GetSetJetSet

I used my miles to book 2x tickets for my parents RGN-BKK-MNL on TG in J. The tickets were paid for and issued in April. Since then there have been schedule changes I have approved. Thai also downgraded to a Thai Smile plane that only has PE, no J, but that was months ago, I approved it and they had new seats assigned. Today I get an email saying reservation can't be ticketed (even though I have ticket #s from April) and they tell me there's no longer award avail on RGN-BKK and I should buy them tickets to BKK then take the BKK-MNL award flight. It seems to not make sense that I booked the flight straight through when there was avail, that they can essentially take my avail away, kick them off the flight and tell me to buy a ticket and then generously let me pay the same amount of miles for just BKK-MNL. I checked on ua's website and at the moment, 1. there is no award space on that flight, 2. there are seats still being sold on that flight on kayak and 3. when I manage their reservation they are still shown as on it with seats assigned.

Am I correct that United can't just kick them off a flight they were ticketed on and say tough luck? I no longer have UA status so I am on with a call center in the Philippines and I know these agents usually don't have a good grasp of the rules, as I long ago left UA, I don't either. What do you advise? Thanks!

mahasamatman

You have a ticket number, but did you ever check with TG to make sure it was ticketed properly? Just because United believes there's a ticket doesn't mean that TG thinks the same.

GetSetJetSet

I used the PNR to log in on TG's website and assign seats back in April when it was ticketed.

They say yes everything was properly booked and ticketed by when Thai changed to a Thai Smile plane they for some reason removed the award avail I had already booked leaving me without a ticket. This makes zero sense to me. I don't see how you can book when there's award space, pay, have tickets issued, then they say "surprise, we took your seat away 2mo in advance, buy one."

jsloan

Unfortunately, you’re not going to like this answer, but there’s not going to be anything that United can do.

Thai Airways may own Thai Smile, but they’re separate airlines, and Thai Smile is not part of Star Alliance and is not a United partner. When you say “Thai changed to a Thai Smile plane,” what you’re really saying is “Thai cancelled the flight.” So, yes, when an airline cancels a flight, they can (and do) cancel existing tickets.

Your options are: (1) buy a ticket to BKK; (2) find an RGN-BKK flight operated by Thai (not Thai Smile) with award availability; (3) find an RGN-MNL flight that’s available for two passengers for award travel on United.com (e.g., via SIN) and ask to be switched to that.

You can ask United to reach out to Thai to open award space for you on an alternate RGN-BKK flight; I can’t promise you’ll be successful.

GetSetJetSet

On to my 3rd call center employee now, none of them seem interested in helping they just say there's nothing they can do. Is there any way to actually get a US based agent short of having status?

I was thinking as this is sort of quasi-IRROPS UA could purchase a PE revenue bucket and meld that into the award itin as they would if this happened at the airport. They are trying to offer me a reroute via SIN but it extends travel time by 5-6 hours and I doubt my parents want to spend 12 hours in transit.

jsloan

That’s extremely unlikely to happen. UA has the option to cancel your tickets and refund your miles, and they’d likely do that before they’d buy a ticket on another airline, PE or otherwise.

GetSetJetSet

I'm taking the re-route through SIN. It still seems lousy, what's the point of planning in advance if they can just pull the rug out and say sorry you no longer have a ticket!

jsloan

It is lousy, but there’s nothing United can do about it. The core problem is that one of the ways that low-cost subsidiaries like Thai Smile (WE) save money is by avoiding the costs of being in the alliance. If you were on a paid ticket, they’d likely* have honored it, but an award is another matter: WE doesn’t have an agreement in place with UA to get reimbursed for the flight... and they don’t really want one, because the reimbursement rate is likely at a steep discount.

* UA actually doesn’t have an interline ticketing agreement with WE, but I think that they could have re-issued the ticket under the TG codeshare if it had been a paid ticket. Codeshares are not allowed on award flights.

JimInOhio

If you believe the Wikipedia page for Star Alliance, Thai Smile is a *A "Affiliate" just like United Express, Air Canada Rouge, Air Canada Express, Edelweiss Air, etc. If an LH M&M member had an award ticket on UA and that flight was canceled with a UAX replacement, I imagine that LH customer would feel quite entitled to that UAX flight. And they should be.

MSPeconomist

I suspect that a lot depends on whether the affiliate airline has its own code. United Express uses UA flight numbers (in a particular range). This means that there's no issue of whether some *A partner interlines with UAX or not since they do interline with UA. How the flights are coded seems to make all the difference in practice.

JimInOhio

Very good point. I suppose the flip side to that is none of the UAX carriers are owned by UA (or at least not 50% or more ownership) whereas Thai Smile is 100% owned by Thai (AFAIKT).

docbert

Thai Smiles is a completely separate airline - similar to Silk Air for SQ. They have their own code ("WE"), and although they do codeshare with TG, award flights are never available via the codeshare so that isn't going to help here.

OP - It looks like Thai do still fly one RGN-BKK flight per day. That might not meet your timings, and it's still unlikely UA will be able to get award space opened on it there's none available, but it might be another option.

GetSetJetSet

Yea, none of the other flight timings worked for a connection on to MNL, which is why I booked the flight I was kicked off of...so the next "best" option was the SIN re-route, which gets in 4 hours later and requires 4 extra hours in transit. It's a reasonable resolution, just galling to plan in advance, pay for what you want then have it taken away because of a "schedule change." Especially when the original flight isn't oversold or anything. I understand there's no award space available "now," which is why I booked in April when there was...oh well. it's done now.

jsloan

I do not believe the Wikipedia page for Star Alliance. That is not accurate. Or, at least, it's misleading enough to be worthless. Edelweiss is not a member of Star Alliance, but UA does have a partnership with them. Thai Smile, like Silk Air (prior to its coming merger with Singapore), and one of the South African airlines (Airlink, I think?), is not a *A member and you do not get *A benefits and cannot use *A awards.

No, it's not that there's no award space available now. It's that the flight you booked no longer exists; it's been cancelled and replaced on the schedule by another flight on a non-*A airline. There will never be any award space available on the new flight for MileagePlus users, because Thai Smile is not in *A.

I get that it seems like an arbitrary distinction, but it's important. Thai Smile is not Thai Airways.

In fact, there's a specific note about this on UA's THAI page:

zombietooth

This happened to me early last year when TG quit flying to USM. They just cancelled my BKK-USM legs. The 1K desk wouldn't/couldn't do anything for me, even though PG is a partner of TG (but not *A). I ended-up having to buy the BKK-USM/USM-BKK legs for cash.

Sorry for the bad news.

Good Luck.