billyliu

I called UA to make some changes to an itinerary, and agent accidentally cancelled the SQ First Segment that I've been holding for almost a year. They called SQ and no one willing to budge.

Anyone have experience and am I just SOL on not getting to fly SQ F?

Often1

SQ controls the inventory on flights it operates. When your seat was cancelled, either someone else grabbed it or SQ's inventory management pulled it back from award inventory. It's up to SQ to release a seat and there is nothing UA can do to force another carrier to do anything. You can keep pushing and you can also call SQ directly. But, you can't force anything.

First thing to check is whether there is availability at all. In other words, if the cabin is sold out in F, doesn't matter whether SQ would open a seat, there isn't one to be had.

It's worth figuring out alternatives and start working on those too.

UA-NYC

This is a classic example of why I'm terrified to make any changes to better my upcoming Euro travel that's 100% partner airlines - not sure if this is a SHARES thing or what, but I never had that worry before

sbm12

IMO, yes.
It is an agent thing.

I made two or three changes to my SQ F redemption just fine. I know others who were not as lucky. But it comes down to the agent, not the systems.

iquitos

Or most likely an agent who is unfamiliar with an antiquated, quirky, and unforgiving system. I get the feeling a lot of experienced counter agents just disappeared after the merger to be replaced with hewbie contractors. That certainly seems to be the case at Dulles.

PHLyer82

I missed out on this and am still kicking myself from almost a year ago. I can't even imagine your frustration if you are SOL.

some dude

What did UA offer you instead of SQ F? Presumably it is still their responsibility to get you to your destination in a premium cabin, for the same amount of miles?

belynch

Happened to me a few years ago on my honeymoon. There was nothing that could be done about it.

We ended-up taking that segment in whY as premium cabin inventory never reappeared.

billyliu

UA just put me on their flight. UA F is not the same as SQ F

slowly

They cancelled it, they should get it back. Not your problem how. If F isn't fully booked, I'm sure SQ will happily accept money from UA for your seat.

Often1

But, that isn't going to happen. So, OP needs to concentrate on the rest of the advice in this thread which is about what does happen in these situations.

FlyWorld

It would be nice if OP were to respond and tell us what UA proposed.

In any event, this has been a helpful thread to me. As a wind down my relationship with COdbaUA, I'm looking to burn a lot of miles, and I never before understood how tenuous a partner award booking has become under this organization. Some good lessons here.

I suppose the best one can do, when one must make a change, is to immediately check with the partner to confirm whether or not UA cancelled the partner segment. Seems to me that speed of action is key. It would be really horrible if UA canceled a segment against the wishes of the pax and if the partner refused to reinstate it, even when the request was made, say, within 10 minutes of the event?

Tracer_SEA

OP, if you want to give one more shot at getting the SQ res back, I'd send a short, to-the-point email to 1Kvoice and copy Smisek

Explain that you were very eager to fly SQ F, that the UA agent made a mistake and while you understand mistakes happen, that you expect UA to make it right to you given that you are a loyal 1K who's flown X miles and/or spent Y dollars in the past Z years. Give your phone # and ask for someone to call you to discuss

As others have noted, you are unlikely to get satisfaction through normal channels (e.g. the Res #). I'd say your chances of getting it this way are 50/50 at best, but hey, that may be worth the time to you.

Often1

This is true not only for UA and *A, but for any carrier where awards are being used across an alliance. There are myriad threads about exactly the facts of this thread ocurring with other carriers and alliances.

My view is that any time you touch your record or have someone touch your record, that you verify that the remainder is untouched and do so not only with the ticketing but other operating carriers as well.

There is never a guarantee that an erroneous change/cancellationc can get fixed, but it's certainly the case that the longer the time from the error to the fix, the less likely the fix is to work.

FlyWorld

Does anyone here have experience that points to UA's ability to force a partner to open space in a situation like this?

Is it true that SQ says "no" and that's the end of it? Or, is it true that some people at UA have a back-channel into SQ that can result in a "no" becoming a "yes"?

Curious if anyone has been there, done that, and can share the results?

Unless UA can force SQ to open the space, then OP is SOL. Period.

There is no way that this organization, given its current culture and attitude, will fork over cash to SQ to pay retail price for a seat in F. That will not happen.

Therefore, OP can expect either to fly in Y or to fly on UA metal or to fly on another partner or to get a refund.

But, if SQ will not open space in F, then UA will not be paying cash to secure a seat for OP.