MatthewLAX

I'm so tired of arguing with agents at the airport or on the phone over rebooking partner-issued awards when irr/ops happens.

An example.

Flying PIT-EWR-DUB-ZAG on [last] Saturday, with PIT-EWR-DUB on United and booked in I-Class. Aeroplan issued ticket.

PIT-EWR is cancelled hours before flight.

UA agent in PIT rebooks PIT-ORD-FRA-ZAG in full Y. Refuses to protect in business class, even on the United segments.

"You paid $5.60 for this ticket and it wasn't even issued by us."

1K phone agent also refused to help because there was no I-Class on United segments (that were LESS THAN HALF FULL, but welcome to UA's new inventory management system...)

What a way to tick off a loyal customer who happened to be flying on an Aeroplan ticket.

My question: is there a *S profile someone can cite that addresses how this should be handled?

My understanding of Star Alliance rules is that the carrier that encounters the irr/ops needs to re-protect the customer. But is that in writing anywhere or just an unspoken rule?

seenitall

I thought that until the flight was within 3 days of departure (or possibly less), rebooking was the responsibility of the issuing entity. Have you tried talking to Aeroplan about getting the flights rebooked?

nerdbirdsjc

Stat Alliance sets out the high level guidelines on this. Of course, you likely dealt with a poorly trained agent (and supervisor?) at PIT who didn't care what the rules said.

Reference Guide - Airports Information - Irregular Operations Handling

MatthewLAX

The cancellation happened hours before the flight after check-in.

WineCountryUA

This is the way partners treat UA issued awards.

Often1

It is the responsibility of the ticketing carrier until the day of travel.

MatthewLAX

Yes, you are right. As the owner of an award consulting service, I know this painfully well. But that is neither the issue nor justification for UA’s actions.

I’m just so tired of the run around.

Is there really no specific UA policy on this?

dkc192

Are we saying that partners have *consistently* rebooked UA-issued I/O class awards into X/Y class in the case of IRROPS? I did not know that was the case--do we have a different thread where people post data points and experiences working with UA or their partners to get manually (and rightfully) rebooked into a premium cabin?

cfischer

The rules are clear. I would write to UA asking for compensation

Conditions: Involuntary
• When an airline undergoes a schedule change or encounters an irregularity in accordance with the general
provisions of IATA Resolution 735D, the Star Alliance member carriers agree to grant airport control
(and thereby waive the endorsement requirement) for the following:
A. non-restricted tickets;
B. restricted tickets;
C. Frequent flyer redemption tickets. After schedule changes, rebookings are made with Star Allliance
carriers according to redemption seat availability.
• No endorsement required for any fare types when an airline encounters an irregular operation (within 24
hours of departure).

Gabdawg

So does (C) then give the UA the out since there was no I class seat available?

dkc192

It shouldn't. Schedule changes occur weeks or months in advance of a flight. IRROPS happen on the day of travel or the day before.

But I guess (C) does give partners the right to shrug and say "tough luck" if they cause a schedule change and don't have award space on the new desired flights. This is an area that OW handles decently--each airline has alliance liaisons to handle such tricky situations. Not sure if liaisons exist at *A. (FWIW I'm a former AA EXP recently turned UA 1K.)

Kacee

It does not, because UA refused to rebook on own metal in I.

MatthewLAX

What is your source for this? Sadly, it's nebulous. I can read it both requiring rebooking in same class of service or not requiring booking. Is this the only guideline?

Even though there was only JN/ZN space available, the loads were less than 50%. An easy call to IM could have opened up I-class seats if they really wanted to go by the book. No problem booking in full Y, not not having an I-Class seat opened? Ridiculous. And 1K desk was just as pathetic.

My story has a happy ending. Aeroplan rebooked the ticket (with 10 minutes to spare before check-in cutoff) in C and it earned miles. Still, this was not Aeroplan's problem: this was United's problem. Shame on UA for passing the buck.

J.Edward

Glad to hear it worked out. May want to consider a DOT followup: https://airconsumer.dot.gov/escompla...nsumerForm.cfm

MatthewLAX

I'd love to see one. In my experience, they look in the "fare" field in their system, see the low fare, then immediately don't want to help. And generally they don't rebook in X, but in Y...just the lazy approach into full Y.