Canada-US-INTL trips can only check-in on UA.com but not in App
Oct 18, 2019, 9:07 am
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: YYZ
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Posts: 1,267
gokeeper are you a Canadian passportholder? Sounds like it could be a Timatic issue that only affects the app...
Hmm. So this could be a bug only affect Canadian passport holders? I will ask around other CAN UA flyers and update later.
Oct 18, 2019, 9:25 am
#17
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: UA MM
Posts: 4,130
Oct 18, 2019, 9:32 am
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2011
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Oct 18, 2019, 10:00 am
#20
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 1,338
That's because you hold a US passport. This problem relates to non-US passport holders. Mileage Plus just wrote me this week that it's a "known" problem that it is trying to resolve.
Oct 18, 2019, 10:14 am
#21
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2011
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Ant chance you can share the email? With personal information masked of course, thanks!
Oct 18, 2019, 12:03 pm
#22
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 1,338
I contacted Mileage Plus to compliment the agent and received the following reply. Surprisingly, United seems to think the App works.
We're aware of this issue and our technology team is working to resolve it. I apologize for any inconvenience or frustration you experienced and appreciate your patience as we work to correct the problem.
If checking in 24hrs prior to your flight is not working, then I would definitely contact our Reservation department so we can check you over the phone or try checking in through the United.com app.
Oct 18, 2019, 12:43 pm
#23
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,115
IIRC there have been threads with similar reports on the United forum before. It always boils down to some combination of documents that, while perfectly acceptable for the itinerary, makes OLCI impossible (either in the app, on the website, or both).
My theory is that the particular combination of itinerary+documents, when queried from the TIMATIC API, generates a response that cannot be automatically parsed or validated by UA's IT infrastructure (e.g., missing newline, some unexpected character, ...), requiring human intervention to press "OK, this documentation is acceptable."
My theory is that the particular combination of itinerary+documents, when queried from the TIMATIC API, generates a response that cannot be automatically parsed or validated by UA's IT infrastructure (e.g., missing newline, some unexpected character, ...), requiring human intervention to press "OK, this documentation is acceptable."
Oct 18, 2019, 6:18 pm
#24
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
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Posts: 32,092
Oct 18, 2019, 6:23 pm
#25
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,359
My experience is a bit more complicated than those reported. Canadian citizen holding Canadian passport.
Flying Canada > US > INTL I have no issues checking in on mobile but the reverse (INTL > US > CAN) I cannot check in with mobile, just desktop. Last week I flew KIX > SFO > DEN > YYZ and received a message along the lines of, sorry can't check you in online go see an agent. However, checking in on desktop, then refreshing the UA mobile app resulted in all the boarding passes showing up. The only thing odd I notice when during the mobile check in. is it asks if I'm a US Permanent Resident, in which case I answer No and select Canada as nationality.
I've had this very issue since Feb 2017 on both the iOS and Android versions. I have emailed UA web support but haven't received any word back from them yet (it's been over 2 years!)
But are you a US permanent resident or have applied to ESTA? Canadians don't need any of this nonsense for travelling to the US which makes us an interesting edge case. I've fought with LH check-in agents in Germany who insisted that I needed an ESTA as a Canadian, it was only after demanding a station manager that this was resolved.
-James
Flying Canada > US > INTL I have no issues checking in on mobile but the reverse (INTL > US > CAN) I cannot check in with mobile, just desktop. Last week I flew KIX > SFO > DEN > YYZ and received a message along the lines of, sorry can't check you in online go see an agent. However, checking in on desktop, then refreshing the UA mobile app resulted in all the boarding passes showing up. The only thing odd I notice when during the mobile check in. is it asks if I'm a US Permanent Resident, in which case I answer No and select Canada as nationality.
I've had this very issue since Feb 2017 on both the iOS and Android versions. I have emailed UA web support but haven't received any word back from them yet (it's been over 2 years!)
But are you a US permanent resident or have applied to ESTA? Canadians don't need any of this nonsense for travelling to the US which makes us an interesting edge case. I've fought with LH check-in agents in Germany who insisted that I needed an ESTA as a Canadian, it was only after demanding a station manager that this was resolved.
-James