zrs70

If you don't need the UA miles, you may want to consider both Cathay and Philippine Airlines, who both fly the route on much nicer aircraft.

transportprof

The CX flight to JFK costs a lot more than UA in J. Don't know about PR.

Regarding the AC options, the non-stop flight EWR-YVR is not Rouge, but I think that operates in the evenings. The SFO-YVR flights on AC are Rouge. They are apparently getting better, but I still haven't had the nerve to try one.

TGGDEL

This is hilarious - you guys make it sounds like a flying prison! I'm def going to have to google a trip report about this now.

Agreed that PR and CX would be interesting - PR for the novelty and CX for the lux. The thing is, not only are they much more expensive, 3 or 4 times more, they also involve a red eye, and as much as CX may have nice cirrus seats and PR have that weird overlapping J thing going on, a day flight on UA and a nights sleep at home is preferable.

Kevin Liu

I just received an email from UA regarding a schedule change for my future flight. While I don't hold any status with UA, arguing seems to be difficult to me. Anyways, they basically notify me that my departure time was changed from 5:45 am to 5:40 am and my final arrival time was changed from 2:54 pm to 4:43 pm (1 stops in both cases). Originally, I was hoping that I can ask them to refund my miles and I'll purchase a direct flight instead. However, the arrival time difference is less than 2hr, they refused to refund my miles (award ticket). Also, they can't offer any better flight schedule from UA operated flights. I wonder whether 2 hr rule is actually "REAL" and is there anything else I can do with it. Thanks !

zrs70

Is the connection city a different city?
Was there a change of carrier (from United to United Express?)

I have found UA to be very accommodating, even when it's under two hours. Whatever you do, don't escalate the call (as notes will be added to your record).

"HUCA" - Hang up and call again.

Tell them you must be somewhere by 4pm. Your daughter's wedding. Your grandson's graduation. Whatever!

WineCountryUA

direct flight is not UA offering?


There is no two hour rule -- it is a common practice (and was a rule many years ago).

Usually if there is an alternative UA option, UA is fairly generous on flight changes --- even small ones. But full refunds will usually take more a significant, > 2 hours to get a full refund.

You can also try another agent and might get lucky.

Kevin Liu

it was connecting at DEN and now IAH
yes the second leg was changed from UA to UAEx

haha well I'm afraid they will put me in midnight flights :P

Kevin Liu

well if we consider the differences in trip duration, I'm "ALMOST" like really really close to 2hrs ........
I'll try and call again thanks !

RNE

Call back. Explain that an arrival later than 3:30 p.m. will make you miss your daughter's recital. Ask for a redeposit of miles (without a redeposit fee) and a refund of all fees paid. If the rep balks, politely insist upon speaking to a supervisor. Don't give up. You have a good shot.

PsiFighter37

Worth checking your reservations this AM...found a few loaded into my schedule, even ones that were not flagged. Got routed to SBA via SFO with a 31-minute connection late at night...have to get that one fixed. If we are even a tad late getting out of EWR we will misconnect and then I am SOL on the nonrefundable hotel night down in Santa Barbara.

Of course, there is no R space on any of these flights now, even though there was when I originally booked. 2nd phone agent so far and getting an unequivocal 'we cannot change this'. Asked them kindly to check with the supervisor to see. Still not thrilled given my original booking was for the late 9 PM flight out originally to avoid any issues leaving work and now I am looking at a 6 PM departure...

ETA: Now I'm pissed...the first phone agent made changes without me confirming and changed my flight so that I am now on the waitlist back after having confirmed with an RPU 6 months ago.

ETA x2: Ended up getting that fixed...supervisor for the second agent got the upgrade back, and now I am on all the correct flights. Still not thrilled about leaving so early on Friday, but at this point I don't really have a choice given the hotel reservation is locked in.

Starman

This thread often has comments "I received an email from UA re a schedule change." In a quarter century of M+ I have never once, ever, received a schedule change email. Is this an Olympic record, or do I have some buried setting wrong? I certainly do get booking confirmation emails and numerous ad emails from UA. As a maniacal FT member, of course, it hardly matters, as I check seat assignments almost daily anyway.

PsiFighter37

I have never received an email either. Ironically enough, I received an email from ANA alerting me to a schedule change on a flight I booked via NH's website that is entirely on UA metal. Of course, no notification from UA, nor even a mention of the change on the reservation in .bomb.

HelloItsMe

In my many years with UA I never received an email notifying me of a schedule change, despite having tons of changes.
DL and AA have both notified me via email of schedule changes.
UA is simply tragic.

eddie1973

Booked a rountrip on P class DFW-ORD-LHR and noticed an eqp change on ORD-DFW with a note saying "flight segment is waitlisted", still retain seat in F but can't pull up seat map. Why is that?

Starman

The standard FT reply on this one is "probably an equipment change pending." However in my experience this particular peculiar wording ("waitlisted") has meant a complete cancellation of that segment from the schedule, with res usually taking one to two weeks more to change you automatically to something more inconvenient. An easy check is to try a new dummy booking on the suspicious segment. If it's not there, you know it's probably a cancellation, not equipment change. YMMV of course.