Agreed; if you're trying to hide things from the airlines, obfuscating airport codes isn't likely to help.

I'm not a fan of oversharing, and I'll frequently use XXX or AAA when the details don't matter. In this particular case, though -- the details seem to matter.

UA has been proactively rebooking pax from oversold flights from stops to nonstop for a while. But this was usually done at the gate without telling you the reason of "generosity".

I won't say this practice is dishonest, but questionable. The way I see this practice as soon as UA is willing to offer this, and pax accepting this, there will be no overselling, i.e. no V/IDB compensation. Questionable is UA should tell the pax why the "generosity".

IDB compensation in that situation is zero, because you arrive at the destination on time. UA is well within their rights to move the passenger to a different routing, including changing connecting airports, adding, or dropping a transfer, even if the reason if due to an oversale, provided that the passenger still gets to their destination within an hour of the scheduled time.

I tried to get to ZZZ in economy but I never could get there.

Yeah I’ve had this too, with no warning. LAX-SFO-SEA, they protected me and the Mrs. on LAX-SEA.

No no notification but the change wasn’t forced. The segments were simply protected, and when I got to the lounge I asked what was going on and they said ‘oh we thought you might want to get to Seattle sooner.’ ( And they offered the whole thing in F; I’d only cleared one of the segments at that point.)

I happily said yes; I considered that good service and not some sinister plot to keep me from getting a voucher. Sure it may have saved UA a voucher by freeing up a seat, but that’s what I call win-win. I get to my destination sooner and they save some money.

Not sure why you’re sticking around for 120 PQMs. You need 100,000 to make 1K.:D

I can’t fathom this out. Unless the OP was on a “VDB run” and had booked the original flights knowing they were typically oversold and hoping to make a little fortune from a VDB deal.

If its about the miles (unlikely as they’re only after 120 :D ) the RDM/PQD wouldn’t go down as they’re based on the fare. If it’s PQMs you can request ORC. But when my upgrade cleared flights get rebooked they book into a premium fare bucket (anything from P which gives 1.5x PQM to J which gives 3x) so even without ORC you can often end up better off. Indeed I’ve had cases where the rebooking into a premium bucket increased the RDMs and PQD st no extra cost to me.

The difference in PQM would be minimal anyway. According to gcmap.com, the difference is only about 10%!

AAA-ORD 5,489 mi
ORD-BBB 452 mi
Total 5,941 mi

AAA-BBB 5,327 mi

So was “AAA” actually MCI? If so, and if the flights were on UA mainline that would make “BBB” any of the major hubs.

And one MCI-ORD flight was canceled on 9/10 (2174), and another (4597) was delayed.

I HATE getting stuck at BBB. The only thing was was the time I got stuck at AAA. Both terrible experiences that made me truly hate those airports.

UA Using Dishonest Tactics to Avoid Oversell
 

I tell the agent that I’ll go to the airport to figure it out. In the meantime check my Wunderground app and FlightAware. No major airport delay and no weather. No storms on radar and less than 20% chance of rain. Sensing something fishy I check the UA app and my two original flights are on time and inbound aircraft scheduled to arrive early.

A quick check of the UA app and I find J1Y0 for my AAA-ORD flight.

I get to the airport and find a TA as I can’t get my BP’s on the phone and ask what’s going on with my PNR. She researched, says hmmm a few times, then explains more or less that a Sup at MCI probably did this to avoid an oversell and wanted to help me out.

Except when they aren't.

Before the merger, I was scheduled to fly IAD-ORD-SAN. I chose that routing over the IAD-SAN direct flight because the former arrived in SAN earlier, and I needed to be there by that time. Night before my flight, I get a call from UA. Friendly CSR asked if I would mind being moved to the IAD-SAN direct. I said yes, I mind, because I need to be in SAN early. CSR says here's the problem - we don't think your ORD-SAN flight is going to be on time, because the aircraft for that flight is going to be arriving late. So I said sure, and was very happy the following day, because the direct flight ended up arriving in SAN before the ORD-SAN flight.

But that was then, and this is now, and since the merger I've never been contacted in advance by UA about schedule changes. More than once I've gone to bed the night before a flight thinking everything is OK, only to arrive at IAD to find out my flight was cancelled and I've been put on a different flight. Not even through e-mail - and yes, I sign up for automated flight alerts. I haven't abandoned UA because of this change in customer service, but it has reduced my confidence in UA, which translates into considering the competition when in times past, I wouldn't have.

I don’t see how it’s so relevant but since some folks will do it without it, AAA was MCI and BBB was DEN.

And first fight they put me on MCI-DEN I couldn’t make as I still had work meetings.

Again, the point isn’t if they tried to help me and themselves at the same time, the issue for me was someone was trying to be dishonest. Maybe there were storms in the am but telling me both my flights were “likely” to be cancelled is disingenuous at best.

I suspect there is some kind of automated itinerary harmonisation process that runs. How long was your ORD connection? Was your ORD-DEN flight the last of the day?

I once gave myself a slightly tortuous routing so that I could accompany someone partway (different reservation). A few days before the flying I got pushed to a direct flight without notice, and I called to get put back. The agent actually annotated the record with my request, but the morning of flying I wound up with some funny protected situation like you describe: couldn't check in properly, etc. I got back on my desired flights. However, there didn't seem to be a clear oversale situation on anything, so I think it was more likely a computer just trying to reduce the chance of me misconnecting somewhere.

Except for the fact I got a text after 1pm central time which is after 1500Z. My subsequent call was after that as well and clearly there wasn’t weather and the notes were not true in my PNR.

Correct, space was held/protected and they did not take away my original seats. Had they done that and made a change without asking I would have been upset.

If this is true then should anyone be mad about equipment swaps and you go from Polaris/lie flats to old school F? What if you book an F ticket so you have a flight with a meal and then you’re out on a shorter itin on a CRJ with no F?

If UA does this, regardless of whether the customer is asked to approve the changes or not, would there be any difficulty in getting ORC? Is this viewed as a voluntary or involuntary change or does UA call it IROPs when it's really an oversold flight? AFAIK if one accepts a VDB and is rerouted in a way that results if fewer status miles or segments, one only gets credit for what was actually flown, just as if the ticket had been changed at the passenger's request.