cfischer

BOS as well. Good avail when they have the 2 flights per day

FlyerBeek

I have not yet encountered segments disappearing.

Personally, I would call and try to get the domestic flights while the award availability still exists. Worst case, you'll get an agent who says no. In that case, very politely thank them and tell them you'll keep your current itinerary as is. I highly doubt they will cancel segments already ticketed due to the original issue date (I don't believe we've seen a report here indicating any examples of this happening).

In the past month I've successfully had three phone agents change domestic segments on a ticket well past it's original validity. No issues at all. In my mind, once I get a new e-ticket confirmation (and I verify everything is actually ticketed on the partner carriers), then there's really no ground to revoke the ticket.

-FlyerBeek

RS250Racer

Was able to get a ticket extended that I had booked around this time last year until a late december depature with jan return. Oddly tho, it looks like UA may have reissued the ticket sometime in Spring of 14 so maybe that is why I had no pushback, not sure.

26point2orbust

The current ticket is an USA-Europe F class one-way award ticket, booked pre-devaluation (67.5k miles)
Looking to change the routing, but keep the date.
If I click "change flights" on the reservation page and put in the new routing (SFO-SEA-FRA-CPH), it shows that the new cost is 87.5k miles (LH first class transatlantic), but if I only enter SFO-SEA-FRA, the cost is 67.k (as expected).
Why the extra 20k for the FRA-CPH segment?

I called UA (twice), and both agents insisted on charging the new rate (110k, with LH first class transatlantic) for the trip.

I guess I could change to the SFO-SEA-FRA routing online and then call in to add the FRA-CPH segment without cost, but I'm curious why I would be charged 20k extra online. The "usual" UA IT problems?

Tchiowa

When you change routing you are into a new ticket scenario so they charge the new rates. When you try only changing the dates on your existing ticket, not the same.

Based purely on speculation.

26point2orbust

I can do SFO-SEA-FRA on the old rate (67.5k), but SFO-SEA-FRA-CPH is 20k more even though FRA and CPH are in the same region.
Since the new rate is 110k, I don't know where the 87.5k rate for SFO-SEA-FRA-CPH comes from.

Edit: Searching for it as SFO-SEA, SEA-CPH instead of SFO-SEA, SEA-FRA, FRA-CPH gives the expected rate of 67.5k miles. Thanks, UA IS/IT....

jackal

I had two tickets that I had canceled but not redeposited. The one-year anniversary from the initial booking was 11/8, so early morning on 11/8, I tried to make a change to the tickets to extend validity, but one errored out when trying to initiate the change, and the other seemed to work but the ticket itself was never reissued to match the new reservation. I ended up calling to cancel and redeposit both tickets just to avoid them disappearing and me losing the miles (since I don't really have any specific trips to use them on). The first agent who handled the first ticket sort of snapped at me for using the "cancel and don't redeposit" function, saying it made their lives more difficult and next time, I should just call, and the second agent began to insist that it was the second half of a round-trip and normally they don't refund those, but when I insisted it was never used, she looked closer and saw that it had been exchanged, not used, and then agreed to refund/redeposit.

Ah well; the end of an era...

FlyerBeek

This is the way I've be handling my changes for the old awards. Just get something (preferably a longhaul flight segment you're going to actually use) confirmed online at the old rate, and then call in to get the other segments confirmed. Very politely push back if they try to charge you more miles. If they insist, then just stick with the segment you've got confirmed and call back later to add additional segments.

-FlyerBeek

abaheti

Just changed two pax, LAX-DEN-FRA-FCO to LAX-DFW-FRA-FCO, in business, with last two legs in each case on LH. Found new flights on UA.com, but change itin only showed me LAX-LHR-FRA-FCO. Called in, friendly+efficient agent took 2 minutes to confirm even miles exchange and refund $7 taxes (not sure if per passenger or for both of us). Per LH.com, getting the new business class, and arriving two hours earlier at FCO.

DWFI

Made the following even exchanges in the past 3 months:

JFK-NRT-PVG-ICN-TAS (NH CA OZ OZ) F to SFO-DEN-FRA-ALA (UA LH LH) F
(one try but had to beg, absolutely incredibly helpful and kind HNL agent)

BOS-IAD-NRT-PEK/ICN-LAX-PHL-BOS (UA NH CA OZ US US) F to SFO-AUS-EWR~JFK-NRT-PVG/ICN-LAX-SFO (UA UA NH NH OZ UA) F
(3 unsuccessful tries, then hit a GS agent who did it no problem)

YYZ-MUC-FRA-BKK-PNH/BKK-FRA-OTP-VIE/VIE-MUC-YYZ (LH LH LH TG TG LH OS OS LH) F to BOS-FRA-MUC-BKK-CGK/BKK-FRA-OTP-VIE/VIE-FRA-SEA (LH LH TG TG TG LH OS LH LH)
(13 unsuccessful tries, followed by a 3 hour 14th attempt with multiple discussions with supervisors, and finally someone capitulated)

at long last, my pre-devaluation UA awards are all done. 300k miles unbelievably well spent.

MatthewLAX

Changed NRT-ZRH-IAD-YYZ-YYT [LX C, UA F] (originally HND-FRA-MUC-YYZ-YYT in LH F) to BSL-FRA-SEA-LAX with FRA-SEA in LH F. Even exchange (was even under old chart) and no problem changing regions...agent originally quoted 110K, but did not argue when I noted this was booked prior to devaluation and should be no extra miles. Was only a four minute phone call!

jlemon

I was able to add LFT-IAH to an IAH-IAD-VIE-VCE itinerary with no additional miles after Saver space opened up although I did get charged an additional $50 per person.

The gentleman with UA who assisted me with my request via phone was professional, courteous and just plain great.

jglenn16

This is going to be a pretty lengthy post, but need to vent and hope no one runs into this situation with pre-devaluation awards going forward!

Timeline:
1/16/14 - Booked an award for two pax in business class from SJC-NRT-PVG-AKL (total mileage deducted 135,000)
2/2/14 - Devaluation happens
8/13/14 - Change award from SJC-NRT-PVG-AKL to SJC-NRT-PVG (removed PVG-AKL) segment. (total mileage refunded 15,000 due to change in region destination)

Everything looks fine, but this is where things get complicated:
9/4/14 - Split original PNR into two PNRs to make separate date changes and upgrade from business class to first. Agent was able to make changes to SFO-NRT-SIN in first and deducted 2 changes fees and said everything was good to go. Tickets were "properly" ticketed and confirmed (was able to select seats on ANA and when called to select seats, no mention of ticket not being valid)


My companion changed the date of his flight to 12/15, and I changed mine to fly on 12/16. He was able to check in fine and is now in SIN. I tried to check in today and was told that my ticket was "refunded," so I wasn't able to check-in and apparently my ticket has no value.

When calling United (and putting me on hold for hours... literally), they said there is nothing they can do since on 9/4, the agent redeemed/changed my companion's ticket at post-devaluation prices, making my award useless since my companion essentially "took" all the miles to book his ticket.

I'm in awe here as the tickets were booked/confirmed and I was given no notifications that I needed more miles to actually make my reservation valid. I actually was able to make additional changes online (without calling) to my reservation as I changed my ticket from SFO-NRT-SIN to SFO-NRT-BKK-SIN, and United.com continued to "re-issue" the ticket with no notifications that anything was amiss and was able to select seats on NH/TG.

I know this is probably my fault for making so many changes and not noticing that United actually tried to pull post-devaluation pricing at the time of the change, but not having any notification about this via email or phone is really frustrating.

I now am stuck in SFO with no flight and trying to scramble to find alternatives. Any one else experience similar situations with changes to pre-devaluation tickets and united asking for more miles when trying to check-in? Are there any recommendations or advice on how to handle this situation?

Kacee

Wow that sucks.

Do you have e-mails from UA confirming the 9/14 ticket reissuance?

This might be a situation where UA Insider is able to assist.

jglenn16

Yes, I have every single email confirmation. Should I PM UA Insider?