Pingtung

I have a trip in late May so hoping we can get a resolution and confidence that our reservations won't be randomly canceled. My CA segment is an intra-Asia hop in C, but the alternatives don't really work for me.

critten

Yeah the goal of whoever is behind this was to clear up some free space for personal gain.

My main goal, after being accommodated (though I would love the same flight back if possible and cancellations fixed), is to prevent this from future abuse. This isn't only about the lost award flights on UA, someone could do this to anyone (revenue or award) on united. And as we will see, it is a only a matter of time before some kid is bored.

What we have learned so far is there is NO front line defense or trace to prevent this from happening on any ticket. Though UA reps blamed us for the cancellations, they are just doing their job by relaying what the computer tells them.

The reservation that did not cancel for me (one in four) was changed to go on the same flights as the others. That opened up the award inventory for that seat on UA, (I can see it) but I cannot see the ones that were lost. I assume it must have went somewhere, so hopefully this will be a pretty swift investigation.

DaviddesJ

Not on UA nor on any other US airline, either, from what people have said.

kale73

Hence the DHS "hook". Or is a potential cyber attack (state-sanctioned or terrorist) on the U.S. economy not in their purview?

critten

true - but however you can get that list of confirmations and last names needs to be stopped. I assume, and can be totally wrong, that whoever can get it should be trusted personnel only. Someway, somehow this list is available to this abusive person...which should lead to an investigation to stop it.

And if it can possibly be more widespread (say this guy can get anything on any carrier), the airlines/govt should be proactive.

That's what I mean by front line, i guess.

travelinmanS

Thanks to FT I knew about this problem and avoided booking CA for my HNL-PEK trip in C later this year, despite the better timing and availability showing on UA's website. Now I'll have to take UA and NH and change in NRT but the peace of mind of not having to check whether my reservation has been cancelled every day is worth the small inconvenience.

For what it's worth, my thoughts are that this is an inside job with someone at CA working with a Chinese mileage broker. They found an insane loophole in the UA system (changing tickets without any verification/PIN needed) and have exploited it to their benefit. In a country where people are willing to put harmful chemicals in baby formula to make a few extra bucks, it's not too hard to imagine this little scam working for quite some time. I also predict the only remedy will be for UA to require passwords/PINs to verify booking changes. CA isn't going to be any help at all.

Hopefully UA will change their systems very soon to protect their customers.

UA_Flyer

Yes! Called Air China. Record is intact and confirmed it is F on the 773ER.
Seats assigned. Hope everything will be ok! knock on wood!

skyvanman

I received contact from UA Insider and just messaged them...we'll see if they can solve my case.

DaviddesJ

There's no way to do that as long as people book on CA, right? Any US airline with any Chinese partner is going to have the same problem. Unless the latter are willing to change their system.

Maybe UA could invent an "alias" for each PNR containing CA legs, and only give CA the alias record locator, not the original record locator. Then anyone with access to CA data would still not have the UA record locator and not be able to make cancellations on UA. I don't know if this would be feasible from UA's point of view, or would break other things.

MatthewLAX

For the WIKI, can someone post a screenshot and copy and paste the Chinese text of the alleged cancellation e-mail from United?

critten

Well CA doesn't really know our united confirmations because they have a separate record locator for partner airlines(nor can they do anything with the UA confirmations in their system). Someway, I believe, someone is getting the REAL UA confirmations.

IAHUArunner

Correct. UA generates A SEP Confirmation numbers for all other airlines under their reservation(can be viewed if you click on the additional conf numbers link).. The solution UA must come up with is HOW TO PREVENT ANY ONE WITH ACCESS TO FROM CANCELLING some one else's reservation. pax should be able to generate/create an additional key or password only to be used for changes or cancellations. UA is still not saying if they have a handle on things or the current reservations are safe.

flyingnosh

You need a confirmation number and last name to cancel a reservation. Wouldn't someone with access to that information also have access to the additional key that you're proposing?

IAHUArunner

No. This is the password/ key that you generate while booking. Just like when you sign up for anything now a days. just a thought.

MatthewLAX

Again, has someone translated the Chinese e-mails? Are they scam e-mails or not?