Air Houston

Good to know. Thanks for the info.

channa

That's nice, but I spent 90 minutes at the gate in IAD last week on a ticket reissue from UA to DL. It took four (4) helpdesk agents and two (2) GAs and two (2) supervisors to get 'er done.

So I'll believe it when I see it.

TravellingMan

So that has not changed since 3/3.

LilAbner

I spent 1 hour & 15 mins getting rebooked on a misconnect @ IAH UC last week and had to run to my new flight with a coupon & red ink all over my hands to present to the G/A! Only took 3 agents to getter-dun!!!

Wx4caster

Looking forward to hearing more, and hopefully soon. Can you hint at whether or not we should expect policies for oversale situations to also change. Here again, they technically had somewhat reasonable policies in place - but they were so rarely adhered to that they may as well have not existed.

I would love to know the back-story for how these changes came about. It was quite a long time ago that Mr. Hand announced the return of common sense customer service, and yet those changes never materialized. Perhaps this is a sign that UA leadership is finally raising a white flag, and perhaps more is to come.

Sulley

Saw the new policy in action tonight after 3761 cx'd out of IAD. Everyone was handled in about 15-20 minutes. They brought over four more agents and processed everyone with relative ease.

anc-ord772

Well that is an sUA station. I want to believe... so someone report they've seen the new policy in action at an sCO station. It's all about implementation, not just what's on the books.

hobo13

Is the war on elites now officially over?

c502cid

The biggest change in IRROPs for me has been the easy update call when I land somewhere and there has been an IRROP. Used to get the call that I have already been rebooked and see an agent to get my boarding pass. That hasn't happened once since 3/3.

FlyWorld

Far from it. The war has many fronts. Looks like they're retreating on the IRROPS front, but I see no return to upgrades, no re-valuation of MP, no return of 1K desk. Perhaps just a little less hostility in the most serious airport situations. Let's face it, forcing a pax to sit in the airport because of a missed connection that is UAs fault while a plane goes out with empty seats just because it doesn't have the right fare buckets at time of departure is outrageously hostile behavior even by sCO standards. They're just pulling back from an extreme.

FlyingNone

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True, indeed...........To reiterate, simple rebooking (same city pairs, 1-1 synch, 1-2 synch, 2-1 synch etc, UA to OA), easy enough.

What gets involved and requires a call to the Help Desk are double connections, ie., UA to UA to DL with a different routing and possibly different city pairs on one or both ends or in the middle.

I FINALLY got such a scenario a few days ago but didn't have time to ask the Help Desk agent to walk me through an exchange (had them do it). I looked at the E-ticket history (*ET + *EH) and I could actually decipher what the agent had done. Turns out there is a way to do an EVEN EXCHANGE in SHARES. Made another phone call and went over some points that I am going to try the next time I have this (or will definitely have an agent walk me through it). I really prefer to know it than make a phone call and wait on hold for a third party to do it. I hope I can figure it out.

Yes, we've gotten a handout at my station recapping United's "new" (???) (my quotations) policies during Irrops.....Nothing appears "secretive" or "new" but seems finally back to PMUA's way of doing things. Can you say Empowerment? In my opinion, I didn't read anything different (into it) than the way we (PMUA) have always done it.
Rebooking (or not) protection into full Y class has always been individual PMUA agent's way of doing things - some do, some don't. (Technically we are still to book in the same class ticketed or next lowest fare code up to and including Y class if that is the only thing left). I won't judge any coworkers who do it wrong by not checking availability or laziness but there still is a right way to do it. Also, you will now start seeing more agents rebooking offline if that is the only alternative, as well.

Have not received any specific information yet on amenities for elites but that should be staying the same as always, I would not worry about losing the amenities as were given previously. We expect to have more informational sessions, feedback, etc. in the near future. I'm just glad it's swinging back in the right direction....there should certainly be more helpful "YES" answers forthcoming ! Passengers should also be proactive and request these things - other airline booking, amenities (if they qualify). I know you guys know all the rules but unfortunately a lot of "Kettles" do not so hopefully ALL agents will be proactive.

seacarl

pmCO often wouldn't book you on DL or AA if CO didn't have options but DL or AA could get you there, so if the new policy will get me there when the old policy didn't, that's a big change

LIH Prem

That's great! Thanks.

The great thing about PMUA's irrops procedures right towards the end was that they figured out how to handle rebookings, etc in the back room and did it proactively, so if you landed in SFO late and missed a connection, you got a text apologizing for the delay and letting you know you were already rebooked into flight xxx, upgrade handled, etc.

I haven't seen that happen at the new UA yet. Forget about the apology, just proactively handling the rebookings in the back room so you don't have 300 people waiting at the counter or the service center who all have to be handled individually one at a time. That would be a great improvement over what I've seen them do. And the agents also seem to have issues working the system, yes, that is still true.

-David

radonc1

I can give an example if one is desired. Mrs. Radonc and I were delayed 4 hours out of EWR to SEA and missed the last connection onward. The delay was due to EWR flow control caused by weather (high winds). We were given a hotel room at the Doubletree, food vouchers for dinner and breakfast (although it was 11PM and we left at 6AM) and first class seats onward.

I never asked for anything other than reservations for the next days flight. It was really quite nice and a bit unexpected.

This was at the end of last year, so something had already changed by that time.
Hope this helps the discussion a bit.

It took the SEA agent about 30 minutes to issue all the vouchers and reaccomodate us for the next day. Most of that time was spent looking for seats on the new flights. We took what we could get (one segment had no open F seating), but there was one passenger demanding that they find him F seats for his entire new itinerary, although he was flying in coach on a G booking class.

I didn't wait around to see how that played out:

yyzprincess

I have had it happen with "new"United on 2 Dec. My connection to IAD was late. looked like I would miss my international connection..
When I landed I saw an email saying I had been rebooked on the next flight.
All handled in the "new" United backroom no different than the PMUA days

I did make my original flight, the gate agent @ my arrival gate contacted my international departure gate & I was last to board.^

In May my international flight was cancelled. I received a call from CO irrops desk in Hou, worked with me to get me to my destination via another routing & protecting my upgrades^