zabes64

My flight into STR arrived late (hey had a 33% chance of that happening) anyway small airport, got to LH gate 13m before departure, LH tries to board me, but system says invalid coupon. She calls their helpdesk who tells her, sorry but United has cancelled this segment and rebooked you on Air Berlin (along w/ 4 other people that would have made the flight), they were none too happy.

I miss Apollo that protected us vs assuming we can't make a close connection.

I haven"t flown UA since May 1st and what a surprise another screw up.

UAL4life

Shares, The gift that keeps on sharing.

Unfortunately we will never go back to the flexibility, smart, it just works, system that was Apollo.

Youngmiler

Had a similar experience yesterday, was on an CHS-EWR that got diverted to ABE due to weather, next flight was EWR-ZRH, was an extremely close connection after the divert, but after running through the course and some luck I arrived at the gate before the plane pushed back. At first the gate agent asked who I was because it didn't show any other passengers were expected. Apparently I was rebooked on a different flight later that evening, but I showed her the ticket and after a few minutes I was on the the original EWR-ZRH flight thank goodness.

boiflyer

IDB compensation for this type of stuff? If you have a boarding pass and are there prior to doors closing / stated cutoff time, why not? You were there according to the rules with boarding pass in-hand.

Also gets me thinking why not file a DOT every time SHARES munges something. I'm flying UAL for the first time since March 3rd in a week. As a 2P if my GM wife is split into a separate PNR and we are charged for her bag, that's exactly what I intend to do.

I just don't think UAL cares or gets it. Maybe if we all file enough DOT complaints when we get SHARE'd, they'll finally do something about it.

craz

Lets look at the other side , Shares didnt rebook you get to the gate late and no one is there any longer.You stand on a 10 mile long CS line only to be told the only other ways to get out tonight are all full now, you will have to wait till tomorrow and since it was due to ATC,WX you are on your own for a Hotel and most every hotel witha free shuttle are already full due to the # of CXs this evening

Yea it STINKS but I dont see DoT getting involved, everyone simply needs to forget how PMUA did things and look at how PMCO did things.I sure under PMCO people complained and maybe even to DoT but as you can see nothing was done about it and probably DoT will simply file any complaint in the circular file

German Expat

I also learned this the hard way couple month ago when Shares offloaded me and I was at the gate 45 minutes before departure (international boarding had just started). At least there was a C seat left so they did get me back on.
After learning this when returning early July from HKG I called from the plane already and made sure I was protected the old way (not offloaded the first flight).
I did like the old Apollo way much better where you really got protected.

Indelaware

One simple needs to go to an OLCI kiosk where one is specifically asked if one wishes the alternative book or to keep the original. Of course, that may be a bit difficult overseas or while one is literally running.

Thunderroad

Well, good to know that, thanks to UA management and SHARES we don't risk long lines, lousy customer service, being left on our own without a hotel if stranded overnight, etc., all for the relatively minor price of being canceled on a flight that we might make our connection to.

This is not an either/or situation. This is the worst of both worlds. If DoT complaints pile up, at the very least it reflects poorly on UA, as it should. If folks post their horrible experiences with this thoroughly dysfunctional airline, it lets them let off steam and reminds others of the risks they continue to run. As jaded as I've become about UA, and as much as I keep up with FT, I'd lost track of the kind of institutionalized incompetence that zabes64 was victimized by. Good to be forewarned of yet another scenario I need watch out for.

Incredible that in 2012 a major corporation can take such a great leap backward in the technology it employs.

German Expat

How can you do that if you sit on an inbound flight and shares did that to you automatically ? I had a boarding pass in hand and was checked in for the close call flight and it offloaded me anyway.

exerda

The great thing pre-SHARES was that protection onto later flights worked fairly seamlessly; if I got there on time, I still had a seat and could go, but if I missed the connection, I already had a seat on the later flight (occasionally necessitating some work by the GA, but often without any more effort at all).

SHARES on the other hand seems to default to removing potentially-misconnecting pax from the flight once someone goes in to "protect" those pax as a group. Yes, I suppose this is great for people waiting on standby, but not so great for those of us who sprint and make the connection.

I believe a GA or phone agent can protect you in SHARES without removing you from your existing flight (a UC agent in PHX put me on two ORD-RIC flights, for example), though it isn't without issue or effort, either.

MtRoot

I've had one occasion post-3/3 where I was protected on a later flight without losing my original flight, so I guess it's still possible to do that on SHARES. A couple of things were different from OP's case though: I called UA to protect me when I realized the delay (not automatic), and they were UA flights (connecting in IAD).

I eventually missed the original flight so I can't tell for sure if I had my seat there, but I saw both flights in my reservation after the call.

colpuck

had this happen on IAD-BOS, I almost lost it when I couldn't get on the plane. I needed to be in BOS. Thankfully a supervisor and three gate agents managed to sort it out. Obviously, that is not going to happen on another airline.

craz

what great leap backwards has COdbaUA taken, if I remember correctly this is how PMCO Always handled things

Everyone keeps reading United and expecting things to be the way it was under PMUA, well PMUA is Dead & Gone, its COdbaUA. You people still expect CO to do things as UA did , that is not gonna happen.Im not saying Im but I understand its only United in name Alone and dont expect what PMUA did to continue as such , and Unfortuantely I expect things to be as PMCO did things That said those who dont like how things are being runned , WALK away and dont look back but AA & DL are gonna get you in alot of other ways

FlyWorld

If you book a ticket for you and your wife on the same PNR then your wife gets your luggage benefits. If UA splits you into separate PNRs then you need to ask the GA to give her your luggage benefits. The agent can see that you booked on the same PNR originally and will then honor the benefits. If they won't, then get a supervisor. I've done this multiple times and never had any problem.

This is indeed the key point. I've been protected many times on Apollo with PMUA and that's how it worked. They'd book me on the next flight, but they'd also keep my seat on the original itinerary. So, no matter what happened, I was protected. I actually felt protected. Now, I just feel smashed.

Thunderroad

Compared with what they experienced until a several months ago, a majority of customers are dealing with a significantly inferior, antiquated IT system, to the detriment of many. That's a great leap backward.