It is okay to vent your frustration on FT. :) Just monitor the seat map every 15 min. Hopefully, you will get a more desirable seat soon.
Good luck.

Hi Guys,

Need advice for a schedule change going back to USA from NZ. It appears SYD IAH on UA metal was stopped???

Have a revenue J (non mixed cabin) ticket for P2 and I was CHC SYD IAH HOM (midwestern non hub home) but now added in leg CHC SYD LAX IAH HOM.

It appears there is no longer any 2 stops routings on UA metal.

Now…my stupid questions :) (I’m inexperienced international traveling…still learning).

1) Can I be put on NZ metal? They do have a 2 stop route. AKL IAH in 773. Would like to maximize PQP.

2) It appears I have to stay with origin right? Would also be open to flights nearby ex ZQN but that admittedly doesn’t seem to offer markedly better routing.

3) Am not familiar with UA premium trans con. Would love lay flat seats for domestic leg. However I believe lay flat is only SFO/LAX to EWR/IAD…right? NOT SFO/LAX—ORD/IAH? In those cases it appears to be 753 or 772 high J. Probably prefer not to backtrack to HOM.

Ultimately my wife may be pregnant during this time so just trying to ensure she can be as comfortable as she can.

Thank you all for your help!

1) You can certainly ask for AKL-IAH. Give the agent the UA codeshare flight number instead of the NZ native/prime flight number. This is somewhat up to agent/supervisor discretion, though with the cancelation of SYD-IAH and no more two-stop routings you'd have a pretty compelling case, and I'd HUCA (up to a few times) if I was told it couldn't be done.

2) You can also depart from an airport within 250 miles of ZQN, though as you say, there may not be materially better options elsewhere.

3) All premium transcons (SFO/LAX-EWR) have lie-flat seats in J, but a handful of non-premium transcon flights also have them, especially between hubs. The 772HDs have them, but in an older 2-4-2 configuration.

1) LuxFlyer will probably be by to comment on whether or not UA has a protection agreement in place with NZ to put people onto that flight, but it's worth asking about. You might want to give them a couple of days to propagate the procedure internally, though, and the answer might still be 'no.' Either way, it'll have no effect on your PQP, however -- at least, not officially. UA sometimes screws up the calculations during IRROPS, but if you had booked that flight to begin with, it'd be no different than the routing through iAH. A UA-issued ticket always calculates PQP based upon fare.

2) Within ~250 miles, as discussed, but I agree that doesn't help.

3) As discussed, any widebody will have lie-flat seats, as will the 752. The high-density configuration is a FT whipping boy, but it's a lot more comfortable up front than a 737.

If UA flies nonstop from SFO to your home city, that's a more palatable option for UA. Also, if you talk them into ANZ, you should check to see if AKL-ORD is operating on that date, rather than AKL-IAH, as I'm guessing that'll lead to a shorter final, non-lie-flat flight.

No, it would require a specific protection agreement* to be in place with NZ or the NZ flight you want would have to be a participating flight in the fare (Fare Rules Category 4: Flight Application). Without knowing your specific fare, but given UA doesn't hold a JV with NZ, it is almost certain the language in the fare filing requires the transpacific sector to be on UA metal. and NZ/QF/VA flights are only valid for intra-NZ, NZ-AU and intra-AU segments.

*No protection agreement exists for SYD-IAH suspension. And as a point of reference airlines tend to only secure protection agreements when they are fully pulling out of a market, not just suspending a single route within it (ie when KIX was suspended, they had no way to route on UA metal, so they had to secure protection agreements else there would be no way for them to honor those fares). In this case they are still operating SYD-LAX and SYD-SFO, so while less convenient for your overall routing, there is still UA options out of SYD so they don't need to secure a protection agreement with another airline. The only blanket agreements they have for schedule changes is the use of A/C (TATL) or LHG metal (world wide).

Have agents messed this up? Especially if you feed them UA codeshares and they're off shore agents or don't fully understand that a codeshare isn't UA metal and isn't valid for rebooking in these schedule changes? Absolutely. But you're relying on an agent mistake as opposed to anything by policy which permits what you want.

The 250 mile rule only applies if they're rerouting with the new departure point being on UA metal. Unless the fare you're booked in allows to depart from ZQN instead of CHC on an OA operated flight, the origin must be the same and match what is allowed by the fare rules. Schedule changes follow fare rules, UA can only bend fare rules when they're the ones operating the flight in violation of what the fare dictates.

Same thing as above about agent error and feeding them codeshares.

But UA does have a JV with NZ -- unless it's expired?

Yes, your right. I was thinking Australia and not New Zealand since I was focused on the SYD-IAH flight. And it's not discussed or pushed as much since it's not as tightly knit as the NH and LHG/AC JV's. I just looked at fare filings between CHC and IAH (since I'm assuming HOM is meant to be OP's home airport and not Homer AK since that's not the midwest). All those fare filings do appear to allow travel on the TPAC sector on any UA flight operated by NZ (meaning you would need the UA codeshare to get the NZ flight, not the native NZ flight number) with AKL as a valid routing point. Additionally since there is no protection agreement covering the schedule change, they would need the booking codes allowed by the fare on the NZ operated flights (both from CHC-AKL and AKL-IAH).

That would obviously need to be validated against OP's actual fare rules though to ensure that fare allows the routing (it probably does). And of course would be asking a lot of whatever agent they talk to, to validate that when the schedule change guidelines for a UA-initiated schedule change say to rebook on UA.

Holy smokes! Thank you all! I don’t understand a lot of the details above (:D) but I think I get the gist .

• I keep my original PQP no matter what. Roughly $3200 total per person CHC SYD IAH HOM (yes, midwestern non hub home…not Homer, AK). Nice!
• Sounds like getting put on the NZ metal (with two stops!) IS possible but could be a major PITA. I may try (just for the fun of it) but won’t expect it to happen.
• Wide body SFO/LAX-EWR is all lay flat up front. What about SFO/LAX - IAD?
• Wide body SFO/LAX - IAH or ORD could be lay flat upfront (probably).
• Switching from CHC to AKL as origin probably won’t happen for this flight.

How did I do?

Happen to be in ORD Polaris lounge at the moment. Worth trying to talk to Ops agent here now? Or just wait for 1K line when I get to HOM next week?

Thanks again guys. What a great group of people here.

SFO-EWR and LAX-EWR are Business-marketed routes, which guarantee lie-flat service.

Any other (domestic, non-Hawaii) route might have a scheduled aircraft with lie-flat seats, but this is just a quirk of the schedule and not a promise from United. If you see an aircraft scheduled on such a route, it's likely to stay that way but it will simply be a First-marketed route which just so happens to have nice seats. All widebody United aircraft, along with all 752 (but not 753) are equipped with lie-flat seats.

An airport agent almost certainly won't touch a PNR that doesn't involve same-day or otherwise very close-in travel.

Very helpful! Thank you!

Only thing I can add is that when we flew J out of ZQN, we were the only ones in that cabin and my wife and I kept on getting up and going to the other side's windows to see the truly remarkable views of Aotearoa (The land of the long white cloud refers to the majestic snow-covered string of mountains that are sooo beautifl!)

flying in/out of ZQN is indeed quite spectacular on a nice and sunny day :)

Thanks!

Recourse for LH Changing Flight Time on UA Itinerary
 

Greetings. I booked IAH-IAD-FRA-AMS as Platinum through United. IAH-IAD and IAD-FRA are on UA. FRA-AMS is on LH. I upgraded IAH-IAD by paying cash. I cleared an upgrade for IAD-FRA using PlusPoints.

When I booked the flight initially, I had close to a 2-hour layover in Frankfurt. Here in the last week, LH apparently decided to change the departure time for FRA-AMS to a time before I arrive in FRA on my originally booked IAD-FRA flight.

I booked this routing specifically because of PZ availability on IAD-FRA. Ideally, I would have booked IAH-AMS, but over the last several weeks, I have not found any PZ on the date I need to travel. Given LH's change of the FRA-AMS flight, is there any chance whatsoever that if I call the United premier line, they would allow me to switch to the IAH-AMS flight in Polaris (without paying the fare difference) given that the upgrades I obtained on IAH-IAD-FRA are now essentially useless unless I take a much later flight from FRA-AMS?