NH_Clark

I've been worried about my TK biz award seats for later this year (geo politics and spotty reviews on inconsistent service in J) and have been contemplating rebooking with a DUB-BOS segment on EI but this thread has killed that notion. Why does UA even allow these "flights" to show up under award search?

ucdtim17

I was hoping to put my parents on the LAX-DUB flight in the fall for their first real business class flight. I guess I'll give it a shot and then fall back on the Ethiopian flight

RandomBaritone

Because it's apparently not anyone at UA's job to care that they're screwing over their frequent flyers by offering phantom flights, and have been for literally years.

JonIND

I can pull up the bookings by eticket number on the Saudia site, and it shows all the segments. The UA segments show a coupon status of "Open for use," while the EI segments show "Airport control," but from what I've read elsewhere, that can be normal.

mmayer

I have a mixed UA/EI itinerary that has been booked for months. Does not show up on the EI website, but shows up on the Saudia website.

I did call EI once, just to confirm they had the booking and they said all was well.

exerda

I made an award and a revenue booking involving EI earlier today.

The award booking has ticketed already, with all segments (including the LHR-SNN and ORK-AMS ones operated by EI) showing up fine.

The revenue one has yet to ticket. This is the first time in a couple of years that I've experienced such a delay in ticketing--and for a revenue ticket?!

Nate99

I just booked a multi-city trip on UA with various airlines using miles. Two of the flights operated by EI are giving me trouble. After clicking Purchase, it said there's an error and I need to call UA and I did.

The agent said the EI LHR-DUB and DUB-LHR flights are not confirmed and that the saver awards are not available for these flights. She suggested I booked these flights separately with EI. Without those segments, my total reservation turned out to cost a lot more. I don't want to spend more points and cash when it's clearly a mistake in their system.

When I look on United website and called EI, there are plenty of EI award flights available. What should I do? Agent said my reservation is being held for only 24 hours.

wanna go now

Is this the normal process? I found the flights on line, but when I tried to enter the passenger info, the web site wouldn't take the info. Called the web support to make the reservation. She said that because it is Aer Lingus, we have to call back tomorrow, and can pay the taxes only after Aer Lingus accepts and confirms the reservation. I'm confused about us having to call them. Is this normal?

bmr12

Same problem here for me. Shows available on the web site, I book, am told to wait 24 hours. After 24 hours, I call in and am told that EI "denied the ticket" and "is still trying to sell those seats--it's a long ways out" (six weeks). Throughout the process the web site continued to show that availability on that day and others.

I sure wish UA would fix their site to show real availability, or, if it is real, actually allow us to book it.

fly747first

Hardproduct-wise EI is the winner offering far greater privacy than TK. However, I do find that TK is far better on the soft product, especially catering.

FlyingDoctorwu

any recent experience with EI awards? They are listing IAD-DUB as available on their website, but I can't seem to find anything that matches on Avios.com or Qantas... so most likely phantom???

thanks
FDW

cfischer

have you checked EF? Why not try and book it and see if it tickets?

FlyingDoctorwu

EF does list availability but do they just pull from UA?

I don't have enough miles so would have to transfer...

FDW

eperrucci

On United’s website they have shown 70k business award travel for many international routes. Most are with their partner airlines but their ticketing system allowed me to book them. Once I saw this, I moved my Chase Sapphire points to United and the transaction was completed. Within a few minutes, I received a notice saying that United had to clear the flight with the other airline and it was rejected 24hours later. I have tried many times and the same thing happens for several different routes. I have learned that Aer Lingus is not a code-chair so they are rejecting mileage seats in hopes for more revenue seats be purchased. I could have moved my Chase Sapphire points to Aer Lingus and booked from there but didn’t because I have some United miles in my account. I have called United to reverse my miles back to Chase but was told there is no protocol for that transaction. Now I am stuck. Have you heard this happening before? By some miracle do you have an idea to help me, I would love to hear it.

sexykitten7

There is an extensive thread on UA EI ticketing problems.

In general, it sounds like you saw phantom inventory (there were never any award seats). You can ask UA to ask EI to open seats but that's a real long shot. Or just book a connecting itin on UA. Lastly, IIRC UR transfers can be reversed. It's extremely rare but your circumstance would certainly qualify.