riclagriclag

I'm using my award miles on a reservation that was booked in January. United changed my flight itinerary. I'm not happy with it.
June 10 Bangkok to Italy to Newark to Providence. The Newark leg was to arrive at 1:30 pm and depart at 3:40
The change is to arrive at Newark 1:30 pm. depart at 10:30 pm.

Is it possible to rebook another flight? What are my options?
Thanks

cfischer

7 hr schedule change ... you get pretty much whatever you want on UA metal and same booking class on partner airlines. Just call and tell them what you want. This is an easy one.

riclagriclag

I called UA, they issued me a new itinerary NWK- PVD Arrive 1:40 Depart 2:53pm
Thats much better

SAPriorityTag

Hi All,

Not sure if this is related but does UA ever open up award availability if a schedule change on their own metal turns a 1-hour +/- connection to over nine hours? Originally booked EWR>CLE>LAX it appears UA reduced the schedule on CLE>LAX from 3x daily to 2x?

Thanks,
SAP

Indelaware

Nine hours... Should be no problem in getting them to find you UA space with a shorter connection. If not via CLE then IAH, DEN, ORD, SFO, or nonstop.

The difficulty is if one needs space found on an OAL rather than on UA. But this is not your situation.

username

I had a problem with this a few weeks ago. UA had a schedule change that would cause me to misconnect from AC. It was a Saver Business class ticket. First UA 1K agent was glad to book me on UA for Standard Economy with no additional charges

I had to call back and another agent booked me into YN (regional) and JN on UA without even having to put me on-hold. So, know your options and rights before talking to them.

SAPriorityTag

Indelaware, my question that remains unanswered is since this was a saver award and there's no other saver inventory left will an agent move to a better routing option at the same "price" or will I have to pony up the difference in miles?

mduell

Yes, UA can force open saver award space on their own metal to accommodate schedule changes like this.

pinkhighlighter

Hi all,

I have a somewhat complicated question that I will try to ask clearly.

First, we're flying to Madrid this June using miles. My husband is Silver, I have no status. We didn't have enough miles to book all of our reservations on one reservation, so they're split. My husband and son are on one reservation using his miles. I'm on another reservation, using my miles. We managed to get business saver reservations.

On Jan 3, we received an email from United saying they changed their reservation. I think the message is in error b/c the flight time for our first flight is now -5 minutes (yes, NEGATIVE 5 minutes). When I log into my united.com account, the reservation looks unchanged and correct.

I have read here that when United changes your reservation, you can use this to make other changes without cost.

We'd actually like to fly in Sevilla, Spain NOT Madrid, Spain now. Do you think they'd let us make this change? And do it with the same miles originally used for business?

Many thanks in advance for help!

WineCountryUA

So what changed -- just the time (which will generate a change message)??

If there was just a minor time change -- doubt you will get a free pass on a change in destination.

If the time change was substantial or the routing was changed or the type of aircraft or ... then may be.

azzurro

The change will have to be perceived as substantial to allow a free change (such as missing a meeting deadline), especially to change the city destination. The change you mention is not likely to qualify.

Mike Jacoubowsky

United waives change fees and will possibly refund tickets if a flight is delayed more than two hours. Beyond that, you can usually get a phone agent to switch you to an earlier or later flight if a schedule change puts you right at minimum connect time, for example, 35 minutes domestic to international at IAD (formerly 50) was pretty much a no-brainer, especially when you can explain that, over the past week, 4 out of 6 flights wouldn't have made the connection due to late arrival of the initial flight. Not that I know anything about that...

But MCT issues aren't usually going to allow a change in destination.

azzurro

Correct, changing destination would be a huge favor from a friendly CSR. Nothing to ever count on even with a 2+ hour change. You would have to convince them that the change would cause you to miss your other mode of transport, and even then their most likely response is to get you to your original destination a day or so sooner... the only way they would likely do so without fee would be if award inventory was open, and even that is unlikely for silver status.

pinkhighlighter

Darn. I thought that might be the case.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Might be good to keep a couple things in mind. First, getting saver biz tickets is the holy grail of award tickets. You scored! They're the toughest thing to come by, and, in all likelihood, the chances of the stars and planets lining up again to get you three saver tickets for Seville are slim to none. Second, there are trains leaving every hour to Seville, 2.5 hour trip, and probably reasonable in cost. European train service is not to be confused with what's available in the US; it's generally cheaper, faster, and more-comfortable.

You're going to have an awesome vacation. Don't let any disappointment about your flights not being perfectly-optimal get in the way.