apparently. So you could either wait for space or pay for J. You paid.
dilanesp is offline  
Old Apr 1, 2019, 3:55 am
  #3  
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Well, I guess chock it up to experience. We weren’t offered to be placed on standby, which of course wouldn't be ideal (cat waiting to be picked from the kennel, my wife wanted to work today).
The flight options offered weren’t very accommodating as basically they were offering no flights for at least 2 days after, and no discount on the business fare we ended up buying. Is it possible we might be offered some miles back by United since the return leg wasn’t used?
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 4:24 am
  #4  
 
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Originally Posted by Walter B Kasmer
Well, I guess chock it up to experience. We weren’t offered to be placed on standby, which of course wouldn't be ideal (cat waiting to be picked from the kennel, my wife wanted to work today).
The flight options offered weren’t very accommodating as basically they were offering no flights for at least 2 days after, and no discount on the business fare we ended up buying. Is it possible we might be offered some miles back by United since the return leg wasn’t used?
Did you fly Asiana J? If so you should get mileage credit and depending on policies might even get a bonus.
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 4:25 am
  #5  
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Oh, just to add, I did speak to 2 different operators at United and 2 at Asiana before we arrived (very enjoyable taxi ride, the driver must have thought we were crazy as my wife was talking to the kennel too ).

Both of us have no status with United as our miles are mostly built up with credit purchases using a United mastercard.
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 4:46 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by Walter B Kasmer
Well, I guess chock it up to experience. We weren’t offered to be placed on standby, which of course wouldn't be ideal (cat waiting to be picked from the kennel, my wife wanted to work today).
The flight options offered weren’t very accommodating as basically they were offering no flights for at least 2 days after, and no discount on the business fare we ended up buying. Is it possible we might be offered some miles back by United since the return leg wasn’t used?
The short answer to all of your questions is, basically, that you're kinda SOL in this situation. To emphasize what another poster said, your flight was on Asiana and they don't have a particularly friendly "flat tire" rule. United just doesn't have much of a role here -- yeah, you paid for the ticket with United miles, but it's an Asiana ticket and that means Asiana sets the rules for what happens if you miss your flight.

United's role here was pretty much limited to that of a travel agent: (1) potentially helping you change your reservation to a different flight before departure, or (2) letting you cancel your ticket before departure. If you didn't actually explicitly cancel the ticket while you were on the phone with them, then it boils down to booking a flight and then not showing up for it, which means the ticket is used. And, again, because it was an Asiana flight, it's Asiana's flat tire policy that's relevant.

Finally, it sounds like there just weren't any seats available for the next two days, so it's hard to blame Asiana for not rebooking you. It's unfortunate, and it's not your fault per se, but it's not their fault either -- if all the seats are booked, they're not going to bump somebody else off to get you a seat (especially when they weren't responsible for the missed flight). So there's no compensation due -- neither airline did anything "wrong" for which they would owe you compensation.

Sometimes bad stuff just happens. Sorry it happened to you!
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 8:32 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by Walter B Kasmer
Anyway, we arrived at the airport at 18:35 for a 18:50 flight, even though I imagine the flight didn’t leave on time as both our other flights left late
Just because one flight was late doesn't mean that another one was. Asiana's check-in deadline for international flights from ICN, according to their website, is 50 minutes, (although that sounds really aggressive). Unless the flight was delayed at least 35 minutes, that still wouldn't have been enough time.
Originally Posted by Walter B Kasmer
there is no United counter at Incheon airport.
There is absolutely a United counter at Incheon, although they probably wouldn't have been any more helpful than the Asiana staff, since you weren't flying United. You didn't see it because it would have closed around the time of the last United flight of the day (about noon or 5 PM, depending upon the day).
Originally Posted by Walter B Kasmer
Is it possible we might be offered some miles back by United since the return leg wasn’t used?
United does not allow you to turn a round-trip award ticket into a one-way ticket after the beginning of travel. You can ask, but I'd expect the answer to be no -- and I would also expect that the fee they'd charge would be more than the miles are actually worth.


Originally Posted by QBK
If you didn't actually explicitly cancel the ticket while you were on the phone with them, then it boils down to booking a flight and then not showing up for it, which means the ticket is used.
Actually, it doesn't. That's the rule for most non-refundable tickets, but award tickets are refundable. You can make changes after departure, but UA charges a no-show fee that means it's probably not worth it for a relatively small number of miles.

Originally Posted by QBK
Finally, it sounds like there just weren't any seats available for the next two days, so it's hard to blame Asiana for not rebooking you. It's unfortunate, and it's not your fault per se, but it's not their fault either -- if all the seats are booked, they're not going to bump somebody else off to get you a seat (especially when they weren't responsible for the missed flight).
Right. If it had been a UA-operated flight, they still wouldn't have been able to rebook OP for two days, even with UA's flat-tire rule. The only difference is that UA would likely have given them the option to stand by, which isn't a concept that most foreign airlines have. And, it wouldn't have made any difference if UA caused the delay; if there are no seats, there are no seats.
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 10:26 am
  #8  
 
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Originally Posted by Walter B Kasmer
Are we due any compensation? We noted to both airlines we had a flat tire in a taxi on the way, but Asiana wasn’t much help and there is no United counter at Incheon airport.
Maybe you can get comp from the taxi that went MX.

J/K.....but not sure what you want the airline to do here since you arrived to the airport late. Technically, they could have offered you nothing. Instead, they offered you the next available seats in your cabin, and you opted to pay out of pocket to fly sooner.
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 11:01 am
  #9  
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3oh,

Well, no, they didn’t exactly offer us anything specific, though they said rebooking was possible, but couldn’t give us any time frame. I think they might have only been looking at award seats, which might have been few for each flight. I noticed even today there were no award seats. I would guess though if you're on standby there might be some cancellations, but as I mentioned earlier, we weren’t offered that option.

jsloan,
Yes, you’re right, I am sure there is a United counter, just United itself doesn’t fly Tokyo-Seoul. But neither Asiana nor United referred us there, oddly enough (maybe because it was closed).
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 12:04 pm
  #10  
 
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Originally Posted by Walter B Kasmer
jsloan,
Yes, you’re right, I am sure there is a United counter, just United itself doesn’t fly Tokyo-Seoul. But neither Asiana nor United referred us there, oddly enough (maybe because it was closed).
I can't think of a reason why they would have -- though the ticket was "purchased" using MP miles and issued by UA, the ticket would have been under the control of Asiana, and as the operating carrier OZ would have been in the best position to re-accommodate you. An exception would be if this was a route that both UA and OZ operated, in which case UA *may* have been able to be a little more generous with their own seats. But in this case since it's not a route UA operates there would have been no reason, other than another point of possible confusion, to pull UA into the conversation. Plus, airport sales agents aren't specifically trained on MileagePlus and the nuances of awared redemption, much less interline award redemption, so the chances of them being of any value for an OZ operated flight are slim.

Although it's unfortunate you missed the flight no part of the situation was UA's fault/responsibility [if you used a credit card {without travel insurance} to buy the ticket instead of miles, would you expect compensation from the CC company? That's basically UA's involvement here] , and it seems that Asiana did everything they were supposed to do [and maybe it's my bias towards flying last-minute on high fares, but US$400 sounds very reasonable, even cheap, for a walkup/last minute business seat, so maybe Asiana did do you a favor behind the scenes] -- fault and potential remuneration, IMO, lies with the taxi
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 1:52 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by lincolnjkc
US$400 sounds very reasonable, even cheap, for a walkup/last minute business seat
That appears to be the standard fare for U class, which is Asiana's deepest discount business class seat and is -- somewhat surprisingly, IMO -- available on a no-advance-purchase, one-way basis.

I agree that it's less than I expected, but it's not a discount.
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 2:32 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by lincolnjkc
...... potential remuneration, IMO, lies with the taxi
Good luck on that one.
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 3:14 pm
  #13  
 
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It would seem to me that WALTER B KASMER's best bet in this case would be if he had travel insurance that might pick up the change in fares due to a disruption in travel plans. Otherwise, be happy they got to enjoy non-cattle class and chalk it up to one of life's whims.
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 3:23 pm
  #14  
 
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Originally Posted by cesco.g
Good luck on that one.
I didn't say it would be easy -- but just because it's easy doesn't mean it's right, and just because it's difficult doesn't mean its wrong

[And I -personally- wouldn't waste the calories even attempting to pursue it, but to each his or her own]
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 9:09 pm
  #15  
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Unfortunately, our travel insurance didn’t cover it. Still waiting to hear back from both Asiana and United. Not expecting much, but we’ll see. Mostly chock it up to getting my partner to leave for the airport much earlier to avoid a perfect storm: award ticket, no seats available for a number of days, no wait listing available, etc.
Originally Posted by ExplorerWannabe
It would seem to me that WALTER B KASMER's best bet in this case would be if he had travel insurance that might pick up the change in fares due to a disruption in travel plans. Otherwise, be happy they got to enjoy non-cattle class and chalk it up to one of life's whims.
Yeah, I enjoyed the Piper Heidsieck on board while I could (we visited their winery in Epernay a few years back), but the lounge beer machine was broken.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Apr 1, 2019 at 10:23 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
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