Reward change made, then unmade
Jul 25, 2014, 4:16 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 115
Reward change made, then unmade
Original trip was SEA-FRA-ZRH-ATH (no stopover, no open jaw)
Return was ATH-MUC-IAD (no stopover, no open jaw). All flights on Lufthansa except the ZRH-ATH leg.
Return was scheduled for July 24 at 1:05 PM Athens time.
I called elite desk on July 23 before 1 PM Athens time to make IAD a stopover and add a flight to San Diego v. Chicago. That reservation was made and the taxes were recalculated. I owed $20 in additional taxes plus the $50 change fee (I'm silver). I gave her my credit card info.
Then there was a long delay while the service rep tried to get the ticket reissued. After several efforts to get through to Lufthansa to get the ticket released (so it could be reissued with the additional flights) she told me that she was having trouble getting through to Lufthansa but that everything was in the system and all I needed to do was call once the Lufthansa flight had landed at IAD to get the ticket reissued then.
When I checked the reservation online a few minutes later it showed the flights (to Chicago, on to San Diego) had been added.
Today I received an email from United telling me what I thought was the same information - "Thank you for booking your travel on United Airlines.
We are unable to reissue the ticket in the above-referenced reservation. Please call reservations at 800-UNITED1 (800-864-8331) so we can resolve the issue."
I called today. The first rep worked through the ticket and told me her supervisor needed to reissue the ticket. When she transferred I was disconnected. As luck would have it I got the same rep when I called back. Same thing happened. She put me on hold, came back saying she had the same supervisor who would handle the reissuance, and transferred me. Disconnect again.
Third call I got a different rep. She said charge had not yet been made to my credit card, then talked to her supervisor. (Rep was in Denver, Supervisor was in Honolulu. I have names but am not putting them here for now.) Rep told me that since the Lufthansa flight to IAD had been completed they could not add the additional flights on without additional reward miles. I protested that I had made the change well before the Lufthansa flight had taken off. She said that when the flight is within 24 hours of takeoff, Lufthansa takes control of the ticket and no changes can be made. She said she had confirmed this with the Supervisor.
Problem is:
1) I made the call to change the ticket more than 24 hours before departure. (I know this because of time stamps on emails back and forth to my son who is the passenger). I can't say that the call was completed before 24 hours before departure - my email to my son confirming the change was sent at 1:34 PM Athens time, but I had done several things between completion of the call and sending that email that could easily have taken 30 minutes):
2) This is not what I was told by the United rep on Wednesday when I made the change. Had I known I would have asked her to continue to attempt to contact Lufthansa so the ticket could have been reissued then.
3) In light of this, the email from United today is a bit ambiguous, but I interpreted it as simply confirming what the agent told me on Wednesday.
SO what do I do now? The reservation on United.com still shows the DCA-ORD-SAN legs as part of the ATH-MUC-IAD trip.
Return was ATH-MUC-IAD (no stopover, no open jaw). All flights on Lufthansa except the ZRH-ATH leg.
Return was scheduled for July 24 at 1:05 PM Athens time.
I called elite desk on July 23 before 1 PM Athens time to make IAD a stopover and add a flight to San Diego v. Chicago. That reservation was made and the taxes were recalculated. I owed $20 in additional taxes plus the $50 change fee (I'm silver). I gave her my credit card info.
Then there was a long delay while the service rep tried to get the ticket reissued. After several efforts to get through to Lufthansa to get the ticket released (so it could be reissued with the additional flights) she told me that she was having trouble getting through to Lufthansa but that everything was in the system and all I needed to do was call once the Lufthansa flight had landed at IAD to get the ticket reissued then.
When I checked the reservation online a few minutes later it showed the flights (to Chicago, on to San Diego) had been added.
Today I received an email from United telling me what I thought was the same information - "Thank you for booking your travel on United Airlines.
We are unable to reissue the ticket in the above-referenced reservation. Please call reservations at 800-UNITED1 (800-864-8331) so we can resolve the issue."
I called today. The first rep worked through the ticket and told me her supervisor needed to reissue the ticket. When she transferred I was disconnected. As luck would have it I got the same rep when I called back. Same thing happened. She put me on hold, came back saying she had the same supervisor who would handle the reissuance, and transferred me. Disconnect again.
Third call I got a different rep. She said charge had not yet been made to my credit card, then talked to her supervisor. (Rep was in Denver, Supervisor was in Honolulu. I have names but am not putting them here for now.) Rep told me that since the Lufthansa flight to IAD had been completed they could not add the additional flights on without additional reward miles. I protested that I had made the change well before the Lufthansa flight had taken off. She said that when the flight is within 24 hours of takeoff, Lufthansa takes control of the ticket and no changes can be made. She said she had confirmed this with the Supervisor.
Problem is:
1) I made the call to change the ticket more than 24 hours before departure. (I know this because of time stamps on emails back and forth to my son who is the passenger). I can't say that the call was completed before 24 hours before departure - my email to my son confirming the change was sent at 1:34 PM Athens time, but I had done several things between completion of the call and sending that email that could easily have taken 30 minutes):
2) This is not what I was told by the United rep on Wednesday when I made the change. Had I known I would have asked her to continue to attempt to contact Lufthansa so the ticket could have been reissued then.
3) In light of this, the email from United today is a bit ambiguous, but I interpreted it as simply confirming what the agent told me on Wednesday.
SO what do I do now? The reservation on United.com still shows the DCA-ORD-SAN legs as part of the ATH-MUC-IAD trip.
Jul 25, 2014, 4:44 pm
#3
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
The problem now is that when you landed at IAD, your ticket was completely "used" and there was nothing on which to add UA segments. The problem back when you called is that LH wouldn't release the ticket so that UA could add the segments and reissue.
The effort now should be to get yourself somewhere high enough in the UA CS hierarchy to see what went wrong and simply issue a new ticket IAD-SAN for no collection. That is a tough ask, but if you are polite and persistent, you may get somewhere.
The effort now should be to get yourself somewhere high enough in the UA CS hierarchy to see what went wrong and simply issue a new ticket IAD-SAN for no collection. That is a tough ask, but if you are polite and persistent, you may get somewhere.
Jul 26, 2014, 3:13 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 115
Problem solved
Following advice (and my usual practice) I called again. Spoke to Vicki ****, Customer Service Rep in Chicago (named because of favorable outcome). Took 20-30 minutes (mostly on hold although Vicki checked back with me regularly) while her supervisor (Mike, also in Chicago) worked on it. Ticket was reissued without problems.
Difference between this and earlier call was that earlier call rep's focus was on why they couldn't do anything (flight has concluded, you should have done this earlier (example was should have done this as soon as you landed in Athens on outbound flight - except this decision wasn't known then)), whereas Vicki and Mike's focus appeared from the outset to be "how can we do this". I appreciate very much that attitude and, despite occasional instances like the former call, my experiences with United have generally been the latter - "how can we help this customer".
Don't know if fact that rep and supervisor were both in Chicago (early experience was rep in Denver, supervisor in Honolulu.)
Will let UAInsider know of outcome (I sent a PM earlier).
Difference between this and earlier call was that earlier call rep's focus was on why they couldn't do anything (flight has concluded, you should have done this earlier (example was should have done this as soon as you landed in Athens on outbound flight - except this decision wasn't known then)), whereas Vicki and Mike's focus appeared from the outset to be "how can we do this". I appreciate very much that attitude and, despite occasional instances like the former call, my experiences with United have generally been the latter - "how can we help this customer".
Don't know if fact that rep and supervisor were both in Chicago (early experience was rep in Denver, supervisor in Honolulu.)
Will let UAInsider know of outcome (I sent a PM earlier).
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jul 26, 2014 at 4:18 pm Reason: Please don't post full names of non-executive airline employees - http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#privacy