808oman

Trying to change a MUC-DUS-NRT to CDG-DUS-NRT, since I already have business seat on ANA to Japan.

Go online to "change flights" and get an error message. Tried on PC and Mac with no luck.

I see availability online for 4U on 10/19 CDG to DUS with miles (30K miles in Business).

Call 1K and they say they cannot book on 4U. Hung up and called back. Next agent sees the flight, 4U 4905 (10/19) and tries to rebook but she cannot finish the booking as it was "not confirmed".

Anyone else having trouble booking a multi leg with one leg on 4U and/or getting the error message when trying to change the flights online? At one point, I got to the point of choosing the flights and then to pay the $9.80 tax difference and it wouldn't go through (and it's not a credit card problem).

Would prefer not to have multi PNR's due to IRROPS and baggage, since I will have large bags and would prefer to be on ANA vs Air China or doing a CDG-FRA-DUS-NRT.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

mherdeg

Germanwings is a UA partner, albeit a halfhearted one — see United's own writeup at http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/Mark...spx?ItemId=625 . ""You can book award travel on Germanwings through united.com.""

There are a few partner carriers where UA does not offer instant/seamless reservations and ticketing for award flights. Could be that 4U is behaving that way and the space needs to be requested, then (after some lag) confirmed, and then ticketed, which is all stuff that a UA phone reservation agent can help you do.

In this case, a strategy that will work is something like (1) call UA and ask them to make the reservation and, if asked, let them know that you know that they might not be able to confirm the space immediately and you're OK with calling back to ticket when the partner carrier has confirmed the space; (2) if agent can't confirm space immediately, have them request it and ask when it will be ready; (3) call back within 24 hrs to ask whether reservation is ready for ticketing, and if yes, ticket it.

Edit: Only scary thing here is that in changing an existing trip (and temporarily having segments which are requested but not confirmed), you are "giving up" the old segments, which may break your journey. Worst case here is 4U does not confirm the CDG-DUS and you also cannot find any MUC-DUS inventory any more (seems EXTREMELY unlikely) and get stuck with just DUS-NRT.

bigbigluo

booked two award tickets involving VCE-DUS on 4U earlier this year with no issue,
not sure about making changes though.

mrx900

Trying to book a simple ticket : CGN-LHR-PDX. Had found availability on 10/22 and the put it on hold. WHen I went to ticket it 3 hours later, got prompted that one or more flights on this segment not available. Called/tweeted to UA, and they said Germanwings isnt releasing the seat on the CGN-LHR segment.

However, when I do a search for just CGN-LHR, it shows complete availability for saver award in business/first...but when I put CGN-PDX (CGN-LHR-SFO-PDX), it won't show availability, cuz she claims that segment from CGN-LHR doesnt show availability.

Is there a way to book these kinds of tickets?? and to make it worse, the other agent claims Germanwings isnt even a partner !

nycvisitor

I wasn't able to ticket 4U segment either, UA showed award availability, agent tried to get it multiple tiimes, but it never 'confirmed'.

mrx900

this is no good ; what makes it worse is, it seems half the agents dont even know 4U is a partner...she put me on hold and came back with the info, and every other word from her mouth was " I dunno"...

ifly153

Yes, tried this morning to get a seat on German wings, available online but not through an agent. I booked another flight on OS the day before instead.

Anyone try booking the segment on another airline with an agent, then changing the flight online to German wings?

When I do this, it shows German wings available, but errors out because I have too many segments on my complicated itinerary.

mrx900

you probably wont be able to change it online because the problem is just that ; the online availability is pretty much false, and you have to call in to see availability (if any).

What is positive out of this ordeal is this: IF there is no confirmation of you on the Germanwings segment, the saved itinerary indicates it at the bottom in red saying that This Segment is not confirmed

WineCountryUA

The word partner is likely confusing the discussion.

4U is not *A or *A partner.

4U is a MP partner -- a weird class of airlines that regularly have had booking issues and of which many agents are unfamiliar with. Plus it sounds there are still inventory issues.

{Moderator hat on -- will merge this with a recent thread on this topic}

dmurphynj

There is absolutely an issue with Germanwings advertising phantom seat availability.

I booked a trip EWR-DUS-CDG (Saver J) for November a few weeks ago. EWR-DUS was on LH, DUS-CDG was 4U.

LH confirmed immediately; DUS-CDG didn't. After 48 hours, I called in. That led to, quite possibly, the BEST experience I've ever had with a phone agent.

As soon as she saw Germanwings, she said "oh, yeah, there's your problem. They're always a problem. Hold on, let me see what I can do ..."

She came back on the line and managed to open two saver BF seats on the EWR-CDG direct on UA metal. Even less miles than before (87.5k round trip - over in J, return in Y+), and a direct. Can't beat that with a stick!

This agent was awesome. Absolutely awesome... exactly what they should all be like.

So, yeah, beware of 4U. Thankfully I got a great agent who took a bad situation and made it even better than before, but still have to keep your eyes and ears peeled ...

sbm12

I wonder how much of it is related to 4U using different fare buckets for awards than the *A standard X/I/O options.

DCFlyer0306

Several months ago, I was also unable to confirm an award booking on German Wings Stuttgart - Stockholm. I tried to book several different versions of the flights online (various connections) and was repeatedly unsuccessful. I then called in and the agent tried to book it several times but was not able to get any of the flight options to work. I eventually booked FRA-AMS-ARN on Lufthansa / SAS instead and took the train from Stuttgart to FRA.

I would prefer if United would just put "call to check availability" or something for German Wings (like Starwood does for non-standard awards). It was a big waste of time and very frustrating only to end up unable to ticket any of the potential German Wings flights.