aCavalierInCoach

Not sure I follow. It’s the same flight. There is no F on SFO-LHR-FRA either but the onward flight to JNB can be booked to first. But if you pair it with the SFO-FRA then the onward flight availability disappears

jsloan

That sounds like married segment logic to be sure -- meaning that an agent is unlikely to be able to push it through.

aCavalierInCoach

Can someone explain how this is “married segment” when F doesn’t exist on the first half of the trip where it’s showing up for?

jsloan

LH lists its inventory according to some arcane rules that I've never quite been able to figure out. This includes award inventory. The flight availability on FRA-JNB is determined by whatever LH thinks the journey is. For SFO-FRA-JNB, they've decided that there's no F inventory. For SFO-LHR-FRA-JNB, they've decided that there is. (I think -- but I'm not sure -- LH may only be looking at its flights).

"Married segments" just means that inventory is considered as part of a series of connecting flights, regardless of the inventory on the individual flights themselves.

aCavalierInCoach

got it. So in this case the likely issue is LH doesn’t have availability FRA-JNB but is offering it LHR-JNB; it’s all LH side.

edit: no, if I just search fra-jnb it shows available…
edit2: Looks like the married segment issue may in fact be on the SFO-FRA sector. SFO-FRA-JNB is available in business, but SFO-FRA is not.

Very annoying either way.

jsloan

Definitely very annoying -- and, yes, that's precisely it. LH is offering F On LHR-JNB and FRA-JNB but not SFO-JNB -- perhaps SFO-FRA also has an F cabin, and they're requiring it to be available all the way through? As I said, I've had a hard time figuring out exactly how LH inventory works. (It's similar on paid flights, BTW -- their availability of P inventory is even more arbitrary than UA's, and I'd guess A is as well, although I haven't looked).

JimInOhio

Wild guess: on SFO-FRA-JNB, SFO-FRA is the longest segment in that itinerary and so F availability for the route is driven by availability on that segment. With SFO-LHR-FRA-JNB, the final segment is the longest LH segment and F availability for the route is controlled by that one. As I said, a wild guess.

edelweiss

Successfully changed a segment of my trip! Sharing it here in case it helps anyone - if you have the time, call and give it a try, it might work! (I wouldn't try changing a partner award online, too risky...)
I had the following reservation: MRU-IST (TK, I); IST-EWR (TK, I); EWR-BOS (UA, XN). MRU-IST was no longer available in I (I took the last two seats ) but IST-BOS was now available in I. So I called in and the agent was able to just swap out the IST-EWR-BOS segments and replace that with the IST-BOS in I! I had read many reports that such a change usually needs the full itinerary to be available to make a change, but the agent was able to make a partial change for me

WineCountryUA

Check with TK to make sure TK agrees.

jsloan

In particular, check the old UA receipt vs. the new UA receipt, and make sure the ticket numbers differ. Then, check the TK site to make sure that they have the new ticket number, not the old ticket number.

RobOnLI

This times a thousand, OP! I'd be super leery that the UA agent actually changed the ticket correctly and that TK knows about it and actually shows you on the newly booked flights in the correct class of service. This has "danger" written all over it. I truly hope it works out great but what jsloan suggested must be followed.

-RM

edelweiss

Thank you all for your advice. I was concerned too, given the multiple posts about incorrect re-ticketing. I haven't received new ticket numbers (Manage Trip > Email Receipt doesn't work either). However, using TK's PNR and mobile app, the correct itinerary shows up and I was able to pick seats. Using the old ticket number in the TK mobile app gives me an error (can't find record for ticket/name entered, something like that). Does that sound like sufficient validation, or do I need to actually call TK (or is there some other way of verifying on the TK side)?

jsloan

The fact that it doesn't show up under your old ticket number is a good sign. I'd call (or message) United and ask for the ticket number, and try that one on TK's site too. If the new ticket works, but the old one doesn't, I'd feel pretty confident.

edelweiss

I got the ticket numbers from United's twitter agent and was able to pull up the reservation using those ticket numbers on TK's app Thanks again for the help!

Exterous

To briefly summarize 5.5 hours on the phone I called United about a better J award flight home that I saw was available on their website for my DTW-IAD-FRA-CPH-FAE-CPH-ZRH-JFK trip. I asked if I could change my return flights to the better option. After 30 minutes on hold I was told that my existing flights home (CPH-ZRH-JFK) had been canceled and I was now waitlisted for the flights I had asked about. As my trip started in 12 hours I absolutely would not have OK'd a switch from confirmed seats to a waitlist if I had been presented with that option. I immediately asked for a reinstatement of my original flights - with a sinking feeling as they were LX flights. After another 30min on hold I was told that only the CPH-ZRH flight could be re-added and then the call disconnected. I immediately called back and after another 4.5 hours I ended up with a much worse CPH-ZRH-IAD-EWR trip - an extra segment and more time spent on layovers. As I was now landing many hours later at a different airport we ended up getting a hotel overnight since we would no longer be able to make our previous engagements. I didn't get much of a response to why they couldn't book what I saw on their website when searching one way but this was an excursionist perk ticket so I didn't push hard because those can get a little weird and I didn't want to make things worse.

After completing the trip (And the ovens in the J galley on the United 767 from ZRH to IAD didn't work so service was reduced while they shuffled stuff back and forth from Y) I reached out with a few sentences of detail summarizing without emotion to inquire as to my compensation options. The response was "Your request for compensation is appreciated however we do not provide compensation as a solution for every flight irregularity or dissatisfaction with our service however your feedback allows us to identify problem areas and make necessary technical and procedural changes which in turn will help us identify opportunities for service improvements.

Although we cannot honor your request, your understanding is appreciated."

I mean - OK and while I know Flyertalk gets a lot of these kinds of posts I kinda feel like if an agent cancels your flight without asking you if you are ok with that, you get stuck with a worse routing as a fix and the service is reduced because a galley is non-functional I think that would be worth something? Am I off base with that as a lowly no-status United flier?