jpdx

Had a really bad rebooking experience at PDX. Checked in at the counter for PDX-SFO-FRA-MUC and the agent only handed me the BP for PDX-SFO, saying the computer often doesn't spit out LH BPs. 3 hours of sleep, so instead of questioning him I went through security and headed to the club, where the agent wanted to see my international BP, did some digging, and found out that SFO-FRA is cancelled. He immediately told me, "you have to go back to the counter, we're not allowed to do ticketing here." What now? Seriously?

I went back landside, stood in line for half an hour, then had a very junior agent who told me, "only coach available" (plausible considering that most LH flights were cancelled), and then, per my request started rebooking me on my original itinerary (in First) for the next day. 45 minutes of typing (and being on the phone with various helplines), and I finally got my new ticket, and immediately checked and noticed that it's booked in X/X/I instead of X/O/I. After requesting a supervisor and watching her type for half an hour, I was finally rebooked for PDX-ORD-MUC (same day) in F/F. Security again, and I was back at the club 1 hr 56 min after originally having been sent away. What a joke!

sammyindc

Had a series of delayed, canceled flights and missed connections due to bad weather at DCA and EWR yesterday. The DCA club agents went above and beyond to rebook me, reroute my itinerary, confirm my first and business upgrades. She took down my information and asked me to take a seat, 10 minutes later I was paged to the front desk and handed new itinerary and boarding passes. After informing her I was doing this for extra miles she even looked for flight that would maximize the amount of miles I would earn and flights with R availability (to HNL) so I can upgrade right away.

SAN 1K

Yes. These days I ask a simple question to an agent. They start typing and squinting at the monitor. I give them about 5 minutes ( during which they say --nothing --) and I ask " is there a problem?" . This either starts a Shares rant or a cover up. Bear in mind I favor pmUA hubs for obvious reasons.

ben237829624

I think he refers to those BP hard card stock. Agent usually print you a copy of your new itinerary for your reference in case ticket number and PNR is changed.

FLYDCA

DCA Club this morning Matron told me "We can't do any ticketing". She asked me to go to the counter outside security. That was a new low for me. I'm not sure that I can continue to justify paying for Club access. The value has rapidly diminished for me. Between Clubs that are full or out of food to now refusal to do ticketing I'm getting fed up.

channa

What kind of ticketing -- future ticketing or rebooking?

Either way, it can be so time consuming in SHARES, some of the smaller clubs try to push it off -- kind of like how the gate likes to push rebooking to CS, where old UA would have just done it.

palmetto86

"Ticketing" in what sense? Like booking a brand new ticket? Re-issuing a ticket? Endorsing you to another carrier? I've never bought a ticket in the DCA club, but they've done pretty much everything else "ticketing" related for me in the past year. I've always dealt with the same 3 or 4 agents there and have had great experiences in general with them. In fact, better experiences with ticketing than many PMCO hubs. YMMV.

FLYDCA

I wanted to pay for a ticket which was on hold All they needed to do was swipe my card. The agent did not bother to ask what sort of ticketing help I needed. I simply asked if she could issue a ticket and that is when received back the surly "we don't do ticketing here" reply. I have previously relied on the good help from Club agents. There were 2 on duty and the club was empty.

FlyinHawaiian

This issue existed with pmUA, at least for me at LAX. I don't know the current operations, but back then, not everyone working was qualified to do future ticketing and with staffing cut back, it was rare to find someone gateside who had the proper entitlements. Even landside, LAX would have all future ticketing done at one counter for elites and non-elites.

JeffS

AFAIK the United Club doesn't and has never (at least not in many years) done future ticketing. There are older threads on this subject. Once in a while someone will report they had an club agent assist them but that appears to be the exception to the rule.

I'm not sure I think one of the functions of the club is to provide this type of service. The primary purpose of the club is to provide a place for travellers and assist with current travel-related issues and needs. One can easily call the Premier line of go online an book tickets.

Often1

1. UC's have never done future ticketing. This is particularly true at the DCA UC because there's no separation between the reception agent and CS agents (as at a larger UC). While the CSR is assisting you, she's not checking others in and they stand in line.

2. I've found the DCA staff to be very helpful and more than willing to handle ticket reissue and other messes in IRROPS. But, to be frank, when I want to enter the UC, I don't particularly want to stand behind someone who could and should have made the purchase at the counter if s/he really didn't want to do it online or by phone.

Andy Big Bear

I think you want a person that they call a "travel agent."

Whereas the UA club people are extremely useful on current issues, having saved me a few times on IRROPS, I've never heard them helping with future ticketing needs. The one time I had an IRROPS at SFO last year, and people were queued out to the adjacent terminal, having those club agents available was worth the cost of the year's membership to me.

The risk of one down day away from a client more than justifies the club costs, generally.

CALMSP

its not that time consuming. Usually when someone doesnt want to do something, they push it off on someone else.

channa

Really? What is everyone else doing wrong?

I've had it take anywhere from 20 minutes to 1:30 (that's one hour, 30 minutes).

I've had two (2) 1+ hour rebooks in 2013 alone.

And several 20 - 45 minute rebooks since 3/3/2012, many of which were with ex-CO agents who should have been familiar with the system.

SEA1K4EVR

What kind of ticket did you have on hold that required you to see an agent? There are no more paper certificates of any kind with the exception of the visa companion cert but those must be mailed in..no airport can handle them according to what I've been told.. pretty much any kind of transaction you can do online or on the phone. Not that it wouldn't be nice if they could do it.. but I'm guessing the people in the UC's just haven't been trained on ticketing.. maybe you'd have better luck at a PMCO UC where the agents are more likely to know how to do it since they had SHARES all along.