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2014 UA Issued Awards on Air China (CA) Are Mysteriously Being Canceled (Hacked?)

Old Apr 21, 2014, 11:37 am
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Last edit by: Pat89339
A number of folks with award flights booked on CA (Air China) found their reservations cancelled. The only notification of cancellation appears to be an email in from UA written in chinese. UA reps confirmed that cancellations were made online and CA award space was no longer available. UA can rebook on other flights when award space is available.

It is plausible that a third party with access to PNR and pax name on the flight can fraudulently cancel an existing itinerary and book the reopened award seat.

Affected FlyerTalk members with links to where in this discussion they posted their experiences include:
  1. MikeMpls
  2. nihaoa
  3. lewende Reported 4 friends with this issue
  4. ordbkk
  5. twebst
  6. kb1992
  7. litesleeper
  8. zombietooth
  9. critten Reported 2/3 confirmations (3 people CA Business class) cancelled at the same time
  10. skyvanman Also 1 friend with the issue
  11. chris1234
  12. atiger29
  13. bubble o bill
  14. genemk2
  15. jefftiger
  16. CuddlyFlyer
  17. gpeso8
  18. imm2b
  19. acf1270
  20. dgxoxo
  21. ACM two passengers
Originally Posted by ordbkk
It seems everybody wants to see the message.. here was mine:
united.com 通知 - 航班预订取消
2014年4月17日 (星期四)
united.com | 优惠促销 | 预订 | 赢取前程万里 (MileagePlus) 奖励里程 | 我的帐户

先生 ORDBKK
您的预订 MYRES123 已取消,我们已收到您的退款申请。申请信用卡退款需 7 个工作日。如果信用卡退款未在一个付款周期内寄出,请联系信用卡公司。对于包括现金退款在内的 所有其他形式 的付款,需要 20 个工作日。

如需详细信息或查看退款的状态,请访问 united.com 并提供您的机票号码。

感谢您使用 united.com

电子邮件信息
请不要使用回复地址回复此邮件。
此电子邮件中的信息仅供原接收人使用。
如果您遇到技术问题,请通过电子邮件或电话联系 united.com 服务支持。
通知:机票取消确认
电子邮件地址: ORDBKK@MYEMAIL

Originally Posted by ordbkk View Post
For tracking purposes, I went through the 27 pages of this thread and compiled a list of those affected:

MikeMpls
nihaoa
lewende (reported 4 friends with this issue)
ordbkk
twebst
kb1992
litesleeper
zombietooth
critten
skyvanman (also 1 friend with the issue)
jefftiger (but, happened during October 2013)

So we're at 13 people affected, although some like critten have had multiple trips canceled.
From what I understand, all of these occurred in the last 3 weeks.
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2014 UA Issued Awards on Air China (CA) Are Mysteriously Being Canceled (Hacked?)

Old Mar 31, 2014, 11:18 am
  #1  
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2014 UA Issued Awards on Air China (CA) Are Mysteriously Being Canceled (Hacked?)

We had an award trip to Australia booked for the 2nd half of May, outbound in coach on UA, return in business class on China Air.

Received an email today from United -- in Chinese. I don't read Chinese.

Logged into our accounts and found that the itinerary had been canceled, leaving us holding the bag on $1K in nonrefundable domestic Australian flights on Qantas & JetStar, plus some hotel reservations.

This has to be the absolute worst customer service example I've ever experienced in the reservations department.

Last edited by J.Edward; Apr 18, 2014 at 4:16 pm
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 11:27 am
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Well, I guess the upside is you actually got an email despite it being in a foreign language, which is more than most people seem to receive.
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 11:27 am
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Originally Posted by MikeMpls
We had an award trip to Australia booked for the 2nd half of May, outbound in coach on UA, return in business class on China Air.

Received an email today from United -- in Chinese. I don't read Chinese.

Logged into our accounts and found that the itinerary had been canceled, leaving us holding the bag on $1K in nonrefundable domestic Australian flights on Qantas & JetStar, plus some hotel reservations.

This has to be the absolute worst customer service example I've ever experienced in the reservations department.
how do you know it was canceled by UA and not china air?
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 11:36 am
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Originally Posted by travel.flier
how do you know it was canceled by UA and not china air?
Who cares?

Originally Posted by fjfv19
Well, I guess the upside is you actually got an email despite it being in a foreign language, which is more than most people seem to receive.
I suppose there's a rosy side to everything!

I was thinking .bomb had done splendidly well in rebooking this until I got to the end:

! united.com is unable to initiate your flight change request at this time. Please contact United Reservations at 1-800-UNITED1 to make changes to this Itinerary.

Last edited by iluv2fly; Mar 31, 2014 at 1:42 pm Reason: merge
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 11:52 am
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Originally Posted by MikeMpls
We had an award trip to Australia booked for the 2nd half of May, outbound in coach on UA, return in business class on China Air.

Received an email today from United -- in Chinese. I don't read Chinese.

Logged into our accounts and found that the itinerary had been canceled, leaving us holding the bag on $1K in nonrefundable domestic Australian flights on Qantas & JetStar, plus some hotel reservations.

This has to be the absolute worst customer service example I've ever experienced in the reservations department.
OK, so schedules change and flights are canceled which kill the itin. Did you call UA and did they accommodate you on another flight to arrive similar times? Or any options?

Onward tickets on separate PNR's, separate airlines are not their fault.

We have plenty to blame UA for doing and alienating us FF already which are planned. No reason to hit them at the moment on yours.
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 11:56 am
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china air
Never heard of that airline!
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:02 pm
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Originally Posted by zebranz
OK, so schedules change and flights are canceled which kill the itin. Did you call UA and did they accommodate you on another flight to arrive similar times? Or any options?

Onward tickets on separate PNR's, separate airlines are not their fault.

We have plenty to blame UA for doing and alienating us FF already which are planned. No reason to hit them at the moment on yours.
Proper notification and rebooking remain United's responsibility. This is a major fail.

And yes, I will hit them with my problems at this point. If they can't keep reservations validly booked -- there were plenty of options available -- then they've earned whatever bad publicity they get.

And if I choose the cancel/redeposit "option", they want to charge me $400 for canceling an itin that they've already canceled!!!!
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:04 pm
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I strangely got flight cancelation notice from United last month in Spanish. (Which, thank god, I read)
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:06 pm
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Originally Posted by MikeMpls
We had an award trip to Australia booked for the 2nd half of May, outbound in coach on UA, return in business class on China Air.

Received an email today from United -- in Chinese. I don't read Chinese.

Logged into our accounts and found that the itinerary had been canceled, leaving us holding the bag on $1K in nonrefundable domestic Australian flights on Qantas & JetStar, plus some hotel reservations.

This has to be the absolute worst customer service example I've ever experienced in the reservations department.
You must be booked for the return on Air China (IATA: CA), not China Airlines (IATA: CI) as they are not part of Star Alliance. Likely, what happened was that Air China decided to cut a route from Australia to China (by any chance, Sydney-Beijing?, that flight changes to a 1-stop via Shanghai during Australian winter but operates on a different flight number so you will need to check for availability to make the change). Call UA Reservations ASAP and ask if you can be booked on other carriers with open availability or if UA can open availability for you.
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:15 pm
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Originally Posted by 1353513636
Likely, what happened was that Air China decided to cut a route from Australia to China (by any chance, Sydney-Beijing?, that flight changes to a 1-stop via Shanghai during Australian winter but operates on a different flight number so you will need to check for availability to make the change). Call UA Reservations ASAP and ask if you can be booked on other carriers with open availability or if UA can open availability for you.
+1. I had a flight cancellation on China Eastern in paid first <3 weeks before departure (link). Hopefully UA will do better than my OTA (Exp) did. Let us know how it goes.
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:28 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by MikeMpls
I was thinking .bomb had done splendidly well in rebooking this until I got to the end:

! united.com is unable to initiate your flight change request at this time. Please contact United Reservations at 1-800-UNITED1 to make changes to this Itinerary.
So what happened when you called?
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:31 pm
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Originally Posted by mahasamatman
So what happened when you called?
Currently on hold but appears to be going ok. After a brief session of voice-recognition hell, the wait for a live person was < 1 minute. The rep needs to get another dept. to change it to get the layover in Beijing out of the reservation.

Rep gets an "A" so far.

Done, better schedule, disappointed to lose stop in Beijing but that was secondary.

UA really needs to improve its notifications!!!!

Originally Posted by 1353513636
Likely, what happened was that Air China decided to cut a route from Australia to China (by any chance, Sydney-Beijing?, that flight changes to a 1-stop via Shanghai during Australian winter ...
Yes, was SYD-PEK-LAX on May 29-30.

Last edited by iluv2fly; Mar 31, 2014 at 1:43 pm Reason: merge
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:49 pm
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Originally Posted by MikeMpls
UA really needs to improve its notifications!!!!
Agreed, but it's nice to hear your got your trip cleared up.
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 1:04 pm
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We have SYD-PEK-IAH in November.

Just went to check... still ok so far!
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Old Mar 31, 2014, 2:46 pm
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Originally Posted by jsl42
I strangely got flight cancelation notice from United last month in Spanish. (Which, thank god, I read)
All of my flight delay/gate change messages have been coming to me in Spanish for the last couple of months.
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