NC_Girl

I have been going round and round and round with United on the phone about a change to an award ticket. I called yesterday to change the destination and they made an incorrect date change to my ticket, and now when I call to have it fixed, they want to charge me again. I made the reservations back in the spring so shouldn't even be charged a change fee at all since the date of travel is more than a month away and there is no change to cities but the agent doesn't get it. Right? Or did the fact that I made a change yesterday mean the ticket was re-issued and the fact that I made the reservation in the spring no longer matter?

I just want to speak to a person, a real live person directly in front of me instead of to someone on the telephone who has a hard time with the English language.

If I drive to the airport, can an agent there actually do anything in regards to an award ticket?

If not, any advice?

NC_Girl

15 minutes or so ago, I spoke with an agent who told me that the date of the change was not 21 days in advance but it had to be at least 21 days from the date of the original flight.

For example, the ticket was on August 21st and the correct date was Aug 27th. She said that I had to change it for at least 21 days AFTER August 21st in order not to pay the $75 change fee. So I told her to leave it alone. She said the ticket was not issued properly yesterday and that she would do so now.

I looked at my CC and yep, another $75 is pending.


How likely is it that I will get that money back?

Kacee

That sucks. What a lame customer service experience. IMO you should not have one change fee, let alone two. I guess the good news is now your ticket is fixed.

I would definitely submit a written refund request. You might also try tweeting, people have reported getting better/more immediate responses through that channel.

NC_Girl

RESERVATION WAS ORIGINALLY MADE IN MARCH:

From the website:

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...virtual_expert

*********************

Making a change 21 or more days prior to the date of travel (no change to origin/destination)1 No fee No fee No fee No fee


1 Fee will be charged for any change to cabin, award type, carrier, date or time.

********************


Can someone explain this to me? Seems to contradict each other. No wonder the agents don't know what is going on....

NO the ticket is NOT FIXED. She re-issued it for the 21st. The date of travel is SUPPOSED to be the 27th. So now I have been charged TWICE for incorrect changes!

kenn0223

Very doubtful, agents at the airport typically have a hard time with revenue tickets and I expect will have an even harder time with a reward ticket. IME they will make you call for any complex issue beyond a very simple ticket issuance. Have you tried calling the MileagePlus service center (1-800-421-4655), sometimes they are better at these sorts of issues (however they may refer you to reservations since you haven't flown yet). Others have also reported luck getting a native English speaker by calling one of the overseas numbers (See Here) with the only downside being the international calling charges (perhaps use Skype).

You should wait and see what actually posts to your credit card. Often each transaction generates a pending charge, but if a transaction is voided or otherwise reversed it is often the case that not all of the pending charges post to the credit card account as real charges. From what I gather from your previous posts it sounds like the 2nd agent voided the transaction (for whatever reason) and reissued it. When this happens there will be two pending charges on your credit card but, in the end, only one will post. I wouldn't be too worried.

I suggest letting the dust (and yourself) settle for a few hours and then calling back and calmly explaining the problem. Remember that whatever agent you get is brand new to your issue so be patient, tell a concise version of the story (ex "I called on ___ to change my destination and noticed on that it was issued for the wrong date, can you please help me fix it"). You could also ask them to void the transaction (since it sounds like its been within 24 hours) and start over with the destination change and this time confirm the dates before you approve the change. Per UA's Customer Commitment you can cancel a ticket within 24hrs with no penalty (I am not sure if this same rule applies to changes but from a technical standpoint I know, for a fact, they can void transactions within 24hrs of the transaction time).

stanj

I think the agent is wrong. IME as long as the original date of departure and the new date of departure are > 21 days away you should be ok.

However, the charge may be because you had the ticket reissued after 6/19 and the new change-fee policy now applies to your ticket.

+1 on tweeting. Not sure what an airport agent can do, it'll probably depend on who you get.

You could always call again and a try to escalate it to a supervisor, just keep stressing that it was their mistake for making the incorrect date change in the first place.

Good luck!

kenn0223

There are no free changes for general members. I am not sure where the $75 came from since a change to destination (per the link you posted) should have been $100. This fee would apply regardless of when you make the change. The >21 days prior to travel $75 fee is only for changes in "cabin, award type, carrier, date or time" if you change the destination (at any time) or change the cabin, award type, carrier, date, or time <21 days prior to travel you need to pay $100. I think the first agent messed up when they only charged you $75 for the destination change; it should have been $100.

andryas

Yes, you changed the destination, so according to the table it's $75, and the ticket was certainly reissued. For the second change in dates, since the ticket is now issued after June 19, 2013, it is also $75. The only case you have now is to prove that the agent was the one that made the mistake in booking your change to the wrong date. Since the 21st and 27th are different days of the week, it is really hard to make this mistake. For majority of its routes, UA has different schedules and flight numbers for different days of the week, not to mention award availability.

NC_Girl

this is the number I have been calling all along. The original call was placed yesterday at 4pm EST so perhaps I will call and try to get it voided.

andryas

For tickets issued prior to June 19 2013, change of destination reissued fee is $75, which was applied correctly in this case.

NC_Girl

Well, the guy told me that since it was less than 24 hours he could go back and change it to the original without penalty but then as he is finishing up everything he started reading something that stated there would be a $75 change fee. I just about lost it and instead of screaming and yelling or worse, I just hung up the phone. I have no idea where we stand.

This is only a 10K mile one way ticket. 10K miles are worth about $10 to me feeling like I feel right now.

I am just going to book a whole new ticket for the correct date with all new miles. I will let this other ticket just sit there as is, whatever as is is, lose the miles and dispute any charges as they come in.

The flights are on COPA and I believe that they are the same flight numbers, I am certain they are the same flight times because it is a very awkward time arriving the middle of the night into GDL. Anyway, I had told her to check the 27th then asked her to check earlier during the week before to see if we could get better flight times but since they were all the same I told her to go with the 27th. I assume that she just left the 21st as the last flight she checked.

This is why I do NOT like speaking to agents and would prefer to do everything online myself. That way, if I screw up, it is because I screwed up, not because an agent wasn't paying attention.

I wish they would go back and listen to the tapes. But I know from past experience that they won't.

Often1

Disputing the charges is a big mistake. OP will lose the dispute because UA is good at documenting its charges. OP will then have lost the miles and fees on the first ticket and then have paid additional miles for the second ticket.

As it stands, OP is correctly charged $75 for the change on day one. If, as OP says, UA made a mistake on the date, that should not entail a fee. Worth noting that the fact that a debit shows as "pending" does not mean that it will complete.

Sounds to me as though this is one where OP should write out in short bullet points what OP wants to say, take a deep breath and call back when relaxed.

Kacee

+1 on all points.

I missed that there was a destination change. So yes, one change fee would be appropriate.

NC_Girl

I am willing to lose the 10K miles on the first ticket and the first $75 fee rather than continuing to deal with this anymore.

Luckily I only have about 100K miles with united now and I think I will quickly use them up and never deal with united again. I like flying united as long as nothing goes wrong or I need to make changes but if you do, then I don't think I have ever, I mean ever, dealt with a company with worse customer service.

Phoenixtinct

NC_Girl,

It's so unfortunate when things go wrong and having to call over and over hoping that someone will understand what the problem is and will be willing to resolve it. I have had my share of bad agents (even recently as a matter of fact) but not on United. I have to say that I'm finding out that bad Customer Service is not limited to an airline or the airline industry for that matter. I have to admit that I've gotten better service out of the United Premier Gold line than the American Platinum line. I don't know what your past experience is with United but considering you have so many miles with them, you'd have to deal with them for a while longer. Here's my suggestion to you:

1) Try to calm down - I know the situation is infuriating but venting to an agent who has done nothing wrong won't help

2) Try calling the MileagePlus desk - not sure why you would need to go through Reservations as this is an award ticket

3) When connected, ask to speak to a supervisor - You can say something like: "I have a booking that was ticketed incorrected and this is the nth time I'm calling about this issue and would like to speak to a supervisor."

4) Once connected to a supervisor, try to explain calmly what had happened - from what I gather, you made a booking in March, called recently to make a change and it wasn't the change you wanted, so you called again and asked to have it corrected, only to be charged again a second fee and be left with a reservation that is not what you want.

I would check on the Reservations page on United.com when your reservation was ticketed. If you are within the 24-hour window, you can cancel and get a refund of the miles and all fees paid. (Not sure if that works on changes but you can ask). That way you can at least get a credit for one of the change fees back and dispute the other one with your CC as it appears the agent didn't process the change you wanted.

I know it's frustrating but don't let United end up with so many fees and taxes and on top of that your miles. If you made another booking, you'd be out double on everything. Not sure how much a revenue ticket on Copa would cost and it might still be justified to spend all that money and miles but I would certainly exhaust all possibilities before going down that road.

Good Luck to you and please advise how everything worked out for you.