sxchan

I was trying to book nonstop SFO-TPE using UA saver award, but no seats on the nonstop, so I booked from SFO to TPE via ICN as follows:
1 UA 893 24DEC MO SFOICN 1040A 415P#1
2 TG 635 25DEC TU ICNTPE 530P 710P

I only have 75 minis to connect if flight arrive early or even on-time, I should be fine. I guess my question is that I have been monitoring the UA flight and it has been slight delay range from 15 min to 30 min. The legal minimum connection time @ ICN from INTL to INTL is 70 min. At SFO, if the flight starts to delay more than 5 min, can I request to be rebooked for the UA nonstop flight SFO-TPE because I will be no longer meeting the min connection time at ICN?
What if I missed the connection at ICN, would UA rebook us on the next Star Alliance (like BR) flight to TPE? or does it have to be on TG flight? That is the last TG flight of the day.

Thanks!

sincx

To the best of my knowledge, the late delivering carrier (UA) is responsible for your connection. Which is fine in this case, since UA is also the ticketing carrier. The one caveat is that UA cannot force BR to open up seats, so if the BR flight has no award space, there's nothing UA can do. But UA will probably waive all fees for the change assuming there's space on the next BR flight. Note that any changes may have to be done over the phone, since UA's staffing at ICN is likely to be minimal.

The problem will arises when the late delivering carrier is not the ticketing carrier. For example, a UA-award ticket with travel on Avianca connecting to Copa. That sort of situation is a giant hassle.

Kacee

You can ask, but you're not likely to get anywhere unless/until the flight is substantially delayed - like at least an hour or two.

UA will rebook you, but there's no way to know for sure how that will play out. It's best if you know your options and make a specific request. You may wind up overnighting at ICN.
That's not correct. UA is not limited to rebooking in award space, though they may (incorrectly) tell you they are, particularly if you have no status.

That would be hassle only because AV is likely to give any excuse it can think of to dodge its responsibilities. There's simply no question that the delivering carrier is responsible for rebooking. That is the IATA convention. It doesn't matter who issued the ticket.

John Aldeborgh

Connecting in ICN is easy and quick. Now that Terminal 1 is almost exclusively *A things should be even more efficient. If you miss the connection at least you will have a United staff to assist in finding an alternative flight. There are a number of flights between ICN and TPE so I'm confident you should be okay, the higher your status the better your chances. The biggest risk is that planes are full but given its on Christmas Day I would think traffic would be only moderate.

WineCountryUA

Even if you depart 10-15 and even 30 minutes late, the plane still may arrival on time. The pilots can make up some delays in flight and there tends to be some padding in times to allow for small delays.

jsloan

That's not how Minimum Connection Time works. The 70 minutes already includes a tolerance for delay.

FlyerTalker70

Presumably they could SDC into the UA non-stop during OLCI supposing there is positive space on that flight? I'm guessing they could also switch gratis anytime between now and flight time to non-stop if positive space opens up?

-James

jsloan

Not "positive space," but rather award space. Making a change would require X (economy), XN (economy w/status or a UA CC), or I (business) space on the nonstop flight. "Positive space" means "any seat."

This itinerary isn't technically valid for SDC, but an agent may be willing to overlook that to change to an all-UA itinerary. Note that free SDC requires Gold status or higher. OP doesn't list any status; the change fee to get to the nonstop would be between $0-$125 per person, depending upon status and the amount of time until departure.

OP: If you want the nonstop, you could call UA and ask to be waitlisted for it.

ttuna3

OP,

As above UA is responsible to get you to BKK if you mis-connect. There is a TG nonstop aound 2130 and 4 non stops between OZ and TG to BKK that leave just before/after midnight so you will likely be put on one of those flights if you UA gets in late enough to miss the 1730 flight. OZ is a Star Alliance and ICN is their hub so I believe that they do most of the actual ground handling, you'll likely be dealing with the OZ agent who work the UA flight when you get off and then the OZ agents at the transfer desk if you mis-connect. OZ is usually pretty good at making something work as long as the last flight(s) with or with out connections hasn't left yet. There also might be options on NH and SQ with connections.

That said, I've made a 35 minute connection after a delay when OZ held a plane for about 10 minutes for me and a couple of other people and it's not unknown for them to hold a flight for 5-10 minutes for similar types of things. Mad dash down the concourse and they expedited through security and they had a couple of carts waiting after security to get us down to the far end of the concourse.

Good Luck and hope this helps out.