NONFLYER

I booked an award flight on 1/17 and had a confirmation number, the miles deducted from my account, and the reservation showed in my UA App for at least a few days. Today I noticed that the trip is now missing and my miles are back in my account. I checked online using the confirmation number and it says the number was invalid. Called CS and they were no help. Now the only options are for really lousy times. The original flight I booked is still available for purchase but not reward travel. Does anyone have a good upstream contact that can help? Has this ever happened to anyone else?

TA

What carriers, what destinations?

fumje

Did the award flight involve partner airlines? If you can find routing on UA metal, you may have success haranguing them to open space for you—and that would be worth making an effort to do—but otherwise unfortunately there's not much recourse.

emcampbe

Did you have a reservation or a ticket. Two different things.

This isn't as uncommon as you might think if there is a partner airline involved. Partner airlines have 24 hours to confirm the space to UA (well...24 hours if in * Alliance...72 hours otherwise). If the partner doesn't confirm the space, the reservation drops and it is refunded. In almost every case of this happening, this is is the issue.

You should have received an email right after confirming everything with a subject of "Your United Reservation for [destination]". When the ticket is issued, you should receive a second one with a subject of 'MileagePlus eTicket Itinerary and Receipt for Confirmation [PNR Here]'. The first email indicates something along the lines of 'we're processing your reservation' and I believe for partners notes it can take longer to confirm. They all say if you don't receive and eticket and receipt (i.e. the second email), to call UA. The second email, if you got it, contains info. such as your 13 digit ticket number (which starts with 016).

Did you receive a second email with a ticket number. If not, it is likely it never was issued because of a partner not confirming.

NONFLYER

UA Mileage Plus reward reservation made through the United App

I don't believe so. i booked directly through the United App. I thought it was odd that I didn't get an email, so I checked my account and it showed in there. I thought that maybe it was because I purchased it for my son as the traveler, using my account.

flyerbaby19

This doesn't answer the question of what airlines are on the flight, but my best guess is you never had a ticket. If you didn't get an email, that's a good indication. But you need to be more specific if you want help.

docbert

And at this point the travel agent making the reservation will contact you and advise you of the failure to ticket and discuss other options.

Ohh.. wait... we're talking about United...

NONFLYER

I guess the first leg of the trip was thru SkyWest Airlines. Sorry, I'm a rookie at this.

fumje

SkyWest is essentially United. However, were there other Star Alliance carriers operating other segments? If you post your intended origin/destination you may be able to get some specific advice on what to ask for and who to contact.

jsloan

Right. Specifically, if all of the flights were operated by United or United Express (SkyWest is a United Express carrier), then (a) it would be extremely surprising that it didn't ticket and (b) you can likely get something viable reinstated. However, if any of them were operated by a partner airline other than United Express, then you're going to be in for more of a struggle. Posting the routing (and airlines) will help people make better suggestions.

CreditCardGuru

I never knew SkyWest was United. United has been a good experience for me so far.

jsloan

SkyWest (OO) is actually one of the largest airlines in the country (if not the world) in terms of the number of flights operated on a daily basis. However, they don't market any of their own flights. Instead, they contract out with the larger airlines to handle regional operations. OO actually operates flights for American (as American Eagle), Delta (as Delta Connection), United (as United Express), and Alaska (as Alaska SkyWest).

However, in the context of this thread, "SkyWest is essentially United" because the only SkyWest flights that can be purchased with MileagePlus miles are those being operated as United Express flights.

TA

A little frustrating for OP to give info in drips and drabs. OP, please reply with all the carriers on your ticket as a courtesy to those offering to help you.

mduell

For the better, since it isn't.

emcampbe