runchadrun

I have a LAX-YYZ-FCO saver award ticket on AC for this July which I booked back in September. In the meantime there have been some schedule changes and an unfortunate upgauge from an A330 to the dreaded 77W HD on the YYZ-FCO leg. The original schedule had us arrive in FCO at 10:45 am. Now we are scheduled to arrive at 8:30 am which means we're going to have to pay for a hotel room for the night before so we have a room ready when we arrive. (I've checked with 3 hotels and early checkin doesn't seem to be a thing in Italy.)

The only current one-stop availability are standard awards on United metal, with a 10:30 FCO arrival if we route through ORD. Will UA open up saver availability on their metal for me because AC changed the arrival time to be 2:15 earlier?

PV_Premier

no guarantee, but it certainly doesn't hurt to ask. if it tightens up a layover, or also allows you to leave LAX later, use that as leverage as well.

747FC

I am travelling on a UA-issued international J award ticket from a US origin city with a connection in a foreign city on the way to another international destination. The operating carrier is a foreign Star Alliance member. When this ticket was originally issued, the MCT was 1 hour, and the actual connection time was 1 hour.

When I looked at the UA website today, my itinerary still shows the one-hour connect time. There is no warning issued.

When I checked the inbound and outbound flights on the foreign carrier's website, I noticed that the "connect time" is only 55 min, and additionally, the site does not show the connecting flights pairing up if I do a dummy booking from Origin-Destination. The operating carrier has not contacted me about a booking problem.

So, what would you recommend? Do I:

1. Leave as is: Nothing to worry about?
2. Contact either the Operating Carrier or UA: I will be held responsible for having a ticket with illegal connect?

FYI, here is an earlier inbound connecting flight which I would like, but according to the UA site, there are no Y or J seats available for award purchase.

Thanks for your thoughts.

RobOnLI

This is entirely UA's problem until the day of departure when you check-in with the foreign carrier.

You can call UA and ask them to check the flight times. If they realize you violate the MCT rules you might be able to convince them to get you on the earlier flight. The problem here is UA has no control over award space on the other airlines and if there is no award space UA can't magically open it up for you. So your option there would be to take UA-operated flights to your connection point in Europe or wherever it is and then keep your onward connection on the foreign carrier.

Tell us which airport you are connecting through and we can offer opinions on whether 55 minutes is doable. For example, 55 minutes in FRA is more than enough.

Are both flights operated by the same foreign carrier?

-RM

mahasamatman

Call United, and tell them a schedule time has left you with a connection that is too short. They will open up inventory on United metal if necessary to accomodate you.

747FC

Thank you.

There is only a very short walk without further security, so I am not worried about the 5 minutes less in connect time. Both flights are on the same carrier.

There is no UA flight to the destination.

I just am concerned that either UA or the other carrier might come back to me and say, "Hey you have an illegal ticket!" and then I'm screwed.

mahasamatman

They still have to get you to your destination since it was fine when you bought it. It just may take some time...

mduell

First I'd check the connect time against independently sourced schedules from the operating carrier. I've seen UA's connect times be off by tens of hours.

cfischer

some nasty changes for my 5/7 trip. UA changing schedules 6 weeks prior to departure ... oh boy

Taoyuan

I thought I've seen this before but had no luck searching:

If booked in a first/business class itinerary and a 1-class regional jet gets swapped to 2-class, will they move you up after calling in?

Thanks.

mahasamatman

If the inventory is there, they should. If not, you can waitlist for the front cabin.

cfischer

yes, but you'll have to call. Without calling it won't happen automatically.

findark

It also depends how the original ticket was booked - there may be a difference in fare to pay if you had a fare break at the connection point. If a through fare they should reticket for free if you call.

Taoyuan

Thanks everyone - I was able to get my folks re-ticketed with no problems.

Tblack15

Just got a call from United.. (Unknown number) VM saying "there's been a schedule change on your flight on March 31".
I went online to look and all is the same. Thoughts?