wakesetter93

Sounds like your best bet is to go for standby on the morning flight. Or if you're a gambling man you could roll the dice.

eng3

Both tickets being on UA, you can definitely check your bag through. Just show both itineraries to the agent.

You can't combine the two itineraries. The best you can do is ask them to put a note in your your record on each itinerary. The issue is that if your inbound flight is late, the GA at EWR can't see this info. If they decide to pull up your itinerary they can see the note. If you do miss your flight in EWR, since both tickets are UA, UA will work with you to get you to your destination. Unfortunately there aren't a ton of options. and you may have to get a hotel and wait 24hrs til the next flight.

But I agree with others, you are safer taking the earlier flight.
I hope your TA explained the ramifications of booking two separate itineraries especially on an international flight. If no, maybe you can complain to the TA and get them to eat the cost of changing you to the earlier flight.

br2k

FWIW from my experience, as long as both flights are on UA on separate PNRs, United was pretty good reaccommodating us on an international connection when a first UA flight was late. This happened twice so far in the last year.

YMMV, of course, but personally I would be ok booking such a trip again and wouldn't worry much.

And yes, bags could be checked through, of course.

pinniped

I put more of the blame on the TA. Hey, we all learn somewhere, right? While 2-PNR itins are getting a lot of attention these days, in part thanks to travel agents who proactively display them under the moniker "hacker fares", there's *not* much attention given to the risks. Flyertalkers can be an unsympathetic bunch, and we forget that most of the world doesn't fly as much as we do.

Anyway, travel agents shouldn't be selling people 2-PNR itins with a two hour connection, full stop. It's a bad practice to expose their clients to that kind of risk. Now if the client is INSISTING on taking the risk, maybe another story. But you shouldn't get stuck with one of these due to a misunderstanding/miscommunication. It's on the TA to *not* sell this unless he/she is 100% certain you absolutely want it.

I book 2-PNR itins all the time, but I'm doing it myself and have no one else to blame if the whole thing goes awry.

A competent TA here should have said "your two choices are surface travel to NYC or the 6:15AM flight."

milepig

Are you sure about the plane? Still a Q200 on Friday.

milepig

Oh. Looks like Friday is the last day for the Q200. Just my luck.

emcampbe

So, firstly let's be clear about what was booked (even if the TA wasn't). You aren't flying Ithaca to Hong Kong via Newark, you are flying Ithaca to Newark and Newark to Hong Kong. These two itineraries are completly separate contracts - unlike a single ticket. This is NOT a connection. On a single PNR, it is a connection and UA is required to rebook you if your first flight makes you misconnect. While, per reports on FT, they typically will rebook on missed connection on separate tickets are both UA flights, they are in no way required to. So if something happens and you misconnect - be nice, even if any delay on the first segment is UAs fault - they do not have to help you, and being nice is the best way to help them help you.

That said, the agents in ITH should be able to check your bag through. Show them both itineraries, and they are able to do that. Give yourself extra time for this, and do not check the bags online...do it at the airport. Especially if you don't have status, as they won't be able to get your international allowance if you try to check in the domestic only.

Secondly, on connection time...IMO, I will not book a connection of less than 2 hours in EWR on a single ticket...it's just too common to see delays at EWR to book anything less (I typically book 1 hour or even less sometimes at other UA hubs, like ORD...IME, its not the same risk). I would give at least several hours on separate tickets at any US hub.

I'd definitely try to get on an earlier flight. And good luck.

StuckinITH

I wouldn't count on it. Even with an Embraer, that flight is still a UAX not a mainline UA. EWR shares with JFK, LGA and PHL a very congested air space. If the ATC puts a ground stop or rolling delays, when they reopen the air space, priority is usually given to the big planes. I used to have much less problems of misconnections when USAirways had a hub in Pittsburgh.

But I can see how the TA in China made this a ITH-EWR-ITH and a EWR-HKG-EWR reservations. Most probably the person inviting you told the TA that you were flying from New York, not knowing that Ithaca is some distance from there. I frequently travel to China and once a TA there could not book me from the small city where I now live to PEK through ORD and I had to fly through EWR which meant a very early flight and no chance to get to my PEK flight if my flight was cancelled, whereas a connection through ORD would give me enough time to drive or take an Uber if there's a problem.

In memory of my 30 years of flying out of ITH, please let us know if you made your flight to HKG. My wife and I are going there in mid-November and staying there 10 days.

luek096

The connection is doable if the weather is ok. Worst case if you miss the connection I am sure UA will rebook you and you will probably need to stay overnight at EWR for the next day flight. Booking as two separate tickets is most likely a cost issue, a through ticket of ITH-HKG is either ridiculously expensive or the itinerary won't even show up during the search. I book separately all the time when I was at Ithaca, never had a big issue. If you still concern about the separate itineraries, tell you agent to book you from SYR next time.

pinniped

The multiple-itinerary concern is that some airlines in the past 1-2 years have gradually walked back what they'll commit to in the event that you book 2 PNRs.

Some are now saying they won't pass the bags along to the 2nd itin (when they did in the past), even when it's themselves or someone they regularly interline with. Some are saying protection isn't guaranteed on the 2nd ticket if you misconnect.

I suspect that Ithaca counter agents are friendly people who will tag the bag all the way through, and would rebook you if you were in an obvious misconnect state if it's known there. I *hope* the people at Newark would do the same. But I don't really know what's in writing: what United guarantees they will do for you. I suspect there is no such guarantee. You're potentially just asking for mercy at that point.

Kacee

UA's handling of the 2 tix has been accurately described in multiple posts in this thread already.

It is UA's policy to check through on two separate UA tix. It's not easy due to software limitations, however, which is why several of us have advised OP to get to ITH early.

It is not UA's policy to provide protection in the event of a miss, though the agents will typically attempt to find a solution that does not involve charging a change fee or fare differential.

pushmyredbutton

There's a lot of great advice here already. I'll offer my two cents:

The 6am flight (UA4966) on Friday already shows 'Full' on the app, so even doing a confirmed SDC for $75 may prove tough. I would suspect getting an agent in ITH to check your bags through to HKG while on unconfirmed standby would be a bit too much for ITH agents to handle.

IF the weather is good on Friday, and IF the inbound flight to ITH isn't posting a cancellation, I'd probably take the risk. However, if there's a cloud in the sky at EWR or for some reason the inbound to ITH is showing anything but on time, I'd be on the earliest bus to NY/NJ or renting a car.

If you do decide to get to EWR on your own and your original ITH-EWR flight does end up posting a delay, I suspect you'd be able to call and get UA to drop it from the record, allowing you to still fly to return when you get back.

pinniped

That's my point. It's not their policy, you're relying on someone to "typically find a solution." Basically, a favor. A favor for a non-elite traveler at a hub like EWR. Not something I'd personally bet on from United.

I still say this is a very ballsy play...a 2 PNR itinerary with only two hours in between when Flight 1 has a high delay rate to begin with and Flight 2 is a long international flight that probably *will* depart ontime. Seems completely unnecessary, given how easy it is to get from Ithaca to the city without flying at all.

But sure, now it's done. Go to ITH at 4:30AM. Maybe get the favor from the counter agent there. No disagreement with that.

mikethe1

Here is story: In the past I wasn't in the details of understanding how tickets, loyalty programs working etc. Just lowest price. So I've booked multi PNR both with United, even not knowing there is a term for that. During the check in the agent automatically combined the itins without me even asking for that (again I wasn't aware there is thing called Itin, PNR, and Multi PNR).
Apparently it took for the agent about 15 minutes to do so, during which she called United operations etc.
In the end she accused me of deliberately reserving multi PNR and causing them hard work during the check in.
In response I've just said that this options was cheaper and this is the only thing I'm looking for.
[When I finished that trip I've received in the mail my silver status card and thought it was the miles program regular membership card since I've remembered that I've signed for free for that during one long layover and the agent said to me remember the number, and we will send you more details.
I've discovered I actually earned a status (and what is a status) in the next time when they suggested to upgrade me for free to economy plus].

chavala

But it IS their policy to check bags through to another Star Alliance Carrier.
Yes, it will take extra time in ITH (it sometimes takes forever in DFW), but print out the policy from UA.com and insist.

On the other hand, I think you're nuts trying to make that connection. I agree, take the bus or buy a new ticket for the night before.