docbert

In my experience of multiple such information disclosure vulnerabilities, the only way to get United to take action is to openly go public about it. I got an issue that had been around for years fixed within 24 hours by doing that, as described here.

That said, this thread alone is now a month old, so maybe even that isn't enough...

Unfortunately United has got one of the worst bug bounty programs in existence (both in terms of how it's managed as well as the actual "bounties" which in many cases can actually cost you money rather than rewarding you).

leftysauce

interesting that UA runs identity verification before ticketing

tarheelnj

This is a fascinating tool, privacy issues aside.

I have a flight next month where I have a paid ticket and bought my wife a ticket with miles on a separate reservation. It refers to a "OnePass Reward." As in CO OnePass? I'm also interested to know what the reference to GG One Help is.

Lux Flyer

This is just how their system documents a mileageplus award redemption. I believe there was a discussion about this somewhere else recently, but during the merger they kept UA's reservation system while keeping the backend infrastructure from CO for the loyalty program. This has the funny effect of calling some things by the CO name still. The remaining code was just the mileagecost for the fare. E = everyday (or I guess "highest level" now), and the H=00. So my guess is you paid 34,400 miles for a YN (or I guess JN) award. I know can also get a T=0 and K=000 for the milage amount, and since they "used" to have saver awards I'd assume it could also start with an S if it's an old saver award.

In terms of "GG One Help", that appears to be a lookup code for their old reference directory system that was embedded into multiple airport & reservations programs. It would contain information regarding policies, instructions for how to process certain changes/requests, as well as internal contact information for all the airports, departments, etc. Each page had a specific code assigned to it and you would enter it to bring up that reference page. My impression is that they have moved away from that system and stopped updating it in favor of a web based policy/airport contact directory. But I'm sure if you found an older UA airport agent or reservations agent they would know how to get in the DRS to see if anything still shows for that code.

lincolnjkc

UA actually kept both pmCO reservations (SHARES, since CO owned a perpetual license while UA was paying relatively high annual fees for their solution [was it still Apollo--even though pmUA had long divested itself of ownership--at the time of the merger?] and of course the FQTV infrastructure was 100% CO with some tweaks. GG is still a DRS reference ("Go Get") ONE HELP is the OnePass help index. One way to bring a smile to a long-term ex-con (pmCO) employee is to reference GG PROUDBIRD... but one thing I've noticed from looking at the auto remarks with this tool is there's a lot of non-customer facing places where older automation is still full of CO-isims while newer things (like the PlusPoints automation) are very clearly UA... in a way it's fun to see how long something has been done a certain way....but I'm weird like that.

Lux Flyer

Interesting, because the older reservation staff out of CHIRR, which as I understand was a PMUA reservations office tell me they have been using their current reservation software, EZR, since the late 90s, obviously well before the UACO merger. Obviously EZR isn't the native reservation system, but some type of GUI overlay on top of SHARES, and could have certainly been retooled to communicate with SHARES if it was overlaying some type of Apollo backend before, although that seems like a lot of work as opposed to just using whatever CO had as an interface overlay to communicate with SHARES. Also possible that time blurs things for this older staff in the 10 years since systems merged and that they've forgotten how long they've been using EZR, or that I am mistaken in assuming CHIRR was a PMUA reservations office.

bmwe92fan

Found this interesting -- GS upgrades for spouses / companions are now exceptions.... As I mentioned in another thread the agent searched long and hard to verify my wife didn't get an upgrade on her trip to our home to Japan - GS is a joke.... I used to be able to travel with my wife -- now it's like a battle.... Our GS benefit is now an exception....

sannmann

What I found interesting about this was that the EMD numbers for the PlusPoint upgrades are listed in this module. It’s unfortunate that United doesn’t provide the EMD numbers for these to us automatically. Would help if needing to track down an unreturned or cancelled upgrade.

jsloan

They do. You can find them in the My United section of either the app of the website. The website breaks them out into a separate category after you click on “Receipts;” the app lists them mingled in with everything else. They appear as “MR PLUSPOINT REGULAR UPGRADE FEE.”

Wx4caster

I wish I had opened up my pnr in this search tool before making an utterly infuriating call to MP support center just now. With hold times what they are these days, HUCA is not an appealing option, unfortunately, but I was just about at that point with this particular agent. Lesson learned... So,I thought I'd provide another data point on the potentially invaluable utility of the extra information (that I now have open, and wish I had at my disposal 5 minutes earlier!).

Backstory:

HNL-GUM, 4JUN. On 11 May, my uncle sponsored u/g using 20 pluspoints. I was u/g'd to PP day before travel
GUM-NRT, 9JUN. On 28 May I requested ug using 7,500 of my own miles. Ug did not clear.
As of today, 20 Jun, there is still no refund of the miles, so I called MP Service Center for what I thought should be a very simple refund.

Unfortunately, agent became fixated on 4JUN and kept saying "you were upgraded, there is no refund". Over and over I explained the 7,500 mile upgrade was for GUM-NRT on the 9th, and she kept saying, "Our records do not show that. They show you used 7,500 miles to upgrade your flight from HNL to GUM, which cleared so no refund is due".

Me: HNL to GUM upgrades are not even 7,500 miles, how does that make any sense?!
Agent: Well sir, that is confusing.
Me: The HNL to GUM upgrade was a pluspoint upgrade sponsored by my uncle
Agent: Sir, there is no record of any pluspoints. (after searching) the last time you used your plus points was in 2021
Me: Again, these were from my uncle's account. Would you like that number?

After pulling up his account, she FINALLY realized she was wrong.

So after all this frustration, IF I had looked at the notes, the information IS CLEARLY available (futher highlighting the utter incompetence of this agent). I could have just said, "Please see lines 17-21 for the 7,500 miles deducted for GUM to NRL"

17 ACCOUNT BALANCE * PIN CODE VERIFIED * WEBBK
18 TOTAL MILEAGE DEDUCTION - 7500 MILES * WEBBK
19 ONE28MAY*U$3025.96PP 3025.96TTL YU84PY 7.0K NRT CFL WEBBK
20 06 REMARKS ADDED BY WEB SU BK 28MAY 2246Z DC5BC7
21 E-UPGRADE YU84PY GUM/NRT DEBITED/016XXXXXXXX/MYNAME/1STOP

and then see lines 8-15 for the plus point upgrade from HNL to GUM

8 WEB*20 PLUS POINTS PENDING - MP ACCT XX######
9 WEB*HNLGUM/MYNAME
10 02 REMARKS ADDED BY WEB SU BK 11MAY 0142Z DC5B2F
11 MYPNR00
12 02 REMARKS ADDED BY WEB SU IP 13MAY 2135Z DC59DA
13 WEB*20 PLUS POINTS PENDING - MP ACCT XX######
14 WEB*HNLGUM/MYNAME
15 02 REMARKS ADDED BY WEB SU BK 13MAY 2139Z DC59D2

All that said, is an upgrade award chart still published anywhere??? (I know the award travel charts are gone now, but AFAIK, MP ugrades are not dynamically priced). I wanted to challenge the agent to tell me the cost of a HNL-GUM upgrade to prove that it could not have been 7,500, but I did not know what the correct amount is for that route.

angetenar

You can see the cost at Upgrade Awards. For HNL-GUM, that would be Hawaii to Oceania, which runs 20 to 30k miles, depending on the fare class.

jsloan

No good ever comes from trying to challenge phone reps. I know you stated you didn't want to HUCA due to long hold times, but in this case that was your second-best option. The best option was / is to request a refund via the online form, which will then direct it to the refunds department instead of a first-level support rep.

And, for the love of God, please do not start quoting line numbers from the PNR comments back to a rep. Besides making her feel confused and stupid, what would this possibly accomplish? No, I don't really think that frontline agents have an IT security hotline to call, but it's very possible they have an internal Slack or something.

uastarflyer

How do I do this on an iPhone?

Re the OP - well the tool is handy indeed, as I confirmed AVML is requested for both my UA and NH (UA codeshare) segments, saving me a 75 min hold time on NH call center.

mahasamatman

Settings > General > Date & Time

Wx4caster

Thank you, that is just the link I was looking for.


Yes, getting an agent who thought that 7 ,500 miles was somehow an upgrade for HNL-GUM is/was the first key indicator it was time to let her go. Her next reponse that "this is confusing" was the second. [After all was finally resolved, she insisted, "it must have been a software glitch" :/ ]. To clarify, this was a call to the Mileage Plus Service Center, not general reservation line. While still a front-line I suppose, it should have at least been the front of the correct line to know about upgrades.

I will consider your input - my initial thought when posting is that early on in the conversation, something as cordial as, "if you have the PNR open, I believe the remarks for the mileage deduction are somewhere around lines 17-21" once it was apparent she did not see it, would have facilitated the call and kept us on the rails. Regardless of to quote line #'s or not to quote, my vent arose from the fact that there should have been ample information not just in the remarks, but also in the SSR information (not posted) to have made this request much easier than it was. So, I acknowledge your other option via the refund route (and of course, HUCA) would have been better at that point. I had been waiting on the refund for 2 weeks, so I thought a call might lead to a quicker resolution. A

FWIW, I would say the agent's remarks indicating that I either do not know how I purchased an upgrade, or know how to manage my account, or worse, that I was lying about a non-existant 7,500 mile award category made ME feel confused, possibly stupid, and frustrated.

I am not sure what you are saying here WRT IT security hotline and internal slack. (?)