Originally Posted by findark

HUCA and don't get your record annotated ("oh, that's too bad, I guess I'll need to think about it some more..."). I think the #1 thing people get wrong when calling UA is asking for supervisors for help. The only time it's good to appeal at a supervisor is when you know the letter of the law is on your side, and even then it can be less than great.

Originally Posted by willi348

...I'm not sure why United is so adamant that they won't help a customer when there is a very easy solution available...

Originally Posted by willi348

....
Yes, I agree. I spent the first half of the call with a rep who claimed to not have visibility to award routing that I could clearly see online. So you think there are now notes in my record so that calling back will be fruitless? That's frustrating to say the least.

Originally Posted by threeoh

If you provide exact dates and where you are trying to fly, that might help someone here think of a creative solution.

Maybe there is a way (pre-booked taxi?) you can get to the Florence train station earlier? On a random date I picked, I see a 6:00 train that will get you to FCO 3 hours before your flight and a 7:43am train that will get you to the airport 90 minutes before your flight. Not the best rising time the morning after a wedding, I understand.

From where you are staying, is getting to FLR easier than to the train station? There is a 6:35am flight for $82, getting you to FCO at 7:25am, only a little more money than the train. It's a broken ticket but 4 hour buffer.

Can you stay one more day, get to Rome leisurely and get a United metal flight the next day (that they can force award space on)?

Also remember you can get a full refund and start from scratch....probably business class one-ways would be expensive but if you don't mind economy for the daytime west-bound flight, you can do $700 per person on TP via LIS. You could even do a similar itin from FLR and avoid Rome altogether. Maybe not ideal but it's an option.

Seems worth a HUCA, since what you are asking for is (a) not unreasonable and (b) not guaranteed by policy.

But yeah: dates and desired destination would be helpful here.

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA

Impossible to tell and too late to do anything

Never give up on the first try (but never push too hard on the first try). The best solution is to call again. You can even mention you called earlier but have now investigated the train timing as the reason for a second call.

Originally Posted by Kmxu

The easiest way is to delay your return for one day. Just tell an agent that this might be the best solution for your situation caused by the schedule change. As mentioned earlier, United can force open save business awards on its own metal for you.
Alternatively, if you have found award availability of A* partner flights from FCO to another European city served by United (e.g., FRA, LHR, CDG, ZRH), United can also force open save business awards on its own metal from this particular city to a US hub and then your destination. Basically, you have to do some homework before you call United again.
Good luck.

Originally Posted by willi348

Do you think that would include what I've proposed? There is open saver award space on the A* partner flight from FLR to MUC and I've asked United to force open saver business awards on it's metal from MUC - IAD and IAD - DEN. The United flights are available as Everyday awards so I'm not asking for award space where it doesn't exist, just a reduction in the required miles for the flight.

Originally Posted by nomad420

Had recent schedule change on a EZE-EWR-SFO flight giving me now 70 mins to transfer in EWR to my SFO flight. Having not done this route through EWR is this enough time? I do have Global Entry, Clear, and Pre Check fwiw. Thanks for your input in advance.

Originally Posted by findark

Without checked bags, you will probably make it okay. If you have to wait for baggage delivery then I think it is unlikely to work.

I/D without a terminal change has an MCT of 1h10 exactly UA online.

Originally Posted by nomad420

Bummer, a bunch of bags per usual. Thanks, I may call and see what my options are.

Originally Posted by willi348

I just found out about a schedule change on an upcoming award flight of more than 2 hours making my return flight impossible to get to in time. We were set to fly out of Rome at 1:40pm and now the departing AC flight leaves at 11:35am. We're attending a wedding in Florence and don't have flexibility with plans to be in Rome the night before in order to catch this flight. I spent over an hour on the phone with customer service and a supervisor. There are no later flights available departing Rome so I requested a flight out of Florence that same day. I was first told that it would have to be a saver business class award flight as that's my original booking but there are none available. When I asked for leniency to book a return trip on UA flights (I do understand they can't authorize saver availability on a partner airline that isn't there) that are available at the everyday award level I was told I'd have to cough up the extra 160k miles for the 2 tickets. I pressed on a bit and was then told that they could accommodate an award at the everyday level on their flights if no saver tickets were available. I thought we were good to go. I asked to book and then was told that since Florence is more than 100 miles from Rome (145 to be exact) they cannot authorize a change of departing city. You work your way through one issue and they have another one waiting in the wings (pun intended).

The customer service supervisor told me to just wait and keep checking and hope for the best. Hope isn't a strategy in my book and I'm not sure why United is so adamant that they won't help a customer when there is a very easy solution available. Any suggestions for how to approach this? If any of you have been able to successfully navigate UA. I'd love to have some tips. Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by findark

I think the #1 thing people get wrong when calling UA is asking for supervisors for help. The only time it's good to appeal at a supervisor is when you know the letter of the law is on your side, and even then it can be less than great.