Aussienarelle

Normally I request the BP be emailed to me but was a bit busy yesterday so it was only on the app. Thought to myself how bad can that be?

BP was on the app this morning so all good. Get notified my flight is delayed and suddenly both my BPs have disappeared. Think somehow I must have unchecked myself, although I am still #1 on the UG list for the second flight when I look at Flight Status. So go to check myself in again. Get a message I need to see an agent. Ughhh.

So now I need to go and see an agent and factor in the extra ten minutes in a busy morning. Annoying.

How does this happen? The BPs just "disappear".

SFnFlaGuy

That's odd. For me I usually automatically do a screenshot of my mobile BP once I get it. (I got stuck at security in SEA a couple of years back since I couldn't get a signal on my cell to get the mobile BP to show up properly. Since then, I've always taken screenshots and I get through security with no problems)

oopl

Yes like SFnFlaGuy says, always screenshot.
A flight I was on was delayed due to late aircraft. I asked the lounge agent to protect me on the next flight. After that, mobile BPs disappeared from the app.

meducate

I take a screenshot and I also save it to my Wallet app in my iphone. Never hurts to have redundancy and redundancy.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Is there an advantage to taking a screenshot? My BPs get to iPhone wallet w/o having to do so...

airzim

Just re-check in on the mobile app. Should resolve right away.

I believe you can check in until 20 min before departure.

Darlox

While it doesn't seem like others are having the problem as frequently as I seem to be, for me, this has been related to whatever change they recently made, regarding "protection". If a flight is delayed that would cause a downstream mis-connect, the system is either automatically (or some agent is manually) adding protection segments on later connections. But that segment forces the ticket out-of-sync with the PNR.

When that occurs, my BPs disappear, I cannot re-check-in, and I can't use the self-service tools in the app to swap to alternate flights. Can't do ANYTHING until I call the 1K line and get them to resync the ticket. (Which also involves removing the protection segment, unless it's one I intend to keep...)

The app itself works great. All of my problems with the app dropping BPs are actually related to underlying problems with the ticket, caused by UA's re-accommodation processes.

Aussienarelle

Yes, apparently it is due to UA protection on the next flight in case I miss my connection. The wonderful Dan at SAN checkin shared that with me.

i should not need the protection as my connecting flight is also arriving late but still nice to understand that the app will not always display the BP.

Even more reason to email the BPs.

BThumme

I can echo this. Had this happen three weeks ago. It's nice they protected me, but it locks me out of other functions that I really need access to.

venomtrilogy

Two weeks ago I had a BP drop from the app but the entire reservation was just a one-way. So there must be other reasons why this happens. I still have no idea why it happened to me since I was hurried and the agent seemed to only click two buttons before sending me off.

fumje

I estimate this is some automated system change.

In February I had this happen two days before flying and called to have it fixed. The agent annotated the ticket instructing no proactive changes to be made. Morning of departure I went to the airport and could not print my paper BP until I had another agent fix it again by deleting the protection. I was at the airport quite early (drove with someone on a different flight), so that would have been about 4h before departure. Amazingly, then, 90m before boarding, I got a telephone call (!) alerting me my ticket was discombobulated and could I please let them know what I wanted to do.

Of course, it's quite possible someone was (or some people were) just blithely ignoring the notes and re-adding protection, but to me the persistence and disjointed actions suggest a computer run amok.

Darlox

I figure it HAS to be... For a couple of years prior to ~2-3 months ago, anytime I had a significant delay or other IRROPS problem, I'd get the red-exclamation icon in the app and could search for changes, swap things around, etc. For the last 2-3 months, I have not had ANY IRROPS situation where my ticket hasn't ended up out-of-sync.

Don't get me wrong... I appreciate the customer service gesture that flight protection offers! I think it's great.

It's just typical UA that no good deed goes unpunished, and their attempt to provide better customer service blows up all of their downstream technology.

DELee

And/or have physical copies of the BPs printed - both at home and at the terminal or, if you prefer a thicker stock, at the United Club. You can always toss the paper but having hardcopy backup can be invaluable, especially if your phone dies or can go MIA.

David

fumje

Agree on all points.

Were your IRROPS situations involving smaller airports? I notice your profile location is CLE, which I'd currently call smaller.

I had a very-IRROP LGA-ORD flight recently that did not cause me troubles.

Darlox

Nope. The worst problems I've had on this count, lately, have been SEA-SFO and IAD-BOS.

It's pure speculation, but I think the key may be whether it's a CONFIRMED misconnect, or just a possible one. In all of the cases where I've been bitten by this, the delays were ones that would cause an impossibly-tight connection, but not an outright miss. For instance, on SEA-SFO, I had a 50-minute layover that, post-delay, was ~5 minutes. My segment prior to IAD-BOS was on a rolling delay, and when the connection went <30 minutes, the protection segment appeared in my itinerary, and I lost the ability to do anything. Was still on the ground at that point, so I called in and had them fix my ticket. All is fine in the app again... Then when the delay extended and caused a FORCED change, I got the red-exclamation mark. But I figured that was because I'd already had them remove the protection segment (which would also have now been useless, since I was looking at only next-day options at that point), so it wasn't a situation where additional protection would have helped.