Error booking on United.com when processing payment (any form)
 

Hi friends,

I have been having issues booking tickets on United.com since last week. First I was trying to book an award ticket but it shows "error and please contact United by calling 1-800 blah blah blah". I called united 1k desk and the agent was able to push it through. Today when trying to book an revenue ticket I'm getting the same error, despite trying multiple credit cards.. Quite curious.. Wondering if anyone else has the same issue and what's the best way to resolve. (seem to be IT related)

Thanks!

If you know you have a valid card - and you get an error - I recommend full stop. Don't start entering more cards - you may find they are all getting charged. That has happened to me in the past - and while all refunded, was a pain in the neck

There have been random similar reports in the past. Unless others report this issue, this tends to an individual issue for unknown reasons.

Would suggest clearing the browser's cache and cookies, some cases have cleared up after this -- not all.

Other cases seem to clear up on the own and a few have had longer issues -- causes never explained.

Booked my first United itinerary since March yesterday, and it went through without a hitch.

In my experience, it’s mostly due to phantom availability when I see the error after entering going through the payment page.

For revenue tickets I sometimes get an error after the payment screen if a given itinerary doesn't meet fare rules or some other conditions.

To try and find out whether this is the issue. I changed the date and destination to see if a random ticket will go through. It didn't.. So it must have been my account instead of the ticket itself.

Also app didnt work either. when I go to the final page and click on Agree and purchase, an error message pop up saying " Profile Owner MileagePlus number is required", which I have no idea what it means...

So - sometimes this is due to phantom availability as others have said - but having worked in digital analytics at another airline in a past life and tackling a similar issue I can recommend the following:
- Check that you have filled out all "required" fields on the payment page. Sometimes the booking engine will throw a generic error instead of a validation error
- Clear your browser's cookies and cache, quit the browser, and start over
- Try booking in a new browser or on a different channel such as mobile web or app
- If you have an ad blocker or similar privacy extensions installed on google chrome, try disabling those or doing the search/purchase process in an incognito window. Sometimes extensions get updated and wreak havoc for weeks-months.

As a general rule of thumb, if you get this error, take a look at your credit card's app and see if a pending charge has appeared. If it hasn't, this is indicative of some sort of validation error on United's site (not related to your credit card's ability to process the transaction).