Why does UA randomly confirm bookings via snail mail?
Jun 23, 2019, 9:49 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Oakland CA
Programs: DL Gold, AS MVPG, Globalist
Posts: 1,008
Why does UA randomly confirm bookings via snail mail?
Every once in a while, when I make a booking, I get a letter from Houston, on United letterhead, confirming my booking.
Pic attached of one I got today.
Why do they do this? It doesn't always happen, but only seems to happen on revenue tickets, and only sometimes. Seems kind of like a waste of paper.
Pic attached of one I got today.
Why do they do this? It doesn't always happen, but only seems to happen on revenue tickets, and only sometimes. Seems kind of like a waste of paper.
Jun 23, 2019, 9:56 pm
#2
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
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Posts: 66,769
Years ago this happened for the Visa Companion tickets as it was all handled by mail then
An older thread on this (with no answers) Paper Reservation Confirmation
An older thread on this (with no answers) Paper Reservation Confirmation
Jun 24, 2019, 1:29 am
#3
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,115
Those "eTicket Reminders" are outdated. They even refer you to continental.com, a domain name that nowadays is registered to Continental AG from Germany.
Anyway, it could be a fraud suspicion or a cursory check to see if your MP address on file is still valid?
Anyway, it could be a fraud suspicion or a cursory check to see if your MP address on file is still valid?
Jun 24, 2019, 3:48 am
#5
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Programs: United, Bonvoy, NEXUS/GE, Amex Plat
Posts: 125
I get these too! Maybe around once a year, or one every two years. Could never discern any sort of pattern as to why they appear. All my tickets are booked direct, and the mailer is sometimes for domestic trips, sometimes for international.
Jun 24, 2019, 5:46 am
#7
Join Date: Feb 2012
Programs: Hertz PC
Posts: 657
Got one last year. Called why I recieved it. Explanation I got was if the reservation system gets a message that email confirmation was "undelivered" it will generate a paper confirmation. Which makes no sense because I had received an email confirmation.
Jun 24, 2019, 7:46 am
#9
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Jun 24, 2019, 10:03 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Oakland CA
Programs: DL Gold, AS MVPG, Globalist
Posts: 1,008
My email provider 'greylists' senders -- so when you first send an email to me, my email server tells your email server 'hey I'm not sure if this user exists; please check with me later'. Normal email programs will do that, but spammers won't -- and so it cuts down on a lot of spam.
However, UA may be seeing that greylist error message and assuming the email is bouncing, so they send the paper confirmation. Then they try again and it goes through, but by then they've already queued the paper one. It would explain why I don't always get them too -- the greylist lives for some period of time ( several months or a year? ), so subsequent emails from UA come right through.
Not really sure that's the reason, but it's as good a guess as any.
Jun 24, 2019, 10:19 am
#12
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Join Date: May 1998
Location: CT/NY
Programs: UA 1K/1MM, AA EXP, Marriott LT Titanium, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Plat Amb
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In my experience, I get a paper confirmation with a phone agent-processed transaction. Perhaps it's an option for the agent to check and send a paper confirmation in lieu/in addition to email?
Jun 24, 2019, 11:43 am
#13
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,115
Greylisting is widely implemented nowadays; however, so would be surprising if this was the case. We have it on our mail servers as well and very seldom, if ever, do we get a paper confirmation.
Greylisting also doesn't result in a hard error, it just sends a temporary failure back, and prescribed protocol for the sender would be to attempt again in a few minutes with the e-mail remaining in the queue. It would be an abysmal implementation if they were to generate a letter based on a temporary greylisting failure.
Greylisting also doesn't result in a hard error, it just sends a temporary failure back, and prescribed protocol for the sender would be to attempt again in a few minutes with the e-mail remaining in the queue. It would be an abysmal implementation if they were to generate a letter based on a temporary greylisting failure.
Jun 24, 2019, 12:51 pm
#14
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: New Jersey
Programs: UA MM 1K, AA MM Gold, Marriott LT Platinum
Posts: 3,235
Could be embarrassing if you have a private email address and the trip isn't one you want others in your household to know about. Reminds me of an urban legend years ago (before ID checks) about US Airways having a "buy one ticket, bring your spouse for free" promotion, followed by a letter to the spouse thanking them for flying US Airways to xxx. You can figure the rest out....
Jun 24, 2019, 1:35 pm
#15
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