cheltzel

No they rebooked us on flights where there was no premium cabin availability (this is a GlobalFirst award). And when I tried to get that rectified, they rebooked us on flights where the partner (CA) refused to ticket, without letting me know. I only discovered it by calling CA and tried to get the record locators in their system.

If they had rebooked us ORD-EWR-HKG or ORD-SFO-HKG and let us connect to the existing Thai flights, that would have been OK, even if it was a BF seat and not a GF seat. But they did not.

Also, there is a bigger picture, over last night UA canceled several flights between several city pairs (not just a couple).

FlyWorld

I agree. In the roughly 10 years I'd been flying UA before the takeover, I had situations like this on a fairly regular basis. In every case, without exception, they put me on hold, called a special desk, opened space, and got me to my destination, on the same day, at the same price, in the same class of service. I never even had to fight for it. The agents immediately understood what was the right thing to do, and they did it. In several cases, I ended up better off than I was in the beginning because I'd booked a stupid routing to take advantage of certain inventory, and when they did the space opening for me, they'd just do it on the most direct routing.

This seems to me like another anti-customer policy change, another change we're told that we'll like. Right.

I'm hearing this a lot with CO. The core issue is not the cancellation nor is it flight availability. There are flights. There are seats. The issue appears to be a policy change wherein they refuse to open space for people in your situation. UA did this regularly with a simple phone call to a special desk that had nearly omnipotent powers. There are lots of messages on FT that describe something similar for others faced with IRROPS on paid tickets too. It seems like a broad and general policy change, and one that is extremely hostile to customers stuck in IRROPS situations that CO created in the first place. They should take responsibility for this and make it right.

I'm having a bit of trouble following all the details here, but if I were you, I'd just worry about getting to SE Asia in First or Business, on a saver fare, on the right dates. I don't think it's worth the energy to fight for First vs Business, and I can't perceive any difference anyway, and once you get to SE Asia, you surely can find a way to get to your endpoint.

If you relax your requirements in this way, then is there a path forward?

aCavalierInCoach

And it's an extremely troubling policy change. Look at just how many people burn hours of time trying to get premium cabin award space just as it opens up at the window. Now, given that these tickets are booked almost a year out, schedule changes are almost inevitable. Those tickets are looking increasingly worthless.

mhnate

I just found out that United also cancelled our tickets in Global First using miles for X-mas travel as well. United no longer operated daily service from LAX to Narita. We are traveling to BKK via Narita. Are flights are cancelled. No other availablity except with multiple stops and big layovers. I was never notified. I just happened to check my itinerary. What is the rules when a passenger is already ticketed and UAL cancels the flight? Don't they have to rebook and protect on another carrier that day?

FlyWorld

I see direct UA flight from LAX to NRT on all days 12/22-12/28 in EF.

cheltzel

Actually I want to say the CSRs I talked to were totally supportive. All the supervisors I talked to were extremely cooperative.

I got the feeling that opening up revenue inventory was something that they are not allowed to do.

I kept asking about it and was told time and again that they could not do that and that I would have to contact Customer Relations via email off the web site to do that.

Thanks. I appreciate the effort to help. I have an interim solution. I'll have to call TG on Monday to make sure I am properly ticketed.

mhnate

No. UAL no longer operates LAX to Narita on 12/24 nonstop, and many other days now. Further, we are traveling to BKK via Narita and UAL no longer operates daily nonstop svc on that route either. Big changes. Is UAL responsible to protect us on another carrier in the same class or is there some rule that when it is reward ticket one has to find reward space all over again?

cfischer

This is crap, of course they can force booking classes on UA metal. I would personally not waste time and go straight to the DOT if we are talking about UA metal flights. Do you have time to wait 6-12 weeks for customer relations to respond to your complaint?

shortkidd

Agreed. When I would call and let the agent know what happened my fare type would be change don the spot to a full Y (1.5 segments credited as well on each leg) and they would get me to where I was going.

cheltzel

That is basically the intent of my original post. Over last night UA canceled something like 30+ flights.

chinatraderjmr

There must be saver availability via Europe to BKK. Would it be the end of the world if they got you that far? A r/t tkt on Bangkokair from BKK-HKT is < $200. I know that's really not fair but you would get your trip in F and just cough up an extra $200 to get into HKT (SILKAIR also flys into HKT from SIN if you can get to SIN

frontenac551

I'm scheduled on UA895 on Christmas Day. Just checked my booking and they've moved that flight to UA895 on 22-December (before I arrive in Chicago!). A search of the booking engine and time table seems to show that UA895 stops operating after 23-December. It also appears that the directed ORD-NRT flight also stops. I called UA and the customer service agent said that both flights are being halted. This doesn't seem possible (especially given the threads I've seen about the 747 being used on HKG-SGN as a continuation of UA895).

So, before I start the task of rerouting (I'm booking on a reward flight through partner airline, so it will be a pain), any idea what is up? I did try doing a search, but didn't see anything, so either there is nothing or I used bad search terms.

LASUA1K

It looks like no ord-hkg for a few days christmas week.

Upstateflyer

I just came across this as well pertaining to a reservation of mine. May have to slum it in BF EWR-HKG. Where are all the 747's going?

EWR764

Demand to Asia is weak right around Christmas. Both flights will be back within a few days. Nothing to worry about w/r/t the bigger picture.

On Christmas Day, it looks like the only nonstop USA-Asia flights will be IAH/LAX-NRT and SFO-NRT/PVG/PEK/HKG.