trekwars2000

Jeez. The ride on the 764 is way-way better than the 772. If you are alone you can get the middle seat on the 764 and have no one bother you the whole flight. Get the bulkhead too and have a huge foot cutout.

Why worry about the 50-60 minute flight? Grab a seat on the A side of an EMB145 and get an aisle/window with no one next to you.

transportprof

Just got a long hoped for sked change for my December holiday travel to HNL. A 757-300 morning departure SFO-HNL disappeared from the schedule, replaced by a 739

But since that broke my MCT from YVR, I got moved to a 777G later that day. This works well for me and Mrs. Transportprof, given that we had P fares, and also have access to the Centurion Lounge for a long layover. This would have been our preference from the outset, but at purchase, United wanted hundreds more for the flat-bed on the SFO-HNL leg, so we took our chances and booked a 43 minute connection @sfo to the 757, hoping for something to change. Good thing the 739s are slower in flight!

zackery149

Last November on an itn. to YXE-GIG (with AC partner segments) there were schedule changes, resulting in a really messed up itn showing on the Air Canada system (I have to check in with AC , no United at YXE. ) Finally sorted out after numerous calls, the last call I hit a supervisor in Chicacgo who happened to be working overflow. She immediately spotted the problem and fixed in 4 minutes.

This year, Nov '17 trip, again schedule changes. I phoned in and because the change was a flight cancellation moving me to a flight six hours later, the agent allowed a total change of flights on the inbound, much to my benefit.

The new itin. is in the system but with the dreaded 'modification' warning. I think the ticket may still be in the queue, not sure. At any rate, the Air Canada site shows a veritable dogs breakfast of flights, mixture of old and new segments, a mess.

My questions:

1. Has been less than 48 hours since the inbound was re-worked, should I give it a few days before phoning, assuming re-ticketing could sort everything out?

2. If it is re-ticketed and Air Canada system still messed up and I have to deal with that, is one of those 'out of synch' issues?

3. How should I try to explain it to the United phone agent, if their system looks fine but I know AC record id screwed up. What do they have to do to fix it?

Sorry long winded but.... no status retired kettle here, its so difficult without benefit of priotity line and experience so many of you have....but I'm learning!

cfischer

If it is more than 24 hours, call again and have the reservation ticketed. Until it is re-issues you will see the mess on the AC side, after the re-issue it should clear up. On a 016 ticket it is UA that needs to fix it.

transportprof

I just discovered a stealth change on a Mileage Plus booking for Air Canada over U.S. Thanksgiving. I booked YVR-YYZ-EWR on a 767-300 for the longer leg. Air Canada now shows that flight has been downgauged to an A321. Goodbye pod, hello AC's least comfortable J seat IMHO. At least I got the 787 nonstop on the return.

I've had equipment changes on MP bookings before (eg TG) that did update in SHARES, but the AC-UA update interface doesn't seem to be working. Those who book AC awards, and care about the equipment they'll be on will need to check beyond their SHARES booking to see what is actually happening.

matthewswitaj

Hey

So, brand new to this. Here we go:

I cashed out my miles in May to book some tickets for a vacation in Capetown, South Africa. I was able to book through multiple carriers--mostly Ethiopian Airlines. My original route was ORD--VIE--ADD--CPT. Two weeks ago I was alerted via email to contact United about my reservations. When I called they said the Ethiopian Airlines will no longer have the VIE--ADD segment on the day that I had booked. I had to spend an hour trying to find award availability that fit my already-booked hotels. Short story is, it worked out and the routing will be through Paris and roughly the same time frames.

My question is this: What happens to my reward tickets if this happens again and there are no award seats? It does not seem fair if my only option is to find award ticket availability. What if Ethiopian Airlines cancels a segment for the return home when I am in South Africa? What are my rights on this and do I have any? Should I purchase really good travel insurance and hope for the best?

Anybody have suggestions or thoughts?

jsloan

Welcome to FT! Glad to see you were able to find options to repair your outbound.

In general, the only thing you'd have a right to would be a refund -- and even that would be iffy, because UA claims that if you cancel an award return, no miles will be refunded.

In practice, UA's policy is that they will open space as necessary on their own flights. Of course, since UA doesn't fly to South Africa, that may not help you very much; but if you're able to find an award seat to anywhere they do fly, UA will accommodate you from there.

There is also a Star Alliance Liaison at UA, whose job it is to interact with partner airlines to resolve things like this. UA could ask (but not force) partner airlines to open space for you.

All of this applies only to cancellations / disruptions prior to the day of travel. If your flight is delayed or cancelled on the day of travel, it's the carrier who delayed / cancelled that is responsible for rebooking you to your final destination. So, if you get to ADD and find out that the flight to VIE has been cancelled, it'd be the operator of that segment -- presumably ET -- that would be responsible for getting you back to ORD.

WineCountryUA

Welcome to FT!, matthewswitaj

As already mentioned, you don't have much protection from the airlines on this.

Dropping a route completely is probably the worst case (and rarer) situation. And more extreme alternatives (change of airports, .....) will need to be considered. Schedule changes including dropping service on some days will need some flexibility.

Note your protection for paid flights isn't really any better but paid rerouting may be easier.

Yes.
The credit card you used to pay the taxes on the tickets may provide some trip interruption protection.

Aussienarelle

So of course, another schedule change, but I now know to call in because if I accept the change online, more often than not it ends up in a loop.

However as the trip is not until November I am hesitant to call in due to Irma. I am sure they have enough issues to deal with.

My question is that one if the legs is waiting for an upgrade (it is not the flight with the schedule change) is this likely to adversely impact an UG if R space opens up and my reservation is showing the schedule change needs to be accepted?

swiftaw

Does anyone know what the MCT is in DEN for International to Domestic?

My wife is scheduled to fly back from Europe the Sunday after Thanksgiving, LH to Denver connecting to a domestic UA flight. When booked, the connection in DEN was 2:06, however just been notified that the domestic flight has changed to 35 minutes earlier, leaving a connection time of only 1:31.

There is a later flight (which would give a connection time in DEN of about 4 hours), but since I assume the Sunday after Thanksgiving is a heavy travel day, I would imagine there wouldn't be any seats available on it if she misses the earlier flight on the day, so wondering if I should call now and switch her to that flight just to be safe.

findark

Should be fine as long as the leg with the waitlist is not affected by the schedule change.

LH-UA I/D at DEN is 1h10. With GE and a J ticket I would be happy with the connect; otherwise probably better to go for the longer one.

swiftaw

They have a J reservation (747 UD) on LH (connecting to Y on UA, same ticket), but no GE, and probably a checked bag.

cfischer

1h30 should be fine. I don't see an issue w/ this. With a checked bag GE is not that important either. They can get unlucky and immigration is a mess, but I would risk 1h30.

MBS MillionMiler

Mods, thought this would be more appropriate in a oversell-related thread, but couldn't find anything more specific, but I think it's as apropos here as well...

To debunk an old theory..."Does UA oversell premium cabins?"

Yes, yes they do. 4 of us taking advantage of the mega-cheap paid F tix out of Toronto to Hawaii. Booked for late this year, where inventory is already very tight. Saw a schedule change that took us off a YYZ-ORD-OGG schedule and replaced it with a YYZ-DEN-OGG flight. (UA dropped the early AM YYZ-ORD flight the day we were traveling).

The problem is, the seat map on the 757 operating the flight showed as full. Now, I'm not sure if that flight requires the pilot rest or not (yes, I know 4AB are blocked regardless), but I know when I booked the original flight not long ago, I did check out the DEN option--even back then, I recall that flight being F3, with one seat left to pick. So inventory was already tight back then, even if 2 seats blocked off, I figured we'd be in for trouble.

Chose the ORD option for a number of reasons...

1. Coming from the USA Midwest, if December weather goes sideways, still want to be on that ORD-OGG direct, because of worst-case, we can always drive to ORD the night before if necessary.

2. More time in lie-flats, the YYZ-DEN flight is on a CR700. No thanks, even in F for a 3.5-hour flight.

3. After the change, as mentioned above, no assignable seats. Not only would we be first for an invol., it is kind of important that I'm sitting near my wife and our 2 little ones, especially on a flight of that length.

Called and spoke with an agent, who understood, and called 'up higher', she didn't understand why, but inventory management (or whomever she called) said they wouldn't change for us. I asked her to look at the load on the DEN-OGG flight, given my theory, and she said, "Wow, it's now oversold by 3 pax!...Let me call again", she got a different supervisor, and we were back on the ORD-OGG.

After cancelling, I went back on line and looked at the DEN-OGG flight, and it was F1. So, they did indeed oversell it by an astonishing 3 seats, and still no seats to select.

How would they have handled this had we all showed up that day? I'm sure it wouldn't have been pretty, and from what I understand, even as a 1K, we'd be prime for getting downgraded, given our low fare, no seat assignments and last-to-book.

findark

Standard oversale rules - assuming Y is not also overbooked, solicit volunteers to downgrade for ETC, and then downgrade according to the reverse upgrade list (upgrades in reverse order, followed by inverse status and then inverse fare class of paid tickets - as a 1K you should be fine but a lazy GA may just downgrade those with no seat assignments instead).

If downgraded you would have been due GG OVS DOWNGRADE compensation of $750 in ETC for DEN-OGG, plus a cash refund of whatever difference in fare was paid.


UA does not overbook the forward cabin in general, but as you see they may be willing to in order to accommodate extraordinary situations. F tends to see a lot of fluctuation close-in so it's quite likely that the flight would not have been oversold. However, I think you made the right call switching back to ORD.