B.E. Vanakam

Dear Seasoned Flyers,

I am hoping you can allay some of my anxieties. I have a 51-K award ticket for January 1 (Saturday) for DEN-ORD-LHR-BOM-MAA. (I know, it's a terrible route, but the price was right.) I have a 56-minute layover and a trek between gates in ORD, plus snow is forecast for that evening, plus DEN-ORD is on time only 80 percent of the time. And both the DEN-ORD leg and the ORD-LHR leg were canceled Christmas day, although flying okay as of today. So my questions are:

If I miss that ORD-LHR connection, what happens then? Will UA automatically reroute me, or is it up to me to redo it? And if it's up to me, can I do it online?

How does that fact that it's a low-cost award factor in? The next award date that matches my fare is January 5 -- would that be the automatic default? If not, would I be required to come up with another 46k miles to match the award flights on other days?

Let's say that all goes well with the first legs, but something happens with the LHR-BOM leg on AI, which seems to often fly way late. Do I have to reschedule the last BOM-MAA leg myself? It's on a separate PNR and is on Vistara, which in my experience has poor customer service.

Yi. Thanks for any guidance you can give me.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

If connection missed at ORD, UA will generally try to get you to BOM as soon as possible on their planes as soon as possible as space allows. Neither UA or AI will help you with respect to the separate ticket. The risk is squarely on you.

B.E. Vanakam

Thank you!

Point of clarification: The Vistara flight is on the same award ticket; it's just a different PNR.

mduell

If UA causes a misconnect in ORD, UA will book you on the next available economy seat on UA and partners to MAA. No additional mileage will be required regardless of date. You can try through the app, which works well if UA could get you to MAA, but will likely need to call or visit UA CS.

If AI causes a misconnect at BOM, AI is responsible for rebooking you on the next available economy seat on AI and partners to MAA.

AirbusFan2B

This reply is perfectly correct! I would just submit that

- if you encounter any �the next time we can accommodate you on your �free� ticket is [fill in lackluster customer service solution here, eg �in 3 days�]�

- then hang up or stop convo with CS desk and re-engage with a more understanding agent; and if still �this is the best we can do,� then ask them to open award inventory for you.

UA can certainly also request partner airline open inventory (but no guarantee), and keep in mind UA will favor putting you on their own metal - we can�t argue over that.

UA�s obligation is to get you from origin to destination rather than servicing any of the intermediate stops.

The notion that you deserve inferior accommodation due to �free� ticket is nonsense as the benefit was published, and the ticket was confirmed.

Research your best rebooking alternatives in advance of your trip for each scenario that may materialize so you are well prepared to make your ask should it come to be. I always use in these instances the line that �I saw that [�United has a nonstop ORD-DEL and was wondering if you could put me on that� or whatnot.]

PTahCha

Adding to the advices given already - course correct as soon as trouble arises. If the DEN-ORD flight is delayed enough that will cause you to miss your subsequent flight to LHR, start asking for alternatives to LHR (e.g., via EWR/IAH/IAD). Research before hand and see what options are available, and feed your preferred alternative flights to the agent.

Also, airport agents have more discretions to rebook than a phone agent for same-day changes, but if there's a line to speak to an airport agent, use the phone, or the new virtual facetime option. This is also where having access to an agent in the United Club is invaluable in an event of IRROP.

emcampbe

Cost of award doesn�t factor - it is still a �paid� ticket and the carrier responsible for any delay and/or misconnect is the one who will be responsible to rebook you to the destination on the next available flight - regardless of routing.

if you are �stuck� in ORD, UA will probably try to put you on ORD-FRA/MUC-MAA, with the final or both segments on LH-metal (assuming LH is flying one of those routes to MAA that day - lost track of that schedule - especially around Xmas-New Years weeks when even in normal times, the daily flights lose some frequencies around the holidays). They might also do ORD-DEL-MAA if that�s flying that day (UA is flying ORD - DEL now, aren�t they?), with the last segment on AI or Vistara - they�re might be a middle of the night flight you can take on AI, or flights on either leaving at 6/7 am next day or later. If that�s not running, they could definitely do ORD-EWR-FRA/DEL/BOM-MAA, again, the last segment on LH if FRA, or AI or Vistara first thing the next morning if DEL/BOM. They could also route you DEN-EWR directly if the flight is delayed prior to departure and it will be close or a lost cause (MCT, if they stick to that as a basis, is 35 mins in ORD).

on the other hand, I might hope for a delay - flying UA/LH into India is probably a better experience than AI, which is fine short-haul/domestic in India, but I wouldn�t want to do long-haul. The preferred routing I would ask for is via FRA/MUC - if you can get on a direct from there to MAA, it�s much better, IME, then arriving DEL/BOM in the mid-late evening, then having to schlep to a hotel then back to the airport for an early morning short haul flight.

mduell

I disagree with you here. Don't fixate on trying to "catch up" to your prior itinerary; once a connection is blown you should just focus on getting to your destination.

Agreed; general principle is the closer you are to the airplane the more latitude the agent has.

WineCountryUA

While the Vistara may have a different PNR for their flight, if on the same award ticket, all the flights should be on the same UA PNR. The UA PNR is what matters for the purpose of irrops.

emcampbe

I�d still ask for a routing that goes direct via FRA/MUC if available. Again, better to arrive at final of MAA late at night when those LH flights come in then to arrive in DEl/BOM early evening on UA, and have only a handful of hours to rest before an early morning flight out, or middle of the night on AI from LhR and then have to kill 3 hours or so without leaving the airport. I�ve routed US-India multiple ways - both �north� (BOM) and south (MAA/BLR, even TRZ, which is fun in a turboprop next morning) - and arrived at multiple times, and by far the adjustment and time change, etc. was easier, at least IME, when you can get to final and rest for a while.

mduell

LH's only FRA-MAA service arrives in the morning, and the hard/soft product on the 777 leaves something to be desired.

emcampbe

Sorry�yes, I always think of it late at night, though after midnight�unless it has majorly changed it used to be at 1am�ish (and on a 340 - didn�t realize it�s a 777 now).

better than doing AI LHR-BOM, IMO, which arrives at 3am, then needing to do another short hop, presumably at 6 or 7am (I don�t know the OPs specific flight times, but that�s AIs only LHR-BOM flight, I think, and how it would presumably connect onward - if the connection is not until later in the morning or afternoon, it almost seems worse).

B.E. Vanakam

Thank you, all. I've learned so much in this thread and my mind is resting easier. A few more questions:

As of now, 3 inches of snow and gusty winds are forecast for ORD the evening I am arriving. Having been stuck at ORD once in a snowstorm for 10 hours, I have a little ORD PTSD. The difficulty is that if my flight out of Denver, scheduled for 3:45pm on Saturday, still flies into ORD, I won't know until I'm there the situation with my 58-minute connection ORD-LHR. How far in advance does it make sense to try to reschedule the flight, hopefully with LH through FRA/MUN? Do I have to wait until either flight is cancelled or officially delayed? If I call CS tomorrow, say, or Friday, would they be open to rescheduling the flight without penalties? Or is it best just to wait it out for official word on delays or cancellations?

Complicating this is the need for a PCR-RT test. Because the 31st is New Year's Eve, testing that day is problematic, so I've scheduled it for the 30th. But if last-minute changes in DEN push back the timing of my trip, I will be out of the three-day window and $249. Ouch.

JimInOhio

The path of least resistance is to ask UA to put you on the preceding (1:30 PM?) flight to help with the connection time. If nothing else, you can tell them you have limited mobility.

B.E. Vanakam

Update: I got an SMS from United advising rescheduling the flight through ORD because of the bad weather. So I went online and found a great (relatively!) flight on United.com -- DEN-YUL-DEL-MAA -- one less stopover, and bypassing onerous ORD and LHR. Great! Alas, I was prevented from actually booking online because the miles weren't automatically transferred from the old to new reservation. After a fairly torturous phone session with a CS person who was trying her best but was obviously in training, I was transferred to the Web section and talked to someone incredibly competent appropriately named Angel who not only quickly finished the booking process for me but was able to locate 51,000 flight credit miles floating out in the stratosphere and put them back into my account. So all is well. Thank you, all, for your sage counsel, which will certainly carry over into my future interactions with United.