Mitz9060

Hi all,

I had originally booked an award ticket from MVD-PTY-IAH on January 8th that got me into Houston at 11 am and I booked a separate one-way ticket home to Chicago from Houston at 1:50 pm on United. I did it this way because there wasn't any award availability to Chicago.

I was notified today about a schedule change on the United leg of PTY-IAH and now I get in at 6:55 pm which will now make me miss the separate one-way ticket home at 1:50 pm. As of now, they are able to switch me on a flight that gets into Houston at 1:15 pm which still isn't enough time for my flight home.

Am I just out of luck on my flight home? They are saying I need to pay the change fee and difference of fare for a later flight, which is now way more than when I booked it at the time. I'm curious what others approaches would be? I would hate to book another flight home then just be screwed from another schedule change. I know it's still a couple months away, but is there ever a certain time, like x number of weeks before a flight where airlines can't make any more schedule changes?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

zrs70

What class of service? If in Business, you may be in luck...

I just did a search MVD-ORD for Jan 8, and there is a connection available: MVD-PTY-MCO-ORD (Last segment in Y). So you can do the whole thing on miles.

There is also a connection MVD-PTY-SAL-ORD (all in C).

Departure time for both is a brutal 1:22am. They should be able to do this change of destination without a fee because of the over two hour schedule change.

You may be out the IAH-ORD ticket. But in the end, no real loss.

Two Bee

They is probably the first person that answered your first call. Have an alternate flight plan and call back, as the schedule change messed you up, through NO fault of your own, and if you get the right person THEY may switch you. A suggestion would be to look for the same fare code so a switch may be granted. Explain that you did the right thing by buying a continuing flight on UA because no mileage fares were available all the way back. It's gonna tick them off, but kindly ask for a super if they play hard ball.

Be cool or they'll note stuff in the itin, and then you are screwed.

Give it a few tries, before giving them any more $$$!

Better yet do what zrs70 says!!!

Mitz9060

Thanks for the response!

And yep, the award ticket of MVD-IAH is in business. Would I be able to change the destination city to ORD? Or were you thinking just cancel the existing one and rebook this new routing?

zrs70

While I understand this approach, United doesn't usually see things this way. It's the risk of purchasing separate tickets.

I would use my approach above.

Good! Call UA again, explain the situation. Because of the schedule change, they can refund the ticket use it for your new itinerary. There might be a change in taxes. Tell them "However it makes most sense on your end... My goal is to get to ORD."

A great agent will either refund the IAH-ORD ticket or put a note in there allowing you to use it in the future without penalty.

jsloan

There were almost certainly seats available, but they were at the Standard rate, not the Saver rate. As far as United is concerned, the "right thing" would have been to purchase a Standard ticket. Seen from their point of view, this is no different than somebody purchasing two tickets instead of one in order to save money, and it's not a practice they exactly enjoy.

UA's sole liability in this case is to provide an acceptable rebooking or a complete refund of the ticket with the schedule change. (BTW -- it's entirely possible that the other flight will have a schedule change too. Give it some time.

In my opinion, escalating is far less likely to get satisfaction than it is to cause the dreaded note in the PNR. zrs70 is on the right track -- and if the agent doesn't refund / annotate the original ticket, OP should hold onto it and hope for a schedule change or flight delay that would make it refundable.

Mitz9060

I just got off the phone with them and unfortunately they said they weren't able to change the destination (was really hoping to get on the PTY-ORD flight) and they also didn't see any other availability from MVD-ORD, which I thought was strange. So ended up taking the flight that gets in to Houston at 1:15 pm and they were able to move me to a 3:48 pm flight to Chicago without having to pay anything. Despite now having a 3 hour layover in Panama, I'll take it since I'm not out of pocket any more money than I was before.

Thanks everyone for your input and now I'm just hoping there won't be any more changes unless it's back to my original.

zrs70

I’m annoyed by this. No reason they couldn’t change it. Did you tell them the exact flights?

Did you have enough miles to make a new reservation? You could have done that and cancelled the original. Always best to have everything on one record origin to destination.

But it sounds like you got something that will work.

Mitz9060

Yeah, I told him specifically the PTY-ORD and he said he had to check with a support person and the support person told him even with a schedule change they are unable to change the destination.

And the only other Saver award availability I saw was like 38 hour trip and couldn't come across the ones you found previously. I'm definitely with you on trying to get everything on one reservation and will be a lesson learned for me.

zrs70

Those seats are still there. F you look online or at the app, and tote in mvd to ord, the connections via pty/ mco or pty/sal will appear. So I’m even more annoyed now! UA should be able to think outside of the box. If they can’t change the destination, just refund it and rebook. It’s doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out. And there is no penalty because of the lengthy schedule change.

( flight I’m finding are virtually there but not really there? It’s possible… But I doubt it)

Mitz9060

Do you have a United credit card? I just got rid of mine recently and I know they have different availability for card holders.