ac921ol

Basically the wife and I booked from DC to Venice for a total of $750 per ticket total travel time 11-13 hours.
Dates Septermber 7th to the 21st

Got this email this morning

Dear Miss XXXXXX,

Thank you for booking your travel on www.united.com.

We are unable to ticket the above-referenced reservation. Some airlines require 24 hours to confirm a seat on their flight. In this case, we were unable to confirm your flight(s) on Brussels Airlines. Please call us at 800-UNITED1 (800-864-8331) so we can assist you in making alternate arrangements. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.


After calling they only offered us one flight for an extra $700 and then transferred me when I asked about other options.

Have any of you dealt with this? If so what did you guys do? Any chance of them putting us on another flight for the same price?

WineCountryUA

How sound after booking did you receive this notice?

UA does mention the potential issue in the fine print of the booking process. If their notice was prompt, you don't have any recourse. It is a industry problem due to how airlines share inventory information.

ac921ol

Booked Sunday, got notice Tuesday.
I feel like they could do more, not just say {sorry} pay more and I'll get you there connecting from a different airport.

WineCountryUA

So it was a timely notice and SN (Brussels Airline) would not honor the inventory. Unfortunately that is the way airline purchasing goes. You never had a confirmed ticket. Yes, it seems odd but this is the way multi-airline ticket purchasing goes. It works most of the time and you would think in this day and age it would be better -- but it isn't.

In the cases were there is a UA operated alternative option, many times UA will honor it on their aircraft but this appears a case where UA has to work with another airline.

Thing can get uglier if you had a booked, confirmed ticket and the partner cancels the flight and there is no UA option for the cancelled segment. UA will try to find options but in some cases the outcome will be a cancelled ticket and refund. This is not an UA unique problem, it can and does happen with other airlines.

MSPeconomist

Is UA willing to fly you someplace within reasonable (train) distance of Venice for a reasonable price? What if you take your UA TATL flight to BRU; are there LCC tickets you could buy too get close to Venice?

aacharya

TK is $848 and an all UA booking is $1023.

LIH

This has happened to me with DL as well as UA historically, unfortunately. Both times the U.S. domestic carrier really did try as hard as they could to accommodate me but I ended up just having to accept the refund and book a separate ticket to avoid a day's-long delay. Both of these were over a year ago but in each instance I didn't get very far in the complaint process.

ac921ol

So im looking at UA and they have the same flight, but they bumped up the price, seems like Brussel Airlines is not going to let them do the price they gave me.

Any way of talking to Brussel Airlines and seeing if that's the case? I want to confirm that's the case and UA didn't just jack up the price and say screw you.

emcampbe

Typically, partner inventory is not real time. When booking through one airline for travel in part (or whole) on another, the other airline, by IATA convention, has 72 hours (IIRC) to confirm the inventory and approve it. Within *, that requirement is shorter - within 24 hours. Which is what you had. Some confirm (or reject) quicker than that, but that is how it is.

Sort of OT, but this is different than a travel agency, which has access through a GDS and in most cases should be able to confirm right away.

Most times, the purchase confirms within the 24 hour time period, but sometimes it doesn't. As you don't have a ticket, and haven't been charged, really, UA doesn't have to offer you anything - they'll just tell give you your other options at the going rate - which as you've found out, can be higher than what you were supposed to pay for the itinerary that never got confirmed.

Someone mentioned the TK fare - I would go for that one if you can (through UA very likely may not be able to book it - you may have to book Through an OtA or TK directly. While they don't have an E+ equivalent, their regular economy product is quite good TATL - excellent food and pretty decent IFE options (if not a little bit of a pain of a GUI). They also have wifi on their 777s (I'm sure they probably charge for it now, but while they were installing, it was free and pretty good - way better/faster then any wifi I've used domestically).

Often1

OP - Looking at SN's website for those days, the lowest fare SN sells at is $1054.76 pp. You can certainly call and ask, but it would be extraordinary for SN to offer you a seat at a fare which it refused another carrier under an interline agreement.

Unfortunately, carriers have 72 hours to confirm positive space. If the other carrier, SN in this case, does not, the issuing carrier, UA in this case, may not confirm the ticket. That is so even if UA has real time visibility into SN space and may occur if SN simply perceives that it can (or more likely did) sell the space you wanted at a higher price.

Unfortunately, until you have a confirmed ticket, you don't have anything. If you look at the original email from UA, you will see that it contains very specific language advising you that you do not yet have confirmed space on all flights (the same would be true if you look online).

My advice is to act quickly. Typically all of this means that space is dwindling and thus seats at lower prices are dwindling. $750 for a TATL ticket in the Fall was a steal. $1020-1100 is a very decent price. The passage of time won't be kind to you.

If you want, call SN just because you can. But, be prepared to book through some channel, whether it's UA, SN, TK or a TA (if you use a TA, make sure it's a reputable TA you trust).

aacharya

You can verify pricing on any OTA or even google flights. Try even booking it as a multi-leg itinerary to confirm.

Most likely BN sold out/pulled inventory from your fare class before it ticketed.

Artpen100

I would go for a full refund and start over.

ac921ol

Seems like the flight is back, so wife and I are going to try again, since they haven't confirmed our other flight, and if any go thru we will cancel the other.

Just crazy, some of you saw flights went up, then today prices are what we booked at


Update.

Seems like this is
IAD-FRA-VCE

So not connection in Brussels anymore.

should I cancel the Brussels one and hope that the FRA works out? Or wait until I have a hard confirmation from FRA to cancel Brussels

Often1

What happens when you try booking on SN? If that's the hang-up, why not make sure you've got real-time avail there?

WineCountryUA

Welcome to the airline biz.
This is common -- (all) airline prices are very fluid. I have seen 3-4 different prices in a same day. Airlines are adjusting their inventory and pricing 24 hours a day -- if any competitor makes a change, many response. Once the they all get to about the same price, another will make a change up or down. The others will decide if they want to follow -- if they don't, the first one will restore the old price. very dynamic.