Question on when a reservation needs to be "Synced"
 

Hi folks:

I know SHARES can be a bit difficult when a reservation no longer matches a ticket.

So my question is...when does a reservation need to be "synced"? I've heard this is required, for example, if a GPU clears before the 24 hour mark. Is this true?

And also..what exactly happens during the sync? Is the ticket actually re-issued? Or is it just syncronized with the reservation? Can someone explain what actually happens?

I'm concerned because I have an upcoming itinerary where I"ve managed to get an upgrade on Lufthansa on my return flight using a Star Alliance upgrade.

I have initial segments on UA on this same itinerary that I'm also trying to upgrade with a GPU. The ticket is a UA ticket.

I don't want to lose my Star Alliance Upgrade on LH and that will absolutely happen if the ticket has to get reissued.

Thoughts?

More often than not a reservation that is out of sync was when someone would hold space for an upgrade but be required to surrender a paper certificate at check in. The un-synced PNR would thus inhibit checkin and require the agent to do an add/collect.

Further expanding on the add/collect a fare difference or a modification that changes a segment, class of service, or moving to OA, the reservation is then out of sync from the original ticketed reservation and thus need to be re-synced to be put in the ticketing queue. In your case the upgraded class on LH PNR needs to match your UA PNR and vice versa.

The steps to resync are simple....that is unless you have someone that doesn't know SHARES.

Some things are more likely than others to force a reservation to go out of sync, but it appears that anything, including stray cosmic rays, can be responsible.

Perhaps I need medication, but I am always paranoid and call in to double check that all is in order at some point several weeks before travel date(if I have that much time--otherwise, a couple of days after ticket issued). Probably unnecessary but have been caught in some wild problems since merger.

Thanks for the answers thus far.

What exactly happens if the itinerary needs to be synced?

Does the ticket itself need to be reissued? Or is the reservation just "resyncing" with the original ticket?

+1

In my experience, it can usually (but not always) be addressed without a reissue.

As you may know there are two separate components that together allow you to travel; your reservation and your ticket. The reservation hold space on a particular flight in a specific cabin. Your ticket is what you get in exchange for the money you pay the airline and is proof that you've paid for travel between two points. These two components are only loosely related. Back when time began, it was common to make a reservation and not have a ticket issued until much later (and a paper ticket at that). Over time airlines have started to require ticketing much closer to when reservations are made (to reduce cancelations) but all the legacy airline systems are built on separate reservations and ticket systems.

The airline has an interest in making sure that every passenger is properly ticketed (i.e. paid) for the reservation they've made prior to departure. With UA, a reservation is "synced" with the ticket when the computer can properly match all the segments in the reservation with a unique coupon from the ticket. When it gets confused it flags the reservation as out of sync and prohibits check-in, boarding, and other such things. As others have mentioned, there is a long list of reasons that trigger the out of sync message (some being real deal problems and other being nothing).

As for fixing an out of sync ticket, there is no one magic fix. If there is an actual problem (i.e. an add/collect is required or there are more/less flight segments than coupons, or something similar) either the reservation or the ticket has to be fixed (most often the ticket is what needs correcting).

My strategy is usually to just wait for things to resolve themselves (which they often seem to do) or just wait and resolve at the airport. IME, the airport agents have a lot more willingness or ability to make things work (usually with an INVOL designation). Others have reported bad experiences but I have yet to encounter. Also, IME, its

Given what the OP describes, I think calling would be fine. Why do you think you'd lose your upgraded *A flight if the ticket is reissued? It should be fine as tickets are reissued all the time for all sorts of reasons. LH shouldn't care as long as there are coupons attached to each segment in your reservation. In the end, you won't be able to board your first flight without a synced reservation.

I have had issues in the past where upgrades are lost when a ticket is reissued. For example: Let's say I have a trip to the EU where my outbound upgrade cleared with GPU. Then I need to change the return trip to depart from a different airport. Itinerary and ticket need to change, add/collect paid, etc. Ticket reissued. When this has happened, I would often lose the outbound upgrade. Granted this was on the old UA Apollo System. And in this situation I made a change in routing. Old UA would have to do some clever gymnasitcs to get UA upgrades to stick, and I think you were SOL on Star Alliance upgrades.

I'm not sure how new UA with SHARES works with this. My concern is it seems like the ticket needs to be reissued if the GPU clears. I hope this isnt the case and it only needs to be re-synced with the original ticket. I just don't want to lose my Star Alliance upgrade on LH.

Although...now that I think of it LH is pretty good in keeping folks upgraded even if flights are cancelled, etc. I was once traveling on LH in upgraded business. My flight was cancelled due to weather and I got booked on a completely different flight. They kept me in business. On UA, in my experience, you lose your upgrade if your original flight is cancelled and you have to be rebooked on an alternate UA flight.

Thanks,

This happened to me this week.... a quick RT IAH-FRA and back. I had to move the trip up a few days and the ticket was reissued. At that time, only the return had R space so the leg cleared but the outbound did not have R so it was wait listed. It cleared at T-72 but the GPU never was taken out of my account. on UA.com the itinerary said for me to contact UA for reissue, but I was able to check in and completed the trip without any issues.

Very simple answer. Anytime the flight number, origin, destination, date, or booking class on reservations becomes different from what it was at time of ticketing (or last sync,) a sync (or exchange) must occur as they ate no longer SYNChronized.

Ok I get this (thanks!)

But let's go back to my original situation. Original itinerary is on UA outbound and LH return all in B class. Ticketed in B on 016 ticket stock.

LH return upgrade has cleared (into LH "I" bucket) using Star Alliance Upgrades. No impact to UA reservation.

UA reservation on outbound flights are the following:
-Domestic hop to a hub (trying for instant B upgrade, but isn't available)
-Transatlantic flight from hub to EU. Waitlisted for biz class upgrade with GPU

In my scenario, none of my times, flight #'s, cities are changing.

My question is if the GPU upgrade clears (or the B instant upgrade) will that require the ticket to be "resynced"? And if the answer is yes, is this with or without a ticket reissue.

I think the answer is yes to needing to be resynced, but no to the ticket reissue since all original flight coupons are still valid.

And gamma rays, beta rays, x-rays..... ;)

Yup but to be sure, once your reservation is re-synced, pull up the e-ticket and look at the ticket number and see if it is different than the one before the re-sync. If not, then I re-add my e-mail address to the e-ticket (link is near the bottom of the itinerary page), wait a few minutes and then pull up the e-ticket page to see if the ticket number has changed (and yes, I do this every time thanks to SCARES SHARES doing what it does best :td:)

Is your concern surrounding this old issue where un-sync'd tickets fouled up the upgrade queue?

Did I Screw Up the Upgrade Queue ... ?

No.

I'm concerned that if my GPU in the outbound clears, it will require a ticket reissue (new ticket number) and this will foul up and make me lose my upgrade on LH on my return flight. (Which I got via Star Alliance Upgrade).

I've seen where one can sometimes lose their upgrade if the ticket gets reissued.