CanadianConnection33

I am sitting on the phone with my credit card trying to make a very simple itinerary change.

I am traveling J from SFO-ORD-BUF.
I now want to travel from SFO-ORD (same flight) - YYZ.

Answer from United: "I'm sorry sir there is no more availability on the flight from SFO - ORD."

From me: "Well that doesn't make sense because the person taking up that seat is me - and I still want it."

A: "Yes sir but there is no availability."

Q: "Is it oversold?"

A: "No."

Q: "Is the availability on the ORD - YYZ flight?"

A: "Yes sir lots. The problem is the SFO-ORD flight."

Q: "Which I don't want changed at all?"

A: "Yes sir." . . . Hang on (now on hold presumably to speak to a supervisor).

By way of background I am flying on the SFO-ORD flight with other family who are then connecting off to other parts of the world.

By way of update the agent came back and explained the change could not be done because of the problem described above. Any suggestions from the more experienced Flyer Talk community for obtaining a logical resolution?

Hadrian35

So cancel it and rebook. I've had to do it and as long as it's not oversold, it'll work. You'll have to pay a fee and probably buy a more expensive fare class but thems the breaks!

You know you can only bend a database so far before it breaks.SHARES has a lot of short falls but I've experienced this on Alaska and AA and Air Berlin(?maybe KLM) so it's not just United.

UA-NYC

Just HUACA. Every agent is different these days.

United...Consistency Unfriendly :-:

flyingmusicianlax

A good agent can fix this for you. Hang up and call back.

LaserSailor

What is a "simple itinerary change" for you is being made complex by load management. Selling a ticket from AAA to BBB to CCC is not the same as selling two tickets from AAA-BBB and BBB-CCC.

Back in the 1970s this would be easy to do, except your fare would be about 4x higher. Most prefer the current system despite the seemingly illogical issues that arise.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

This.

You bought a ticket in a certain fare class. That fare class is probably not available now that you want to change (you don't necessarily get to keep the current seat at the your current fare). You'll probably end up paying the $200 change fee and any fare difference when the itiniery is eventually changed.

tom911

I know at AA you can spin one party off into their own separate PNR when they're booked as part of a group. This is used over there primarily for upgrade purposes. Any reason UA can't do the same thing and separate your reservation from the group booking so they can work on it by itself?

PV_Premier

canceling and rebooking does not guarantee the seat will go back into inventory. if the flight is sold out or close to it, IM might not put the seat back in even into the Y bucket. the issue is that the flight is currently Y0 and SHARES/Agent are trying to change you from SFO-BUF to SFO-YYZ, what needs to happen IMO is you need to be changed to SFO-ORD, ORD-YYZ, using the seat you already hold on SFO-ORD.

this is a HUACA situation, IMO. i also hazard to guess it will not be cheap, but it is inherently doable.

a back up option is for you to fly the SFO-ORD segment and no-show the ORD-BUF segment, then book yourself a one-way on UA or AC from ORD-YYZ.

fastair

Sounds like married segment availability. You can't use 1 part of a connection for another connection. It has to be sold as a whole. Just becuase you have the seat on 1 leg does not mean that even if you cncl it, that it will appear for the same leg on another connection, and if it does, it might not be in the same booking class.

Volga981

I can easily envision the situation. An aircraft change, and currently there is negative availability. Thus, no agent will be able to make the change to the ticket that the OP is proposing - they are trying to reduce the number of PAX, and the OP is the best candidate for not flying the leg or to reschedule the itinerary.

sinoflyer

If SFO-ORD-BUF were booked as married segments, I don't think the agent could just remove ORD-BUF and surgically reinsert ORD-YYZ without escalating it to a service director. The PNR would require a new pricing record; without it, the PNR cannot be "ended" to record the change.

I'm assuming that the agent was reluctant to change OP's reservation because SFO-ORD is either sold out in the booked class or oversold in all classes. In that case, canceling the segment doesn't necessarily mean that the seat will be returned to inventory. That's IM logic that every major airline abides by.

HUACA, but I think you might get the same answer again.

ccharles

I sympathize deeply with the OP. I had the exact same experience with Hilton last month: I had a reservation for three nights and needed to change it to two (the same first two dates of the already-booked three). They wouldn't let me do it because the hotel was 'sold out for those dates'; therefore they couldn't book a two-night stay to replace my three-night stay because there were 'no rooms available' for those nights. I escalated as far as I could - pointing out that there was indeed a room available, because I was presently booked in it! - but no go. 'The system won't let me do it' was the continuing refrain.

The conversation ended when I said: "So if I understand you correctly, Hilton would rather have me cancel this reservation entirely - at no charge - and stay somewhere else for the two nights?" The response: "I'm sorry, sir."

There has to be a better way...

Baze

If the first 2 nights are going to be used just go and check in and tell them you will be leaving a day early. or just go down and check out early. Unless it is a pre-paid non-refundable reservation it is no problem. I do it all the time for work as my schedule is always changing.

Often1

OP's problem sounds like IM, not a problem with SHARES. What he should do to test this is simply to price out a new ticket SFO-ORD-YYZ. If that is bookable, all he needs to do is call UA, cancel the current SFO-ORD-BUF, book the new SFO-ORD-YYZ and use the credit from the first ticket + $200 to purchase the new ticket.

My guess is that the problem is that the space is available, but the fare bucket is gone. Thus, this will be a pricey move. But, it will be no more pricey than anything else.

As to the Hilton example above, it's possible that the property has a 3-night minimum for the time period and thus OP can't simply cancel a night. He can test this by trying to book a 2-night stay. If he can, he's all set and can simply cancel the 3-nighter. If he can't, the problem again is IM.

UrbaneGent

That's EXACTLY what I do. When you check in, the front desk says, "You are staying with us for three days?" To which I say,"no only two." It is fixed 100% of the time w/o penalty. Now ARRIVING a day later is another issue.

Assuming you have a one way ticket to BUF, I would do nothing, buy a ticket on AC from ORD-YYZ and not use the ORD-BUF portion. Don't attach your UA miles to the AC flight. However, ORD-YYZ o/w can get expensive.