Good to know, thanks everyone!

Having nothing but problems trying to book a W fare. All the reps just say the system doesn't allow them to request a fare code.

Did you escalate to a manager? I've never had a problem booking specific fare codes and specific flights, although it can sometimes take a few escalations or HUCA.

I think Chase subcontracts this now to Expedia. That is probably why the reps can't do this.

I, too, recently ran into this trying to purchase a W fare. The Chase agent told me they could only search on economy, premium economy, business or first and had no idea what "W" was. I wasted a bunch of time and spoke with a few reps. The last one understood what I wanted but told me their new "improved" system did not allow purchase of a specific fare basis/bucket. In fact, this system seems to be rather deficient as reps had problems finding availability on a variety of UA nonstop flights -- suggesting idiotic things like AA nonstops from EWR that I knew didn't exist and which turned :eek:ut to be from JFK. The level of understanding and expertise I experienced in my recent interactions with Chase was abysmal. They seemed to have no way to offer anything other than what the computer spit out and no understanding of why these offerings were not acceptable.

I was promised a callback about this but so far I've not received one. I need to call Chase back about this.

I have made several purchases this way and had no problem applying GPU on United website - received PQM, PQD etc

When was your last attempt? I was told that my account was "migrated to the new system" about two or three weeks ag:o.

I think the change to Expedia really screwed this up. I called 4 times and then requested a supervisor.
She was nice but still could not request a specific fare.

I last tried this about 2 months ago - I didn't know we had a new system, I better go check

Yep, the new system doesn't have the capability to do this. There are, indeed, not many special things Expedia phone agents can do other than what we can already do on the web portal.

I've found zer:eek: things that the Chase/Expedia agents can do that can't be done on the web site. In fact, they seemed to me to be generally incompetent.

FWIW, after having my request for a specific fare class denied by Chase I called Amex travel so I could use my MR points for my ticket. My request for the same fare class was handled with no problem whatsoever.

If they're not typing into SABRE or an equivalent, you will not get anywhere. If they have really moved to agents without this access, that's a huge downgrade.

Since Chase m:(ved its travel portal over to Expedia one can't request specific fare classes. Their agents only have access to the same things we can pull up via the web site. Escalation will not get you anywhere. Yes this REALLY stinks. If you absolutely have to book via Chase your only option is to do so and then call UA to move to an eligible fare class. I'd suggest trying that within 24 hours of booking so you can cancel/refund if UA won't take over the ticket and take your money. Good luck.