mozilla

No, the new flight is operated by GOJET AIRLINES DBA UNITED EXPRESS (G7). Even if G7 owns AX, the flight would still be operated under a different AOC.

New text has now been added to the UA flight status, and it seems the records of the canceled and the replacement flights have been fully merged, so it looks like everyone will just transfer over to the new flight:

Status: We want you to know that because of a change in our operations, your original flight (UA 4709) from Wichita to Denver on Jan 10 has been renumbered to UA 3372. This change will not affect your existing reservation. Your estimated departure time is 05:38 PM, arriving in Denver at 06:20 PM.

I agree they shouldn't have sent you an unnecessary cancelation e-mail though.

jsloan

Here's the current status, oddly enough:
The flight is starting to populate.

Flight 3372 is operated by GoJet, not Trans States. You can see the difference on United.com if you search for the flight status for the two flight numbers separately.

Kacee

UA really messed this one up.

mozilla

Looking more into it seems the problem was the long gap between the cancelation and the addition of the replacement.

On Jan 7, UA was aware that the flight would not be operated, and someone modified the flight record with the bogus cancelation message that OP posted above. I say "modified" instead of "canceled" because it seems this didn't happen in a traditional manner; presumably, because they were aware a replacement would come, but they were waiting on GoJet for the exact details. The seat map of the canceled flight remained active and filled, not every monitoring system picked the cancelation up, OP said the app still showed the flight active, it also seems the affected itineraries weren't picked up by the automatic rebooking system, and CS wasn't aware of what was happening. Unfortunately, some notification system - most likely linked to the flight status system - did pick it up and sent out cancelation emails to pax.

On Jan 8, at 5:55P CST, the replacement was loaded in the system - perhaps directly by GoJet - with presumably an empty seat map. In the ensuing evening/night/early morning, some of the affected pax noticed this and asked to be rebooked.

On Jan 9, shortly after 9A CST, the records were merged on the flight status page, and the occupied seats of the canceled flight started to move to the new flight (looks like it happens one by one).

So it certainly looks like someone in Chicago is processing everything manually during office hours, which may explain some of the shenanigans and some of the time gaps.

If something went wrong here, it seems to be the modification of record of the canceled flight before details of the replacement flight were available. Or someone acted in good faith and just wasn't aware that the notification system would be triggered.

JimInOhio

Trans States and GoJet are two separate airlines which are owned by a common holding company (along with Compass Airlines). GoJet is not a subsidiary of Trans States Airlines.

txaggiemiles

If the new flight was a lot more expensive, and you can, I would attempt to cancel that flight for a refund and call United to get your old reservation reinstated.

At the very least, I would be interested in hearing what happens if you try that as a datapoint.

goodeats21

This happened to me a couple years ago. They cancelled the flight in the system without having the replacement flight loaded...and so obviously didn't transfer passengers onto the new flight. I think it was an EWR -> CVG or EWR->DAY route.

Mine turned out great. Was re-booked on a connection through ORD, which then was oversold. So I got a very nice VDB voucher and put back on the now loaded, direct flight..which was lightly loaded, so upgraded cleared right away.

WineCountryUA

This should become a classic FT story of turning a lemons into lemonade.
^