LHR Wannabee

There is something else I just remembered. When I first tried to check in online and did not see the button, I went to use the United app to see what it said. It offered me the opportunity to check in, I went through all of the steps, but then upon the final step, received the message that I could only check in at the airport. That was what had me call to ask about not being able to check in. I had received that message before, but only when flying to a country that required a visa like China or India.

If what people have written about the website being correct to have delayed check in for an hour due to the time change, how come the app was not the same way?

emcampbe

Wait - so you are going to contact customer service to complain about the problem of you not being able to check in at T-24, despite the fact that you actually could? As has been explained to you, in the fall, when the clock moves back an hour, and flying out on the same day of the change, 24 hours prior to a 5pm flight would be 6pm. On the other hand, if you try this in the spring, when the clock moves forward, you would be able to check in at 4pm. Would that make you feel like there was a glitch where you could check in 25 hours early, when it's really not?

Sounds like the ability to check-in at T-24 worked as advertised. I've never seen them say you can check in at exactly the same time the day before - they very explicitly say 24 hours prior. And that you were properly put on the upgrade list at that time.

You weren't impacted because there was no system glitch. Even if there was, it would have impacted all passengers equally, so it is pretty irrelevant. Seems like the glitch was you not being able to process the DST change properly. Understandable on its own since it happens two weekends a year out of 52, but it has now been explained several times.

No one here can really stop you from writing to CS if that's what you really want to do. But it'll probably be a waste of your time, and you may very well not receive an answer to your specific question about whether your upgrade status was "impacted" (I can give you that answer: since there was no glitch, you weren't), but merely a reply saying something similar to the responses here about you actually being able to check in at T-24.

[RANT] It really does confuse me sometimes why some people come on here to start a thread with a "question" or "problem" and then completely ignore the responses, particularly when there are several or more that are similar, and do what they want to do anyway. If you feel slighted, that's your issue, I guess. Come post/rant about it if you want. But it's pretty useless to do so if you're just going to ignore the advice already given several times.[\RANT]

There are several reasons why people may check in at T-24 that have nothing to do with upgrades - I bet many people checking in online at T-24 aren't even considering this because they aren't going to be put on an upgrade list.

dbaker

I'm eagerly awaiting the follow-up post about how United took 17 hours to fly LAX-LHR, yet made it back it in only 3 hours on the return flight.

drvannostren

Yea, everyone would be in this boat no? Wouldn't you just check in 1 hour later? Seems pretty ok to me.

LHR Wannabee

I appreciate the constructive answers to my original post, but it never fails to amaze me how any question of any topic always now turns into a personal attack on Flyertalk. It certainly was not that way when I first joined in 2002 when you could ask a question or express a concern and not get attacked.

What might have been nice circa 2002:

Me: I make my comment/question above
Others: I think you might have misunderstood, the system acts like this intentionally, etc............

Aside from that, it did seem interesting to note that attempted check in by app was different than trying online since the app did let me attempt to check in at what would have been the 24 hour mark absent DST.

drvannostren

I'd suggest that THIS may have been the glitch and in your favor no?

TerryK

The App front end allows you to check in but it failed at back end. You were not checked in. Web, App, UA phone agent, UA airport agent all have different front end interfaces, yet they all access the same back end to process transaction (check in). Looks like there is a programming error on App's front end.

You can file a complaint based on App error and see if you can get some miles.

LHR Wannabee

It might have been if it worked-- I went through the check in process and then after pressing the final button to proceed received the message that this itinerary could only be checked in at the airport which was what made me want to call and find out the reason for not being able to check in.

kenn0223

+1 The airline industry has used UTC as the basis for all time and date measurements since the beginning of time. It would be nearly impossible to try and manage everything based on local times (DST notwithstanding).

I agree with others, you are allowed to check in 24hrs prior to departure.

For example, let's say you have a flight that departs at 7:30pm LA time.

On November 1st when it is 7:30p PDT the UTC is 0230 (Pacific Daylight Time is UTC-7)
On November 2nd when it is 7:30p PST the UTC is 0330 (Pacific Standard Time is UTC-8)

Therefore, if you wanted to check-in on 11/1 exactly 24hrs before a 7:30p PST flight on 11/2 you would need to check in at 8:30p PDT.

The OP, unfortunately, did not property account for Daylight savings time. NO ONE on the planet (unless they have a connection) would have been able to check in any earlier than 0230 UTC on 11/1 for a 0230 UTC flight on 11/2. Daylight savings has absolutely nothing to do with this besides the reference time the OP is using to determine if he can check in and, in this case, it's the OP's reference time that is wrong.