Bumped from flight, while on flight
 

While over the Pacific on my first of 3 segments, I was bumped from my original 2nd flight to another 2 hours later.

My 3rd flight leaves at the the scheduled time still so my final arrival time is the same.

But the issue is, I had an important errand to run outside IAH which I cant do now due to having 2 hours less connection time at IAH

I booked this itinerary for a reason

Any suggestions what I can do about this?

Can you provide more details? What do you mean by "bumped"?

Hopefully you can let UA know your reason so that they can try accommodate it.

2nd segment was originally supposed to depart at 10:41 a.m
Now departing at 12:15 p.m thus reducing my planned time at IAH

This message appeared on my MP account:

"! A modification has been made to your itinerary. Please contact United Reservations to have your ticket reissued.
This reservation has been ticketed and confirmed."

Are you still over the Pacific? If so, how do you know you were bumped? Was your first flight delayed such that you would misconnect? Did your original second flight cancel?

Basically, if you're holding a confirmed reservation, you are entitled to fly on that plane. I'm still rather confused as to what happened. But a polite but firm exchange with a gate agents (and possibly a supervisor) might be needed to correct this upon landing. I don't know how tight your connections are, so you either should go to the gate directly (if you flight will be boarding in say T-45) or to a CS desk or call

Your ticket is a contact to get you from AAA-CCC, but not necessarily by way of BBB, even if that is what you originally 'booked'

You can't do too much in this case, but if you have status you might be able to get it changed.

Yes - I'm still over the Pacific

How can you be posting? WiFi never works on UA.....:D:D:D

Actual advice - I think I would grab an air phone and try to change this back ASAP - business meeting in IAH as reason.

I guess you could check if there is another connection that leaves IAH later. If there are seats, and the timing is acceptable to you, I think you have a reasonable case for telling them you don't wish to accept the schedule change.

Does the original flight still exist?

IME, when these schedule changes occur, it's typically because the original flight no longer exists or itself gets delayed by 2 hours. I haven't yet seen the case where they change my schedule because the flight is full so they bump me to the next one.

Wow, are there still working airphones? :) Isn't twitter an option? (never used it myself). But as always, do some research and be specific about what you want (flights, etc).. Good luck!

Yes. I used it in Italy when I didn't have a phone, it worked well - changed some flights when LH O seats opened up.

There is a lot of detail missing and it is the detail which matters.

But, the bottom line is that if OP is simply connecting at IAH, UA is not obligated to do anything, but might.

The better question to ask is why did UA auto-rebook and what is it that you want.

Exactly. It looks like a flight must have been canceled, hence the modification to the itinerary message. A simple schedule change doesn't usually require a re-issue. I don't know if the 10:41 flight from wherever he's going is still going.

In any case, he'll have to talk to someone when he lands.

Went to gate...

Asked what was up

They told me that they just booked me on the 2nd flight as "back up" but that I was showing as having my original seat on the early flight (!?!)

They asked if I'd like to keep my original itin and I said yes

Anyone here ever experienced this?

I had 2 hours connection time with a 30 min delay wondering if that played into it, or if they may have anticipated being oversold?

Very odd especially since I couldnt even see the original flight on my MP account page at the time

If the inbound you were on was international, I could easily see this. Last time I flew TLV-EWR-SFO-<zzz>, we were delayed about 30 minutes, and I got an email while in the air (received on the ground) subject "Flight update – Alternate connecting flight", with the content:

"Flight <xxx> from EWR gate C102 is scheduled to depart at 6:25 am and arrive into <yyy> at 9:29 am. If you do not make your connecting flight you are confirmed on flight UA<xxx> departing 7:05 am from gate C133, EWR to <zzz>. The flight is now estimated to arrive <zzz> at 12:49 pm. This flight is operated by United Airlines.

I easily made the original flight, only because I had just carryons and the immigration line was very fast, but was happy that they had protected me automatically to my final destination. I didn't look at the web or app, so I don't know whether it showed the old, new, or both flights. The agent said that by boarding the original flight the alternate would drop off automatically.

I got a more concrete message though:


"! A modification has been made to your itinerary. Please contact United Reservations to have your ticket reissued.
This reservation has been ticketed and confirmed."

You did not get bumped. You got protected on a later flight due to your 30 minute delay on your TPAC flight. This 30 minute delay put you right at the minimum connection time for International to Domestic at SFO on UA.

I had that experience twice, when the flts I was booked on were delayed.....they "backed" me up. Got the same message, however, we made up the time and was able to make my scheduled flts.

A few times with delays and such the ticket sometimes disappears from the phone app (had to happen a few times before i learned not to freak just a little). It's annoying but i appreciate them "protecting" me.

The auto-protect likely ocurred at a time when the flight was delayed just under the MCT. Hope OP thanks UA for being proactive.

Thank God it all turned out as planned.
From the header I thought you would be the second guy who fell out of aan airplane ! :)

The schedule is made by UA, the consumer accepts it. What UA factors into building that schedule is a combination of economic (connections/competitive) and operational (driven by stats) things. If UA builds insurance time for operational variables into the schedule and you find something on another carrier that gets u there for same price faster, take it. Only on FT is having insurance built into a product you already accepted considered a bad thing. Amazing!

Pretty much most manufacturers build tolerances into their product specs for variability. It's an assembly line, not a Rolls Royce. Economies of scale.

You do not get ORC if you fall out if the plane but you do get GS for life...

I've received that message once. However, the original flight remained on my itinerary. So the seemingly odd thing here is that the OP couldn't see the originally scheduled flight.

That said, I wonder if that is the computer's way of not canceling the rest of the OPs itinerary if they don't make the original connection. As we all know, the new UA is very aggressive about canceling the onward segments when a passenger is not onboard the original flight once it is closed.