*G award availability on united.com which call center can't book
 

Hi!
About a week ago I booked the following award itinerary for a friend on united.com, all on ET in Y:
NBO-ADD-ACC
ACC-ADD-BBO

My friend got an email confirmation and I thought everything was ok, until she called me last night from the airport that they didn't let her check in.
Seems the itinerary was never ticketed and I didn't notice! I called United and they managed to issue a ticket after a lot of trying with just 35 minutes to departure, so my friend made it on the flight. (Kudos to United for that)

However, when I checked the reservation online now, I realized that only the NBO-ADD-ACC legs had been reinstated, the ACC-ADD-BBO was still missing (although they charged me the full miles, taxes and even a $25 call center fee)

So I called United again and tried to have the ACC-ADD-BBO also added back. Now they were unable to do this, said they can't find the ADD-BBO flight in their system.

First answer was:
- ET has stopped the route from ADD to BBO
- not true - they just started it recently.
- well... it is not available for miles then
- how could I book it in the first place then. AND this route is wide open even now for every day on united.com
- let me check <puts me on hold forever>
- We cannot see this flight in our system so we cannot book it in but I see it is there on united.com. So you have to call web support and have them add it to the reservation.

By that time it was 2 am so I haven't done this yet but I am fearing it won't be that easy. They were also unable to tell me why the reservation was not ticketed in the first place (I have a feeling it is somehow connected to this issue).

Did anyone have a similar situation before? That availability on united.com was higher than what the agents could see? How did you resolve the situation?

On ANA I cannot see any availability to BBO (or ET domestic routes like LLI) so I wonder if these are not open for award tickets...

Chanes are the reason the agent did not see the flight you want was because she didn't look hard enough. FIRST - ask for a supervisor. UA messed up and THEY need to make it right. As far as them seeing the flight you want, tell the agent not to just put in the airport codes to search. EX: JFK-FRA. Sometimes that's not enough. Vitelli her to also put the airline I her search - EX: JFK-FRA USING LUFTHANSA. In your case she must put inn "ADD-BBO W/ ET"

Called Web Helpdesk and was given a funny run-around again:
- The route doesn't exist (yes it does, then how did I book it)
- The route was discontinued (no it wasn't it was just started)
- There is no flight available for miles (then how can I see a new one on .com now)
- You wouldn't be able to complete the booking on .com - it will show an error
- Then I said, ok show me how. She said go to the last step and click on complete by phone and you will get an error.
- I did exactly this and got a confirmation code... With that the agent put me on hold for 30 mins...
Problem seems to have been partially that the route ADD-BBO was just started and not all systems seem to be up-to-date.
After 30 mins she managed to reinstate my original reservation and said the ticket would be issued "in a few minutes"...

Of course, a few hours later this still didn't happen, so I called web helpdesk again. After a short transfer from domestic to international Web Helpdesk and telling me that since I changed from one-way to return I would have to pay more miles (no I was charged the full amount + full taxes already) I was put on hold for nearly an hour. After an hour they told me that it will all be ok, just not yet as the first two segments don't show as used yet in their system.

They told me to call back tomorrow to get the ticket issued... and so the saga continues.

How likely does it seem that they'll manage to fix this error?

Not likely since they are FULL OF CRAP. A ticket takes 2 min to issue. Yes, CO likes to let it go into a que that automatically issues tkts but I don't trust that. I've bought 2 new tkts this week and had a mileage tkt reissued 3 times - each time I insisted they issue the yay with me still on the line and they did it, no big deal

At this point they should be giving you the ticket for free considering the hassle and the amount of time you have spent on the phone with them. Unreal.

A

Very unlikely without further supervision from you.

This is getting worse. Now the itinerary shows up as confirmed but ticket only lists the first two segments (which have been used).

Now it seems the CC fraud department has put a hold on the reservation so they can't do anything unless "I pay in cash at the airport" or "sort this with "the" travel agent". Unfortunately United just stopped operations out of ACC 2 days ago so I think my chances are slim getting my ticket paid here.

They are refusing to try another credit card and didn't give me another option yet (line dropped a few times). Not sure if my credit card was charged -

They told me to just book another flight online (impossible since they didn't credit the miles back AND there is no availability anymore).

This is worse since the outbound leg of the itinerary has been flown and there is no further award availability on the inbound except on my blocked reservation. Paid one way tickets are >$1000 (for a 12500 miles ticket)...

HELP!

I spent another 2+ hours with United on the phone today and they all said they cannot charge my credit card now. I eventually found out there is still one employee left in the ACC city office who deals with United remotely.

I went to that office and the agent said they don't issue MP tickets, this is normally dealt with over the web. She tried to call to support to tell her how to accept my cash and get the ticket issued, however after 2h on the line and a dropped call the office closed. During the call they suddenly asked her for all my credit card details but yet failed to issue the ticket.

WHO can help me now? If I want to pay by CC I get redirected to pay in cash in person, however there is no United agent in the country who can accept my cash! The other solution of "just buying a new ticket online" also doesn't work as there is no more availability.

For cash this is a $1650 ticket now according to Kayak.

HELP please!

Why $1650? I thought this was an award ticket. Taxes and fees should be <$100.

Wow. You really, really need to re-read the whole thread or don't comment. This is a serious issue for not the op, but the op's friends, who have already flown the outbound.

OP

Send a message to UAInsider. Sometimes Shannon can get things fixed. This looks like a real cluster.

Sent a message already earlier - let's see.

But my last call to Web Support made things probably unfixable. I explained the situation and after 30 minutes on hold they came back and told me that they CANCELLED the reservation and refunded HALF my miles (only the return - no compensation of course) without asking me. I told them to get it back immediately, as I can't see any more availability for miles and it is $1650 for cash.

The agent then told me that they can see availability ACC-ADD, just not ADD-BBO ($650). I kept being obviously angry for cancelling my confirmed reservation and he went on hold to talk to ET. When he came back he said ET had no award availability because they cancelled that flight for the day.
Not sure if I should believe him (the ADD-BBO flights are not bookable online with ET). On one hand it sounds believable since that date is the only one without availability, on the other hand I can still see the flight on Kayak etc.

In the end I gave in and took a new reservation to NBO and let my friend buy a ticket to BBO from there. What else could I do since my old itinerary was cancelled and I spent two half days on the phone already?

Would still like to hear from UA Insider what happened... And will call ET probably to confirm if the ADD-BBO flight is really not operating or just relatively fully booked so they don't have X availability anymore. Just to see if they told me a non-truth once more...

EDIT: Called ET myself - the flight ADD-BBO IS operating the day I originally booked and available for booking (just no award availability). So they lied to me telling me it has been cancelled. And they cancelled my existing reservation WITHOUT asking me. This is beyond frustrating!

I explained the whole issue already in this thread, but it is a bit long now.

In short, I had a return award ticket booked on ET for a friend by Web which wasn't automatically ticketed for whatever reason. A phone agent managed to "fix" this when my friend couldn't check in at the airport, but only had the outbound ticketed. I spent over 5 hours over the next two days on the phone + in the local United office trying to get the inbound flight back + ticketed.

On the last phone call - the agent put my on hold once more and when he came back he said "since this reservation cannot be ticketed, I have cancelled it and refunded you half of the miles for the inbound flight". WHAT? He didn't ask me! I had a confirmed reservation for the inbound for which there was now no award availability anymore. I asked him to get it back immediately! In the end he called ET and claimed the original flight was cancelled. I believed him so selected a completely alternative option (with extra costs), but later called ET and it is not true, the flight is operating as planned, just with no availability in X. (and with cash tickets over $600)

Did anyone ever experience that an agent would cancel your reservation without double checking with you that it is ok? Especially when there is no availability. I am indeed quite lost for words!

Wow... Nothing helpful for me to add but I feel for you. The amount of time the OP spent dealing with this mess should warrant a business class ticket anywhere in the world.

This situation screams "small claims court". You'll spend fewer hours filing that paperwork than you have spent on the phone with UA agents, and getting the $1650 back, treble, seems like a slam dunk.

On any airline whose name isn't United.

I've had, and continue to have, my share of problems with UA but this is awful.