gregas

Thanks...I did look for that, but it's not available on my dates.

aacharya

There should be tons of bookings available via IST to the East Coast, and then IAD or EWR to LAX. Book the non-preferred option, and then switch when better flights pop up.

mickeydfly13

Aer Lingus is EI, not IE. Just FYI.

gregas

Sorry for the dyslexia...yes IE is Internet Explorer.

gregas

I'm still not clear on the processes, but here is what happened:

1) Built reservation on united.com; it did not ticket and just disappeared

2) Called premier line a few days later and got an off-shore agent. After about 40 min. and much hold-while-I-consult, she rebuilt the itinerary in the same record (which still existed, but had no flights). When she got to the EI flight, she said it was "unconfirmed" which meant that it was not available. She proceeded to explain to me how airlines manage award inventory...irritating. After the call, the flights were back, but disappeared shortly thereafter.

3) I re-built the itinerary on united.com with a new record. I immediately called in to ask about confirming the EI flight. Got a US rep who also said it was unconfirmed, meaning unavailable. When I asked why it showed as available on the web site, she transferred me to web support. I waited for 20 minutes on hold and then got disconnected.

4) The record still showed the flights so I called a little later to try one more time. The US-based rep claimed 20 years of experience, but was not familiar with the EI booking. She was suspicious of whether 'U' was the correct fare class for an EI business award. After some research, she determined that it is. The then proceeded to "re-sell" the seat. The red text in my online itinerary was replaced by black text saying something else. Unfortunately, I failed to record either of theses messages. Early this morning, it ticketed.

That was easy!

I still wish that I know more about what happened, but here are my observations:
1) You WILL need human intervention. It may be best just to do the whole award on the phone, but if you do build it online, you MUST call!
2) Many of the reps, even experienced ones, are unfamiliar with EI award bookings. HUACA!
3) Don't count you chickens until they are ticketed!

I guess that these are pretty obvious bits of general FT wisdom and I let myself get a bit complacent when doing the original booking.

If anyone can shed more light on the process and the meaning of re-selling the seats, it might be helpful for other people, who will then be better equipped to hand-hold the UA phone reps.

Joe758

I was looking last night for a trip we are taking and I found award space for 2 business seats from MCO-DUB-LGW. I needed to check with my wife so I put the tickets on hold.

Questions.
With a reservation on hold, can I be sure it will book? I'd hate to transfer the UR miles and then error out.

Can I call to see about changing from DUB-LGW to the LHR flight instead?

Can I call and pay for one ticket out of my wife's account of miles and one ticket from mine?

I'd be ok to pay the phone fee if these are something that can be done. I'd just hate to stuck with 140k United miles and not be able to book the ticket. Thanks!!

transportprof

How, exactly, did you put these tickets "on hold"?

mherdeg

If you don't have enough miles in your MileagePlus account to ticket an award there will be an option to put the award on hold.

To be honest, I would make no promises that the MCO-DUB-LGW will ticket — I figure 5% chance UA claims that their partner EI didn't really have the space and leaves you holding a pile of miles. I think if that did happen, you'd be able to escalate to a supervisor who might be able to force open UA space on something like MCO-EWR-LHR and book a similar trip at the originally agreed-upon mileage price.

Asiatraveler15

So you "farelocked" it?

If so cancel the booking and rebook on what you want.

WineCountryUA

Only if award space is available. Canceled award inventory does not necessary re-appear.

Joe758

Before the hold expired at midnight, I called United.
I did receive an email today saying. ​​​​​​​​

We have requested confirmation of your flights from Aer Lingus. This process may take up to 24 hours. We will notify you via email upon confirmation.
This reservation is not ticketed. Pending confirmation fr​​om Aer Lingus.

I asked if they could look into my reservation to see what the problem was before I transferred my miles to complete the booking. After a short wait, the representative confirmed that the space isn't actually there. I thanked him for saving me from wasting my time in trying to complete the booking.

The flight wasn't until next September and I already have a backup on BA First with AA miles. While I am looking forward to that flight, I'd be glad to rebook without the fees.

Joe758

Data Point:
After cancelling the held reservation, the space showed up again on the EI flights. I had enough points to book one ticket. I went ahead and booked. The reservation ticketed after about 1 hour. However after that, the second seat disappeared.

I waited up until 23 hours and still no space for 1 more ticket so I cancelled the first booking within the 24 hour window. Shortly after my miles were redeposited, the space for 2 tickets showed up again. I confirmed the space by looking on Expertflyer for business class space on EI.

I rolled the dice and transferred enough Chase Ultimate Reward points for the second ticket into the account. I went and selected the flights and crossed my fingers.

Less than 30 minutes later, I received the email that my reservation was ticketed. Score!

The satisfaction of having this work will only be supplanted by the 8 hour layover I built in to the booking so we can go into Dublin and have lunch at Temple Bar.

StoryShark

On 11/13 called BA to book award flight on EI. Expertflyer and United both showed 2 U-class tickets available for DUB>BOS. The agent confirmed he saw the seats available too but when we went to book the award Aer Lingus' system wouldn't confirm. The BA agent tried to override it but couldn't. He said that Aer Lingus had an antiquated system and to make matters worse they are in the process of changing computer systems so booking flights on EI have been a nightmare the past couple of weeks. He told me to call back in a week. After the call, I checked Expert Flyer and the award seats were gone.

I called back the next day 11/14 after noticing the award seats were showing up again on Expertflyer and United. This time a female agent at BA was able to make it through the booking process, take my credit card payment for taxes and issue me a BA confirmation number. She said I would receive an email confirmation shortly.

On 11/15 I noticed I hadn't received an email confirmation and the flight was not showing up on my BA Exec Club itinerary and my Avios were still there. I called BA again and the agent initially couldn't find the flight. When I gave him my confirmation number he was finally able to see it and saw that my credit card transaction did go through, but that Aer Lingus has not "accepted" the booking yet. The agent spoke with his supervisor and the supervisor recommended I wait two more days for Aer Lingus to confirm and withdraw my Avios.

Update: 11/17 Got a call from British Airways saying Aer Lingus couldn't run my credit card to finish the award booking."No worries, all is fine, your seats are still safe but I just need your number again." This is funny since I called my credit card company and they said that the original credit card transaction was authorized so they shouldn't need to rerun the card. Still no ticket confirmation.

RandomBaritone

I'm trying to book a couple of one-way J awards SFO>DUB, but they never ticket because of some kind of problem, possibly a technical snafu between UA and EI. I'm looking to travel mid-June 2016, and there appears to be good availability on several dates via LAX, then onto DUB via the EI nonstop.

The very helpful UA representative with whom I spoke said the problem might magically resolve itself, but I'm skeptical.

Does this happen regularly between UA and its non-*A partners? Is this "phantom inventory," as I've heard sometimes occurs with LH F, or will I really get the seats once the glitch sorts itself out?

WineCountryUA

Moved you post to this thread as booking with EI has some checked history. This could be phantom inventory but based on the recent posts it seems it is system interfacing issues.