Can we request a AA/DL flight if the UA flight is cancelled due to weather?
 

My wife and daughter are booked on UA882 (NRT-ORD, Y, 7/14) connecting to MEM, which was cancelled due to weather. I called UA to rebook. No valid Y routes on *A for the day although DL/AA routes are available in Y. I request them to be put on these routes. The agent declined my request, citing that only *A routes are permitted in weather. With many conflicting stories I heard from the premier line post 3/3, I am not sure whether this claim is true?

You can get AA or DL in weather, but CO likes to throw up fiery hoops during IRROPS.

They may have better luck at the airport.

Your advice is out of date. CO doesn't exist anymore.

OP - there are frequent posts here from the last few months from people who have been rebooked on non-*A partners in situations like this with little or no trouble at all. Definitely ask at the airport rather than over the phone though, channa got that part right.

While the CO name may be retired, CO certainly lives on. The treatment the OP received is right out of the CO IRROPS playbook.

It's exactly how I was treated with old-United. I could only get rebooked on another airline at the airport.

Thanks, guys. I have spent hours after hours over the phone, talking to agents after agents. One agent did put them on a routing with AA flights and said everything is settled and I will receive an email notification. However, when I called back an hour later (due to no confirmation email received), I was told there is no record of the said itinerary. And the system rebooked them on the NRT-HNL(NH)-LAX-IAH-MEM. I argued for NRT-YVR(AC)-SLC-MEM(DL) and they declined the proposal, saying my wife won't know they need to go to AC gate. Well, how should my wife know they need to go to the NH gate then?

I am tired of all the nonsense I have heard again and again. The so called new UA sucks.

At the end, the agent said "well, we need to go through so many different airlines to get this ticket...". it really sounds like I am the one who started the problem... Is this the professionalism for the premier line agents? Although I have experienced IRROPS many times inthe old UA days, most of them were solved with a call to UA and none was as painful as this one. To make it worse, my (inexperienced) family members are experiencing the worst case.

Your experience is different than mine. I got rebooked on AA/DL on the phone as well.

I've had experience rebooking due to IRROPS both at the airport and on the phone. I agree handling at the airport is 1000 times easier. The only problem is you have to wait and if there are only a few seats left on your desired rebooking then you may be SOL.

My experience is that the phone agents can't see all partner flights (likely SHARES). For instance there were ~6 or 7 available flts on PHL-BDL, but my agent only saw 2. I had to have my corporate travel agency call them to tell them there was availability and then the UA agent had to receive approval from a supervisor. Essentially it was a waste of a few hours.

I can accept the fact the phone agent may see fewer flights and I can help them by telling them the alternative routes (with availability). However, the new premier line agents are not cooporative in securing the seat even when I told them the exact flight number. Instead, they used all excuses in order to create road blockers for you. For example, the last agent even told me that she can't accept a NH code share flight number (AC metal). When I pulled out the real AC flight number, she then insisted on where to go when your wife arrives at YVR? I told her the DL lfights, she said "so many airlines"... Essentially they tried their best to force you to accept the system generated itinerary. I do wish I was travelling with them since at least I know what we should expect and what we should do in this situation (maybe not so sure after 3/3). BTW, the system changed its mind again and put my wife/daughter on tomorrow's flight instead. Hopefully UA has paid for their hotel room.

I do miss the old 1k desk since at least they were good at ticketing the seat if I told them the exact flight numbers I want.

This corroborates my CO IRROPS experiences as well.

I've also been told by some phone agents post-3/3 that they cannot book non-alliance carriers in IRROPS.

FWIW I was *almost* able to get OAL'd over the phone (agent was willing to work through it, but his supervisor stated a delay had to be 2+ hours before they could do it.)

So yes, they technically can do it but the pessimist in me suspects you'll run into excuses (e.g. you must be delayed X hours, only the airport can do it, etc.) which will otherwise make it hard, if not impossible, to find a resolution.

(Also FWIW I have had pmUA, AA, and DL all OAL tickets over the phone.)

On reservations lines, regardless of airline, there is a fairly relaxed environment compared with the airport. It's much easier for the agent to limit the options they will offer. At the airport, with the customer standing in front of them the GA has more pressure to find a solution that is acceptable - the customer isn't going to go away.

That's why I'd always advise being in front of an agent, with your bag in your hand, and tell them what you want. You don't tend to run into as many obstacles then. This is true on the new UA, PMUA, PMCO, and virtually all other airlines.

Not the same as mine. PMUA would always rebook me on other carriers over the phone as a 2P. The ICC did this for me on several occasions (I did have the flight info handy though) and even when delays were ATC or weather related (would have missed last connections in most if not all cases. Often enough, I was rebooked on US, but a couple of times on CO (pre-*) and even leaving LGA instead of EWR.

Don't know about post 3/3 though.

Sorry - but you were offered a *A itinerary that UA is almost definitely going to force. The only way you could get on DL/AA or a non-*A is if there are no *A flights.

You originally said that ORD-MEM was cancelled. If that was the case then you could have gotten on AA/DL if UA had no more flights with availability. However, it looks like your entire ticket was redone which makes me wonder if ORD-MEM wasn't the problem.

In most situations UA would have launched you NRT-ORD and then dealt with the connecting flight in ORD. Seems very odd they'd re-route via HNL/LAX/IAH just to get to MEM to me.

-RM

I feel for your family.

Is your wife 1K? If not, would your status allow them to be treated the same as a 1K during IRROPS?

I suspect that most non-status economy passengers can't be choosy about the rebooked route.

+1

I think that OP meant that NRT-ORD was cancelled, though it was written in a way that might have been confusing.