Raymoland

Hi all,
Experienced flying but in a pickle. Booked in paid first/Polatis SEA-DUB on Thursday, party of 4. SEA-EWR is delayed 10 hours so will miss our connections (I thought a 5 hours layover would cover most eventualities but this is a crew rest issue). Need to be in DUB as soon as possible but the rebooking engine is giving us a Saturday departure as the earliest possible option and that's in economy. The first available business itinerary is a Monday departure.

Will UA rebook on other airlines and if so, which ones? Any chance Aer Lingus? I have no status.

Thanks
Ray

AUSNYCflyer

The online rebooking tool is not going to have much in terms of other airlines. You need to call to push for other airlines but the reality is this close in to departure space up front may be limited.

mjg59

UA will be fairly flexible about rebooking on most other major airlines in my experience, but the non-stop Seattle→Dublin doesn't seem to be a thing right now so most of your options are going to suck if you want to get a party of 4 in business. I'd get on the phone now, but my experience is that agents at checkin are more flexible than phone agents - if you can't get a good outcome on the phone then turning up at your original checkin time and dealing with an airport agent may improve things, but does potentially mean you're going to end up spending a *lot* of time there and that may not be fun with a large party. Your best bet is really going to depend on how much you prioritise getting to Dublin over inconvenience, I'm afraid.

(It looks like your best realistic bet for Thursday would be redeye SEA→ORD→DUB but with 10 hours in Chicago and arriving in Dublin at 5AM on Saturday morning - alternatively you could leave Friday lunchtime, have a couple of hours in SFO and take the Aer Lingus flight to arrive at 11AM on Saturday. Check your options on Google Flights before calling in and be ready to explicitly ask whether they can put you on the flights you prefer)

Lux Flyer

Anything needing to touch the NE on today is going to be a disaster. Inventory on basically every airline is scarce for the entire day, for even one person, let alone a party of 4. What I like to do in this situation to gather alternative ideas to present to agents is go to google flights, put the origin and final destination, set it for one way, and choose the number in the party/cabin. Let google do the hard work to give you the crazy itineraries to try to make it work (google will try and give you spoke-hub-spoke-hub connections if there aren't any hub-hub itineraries which the airlines systems would suggest). When we do that for your specific scenario, it shows just how bleak getting from SEA-DUB is for 4 people in Business today.



I don't know how flexible your party is, but if you're willing to divide into 2 parties of 2, your options go up significantly. For example, if you get a willing agent, 2 of you can get routed on DL/AF via CDG, and the other 2 on DL/KLM via AMS. Or 2 go via ORD on UA/Aer Lingus, which again they might be more willing to rebook on OA if they can keep at least some of your party on UA. I haven't played with these combinations extensively, but if you can find routings on Lufthansa to go via FRA or MUC, that can also be a route to look into and would be much easier to get UA to rebook you on LH then hoping for an agent willing to do OA.





Yes and no. If it's truly crew, then it is likely a controllable delay so they should be more willing to book on other airlines, and if your business I think even if is uncontrollable like weather then they can still consider doing other airlines (although MUCH less likely). Key is the other airline needs to get you there substantially closer to your original arrival time then whatever option UA is able to provide.

escapefromphl

You may need to decide whether it’s more important to get to DUB sooner in economy or in business at a later time.

wrp96

If your group can split up (2 on one flight, 2 on another at least), you may have more options. Also when presenting options, consider west coast US, to anywhere in Europe and then connect on from there to DUB rather than trying to connect on the US east coast (due to the aforementioned issues).

jhayes_1780

Exact same question from the other day (although originating at IAD vs SEA): Backup Plan?

But to summarize: at absolute worst... get to LHR, once there several options to get to DUB.

findark

Depends on priorities, but I see four seats (in J) tomorrow on VS SEA-LHR-DUB for a ~28h delay. I would push for that unless same-day arrival is a priority, in which case there is Y space today via VS or DL on SEA-LHR and onward.

On *A, AC has Y space tomorrow on YVR-DUB and YVR-FRA, and in J the best I see is SEA-YUL-DUB departing Saturday and arriving Sunday.

If you split up, there's a chance of getting out between VS, DL, and BA today (in J).

Raymoland

Thanks guys.
I called and spoke to the night shift. The first lady was just clueless and was suggesting flights that departed before my delayed flight to EWR got in. I had a hard time understanding her as well. I was on hold for a long time so I didn't want a HUCA. I politely asked to speak to a supervisor and things went much better.

I had looked at all the options you suggested but they were firm they wouldn't use Aer Lingus which was the only alternative itinerary I was interested in. We couldn't split into smaller groups as the other three on the party were my minor kids. They offered standby on flights to DUB from EWR but I was not motivated to try that as a weekend in EWR was not appealing. The best confirmed option for 4 in economy was to depart Sunday, arrive Monday. That's after the event on Sunday night I was trying to make it to so in the end I changed to flights leaving Tuesday, still in first/business. We are going for a month so loss of 6 days is unfortunate but not the end of the world.

I appreciate everyone's help.

escapefromphl

A 6 day delay is pretty bad, with no guarantees you won't encounter issues on your new departure day.

bmwe92fan

Really sorry for the mess - I’ve never seen the EU so operationally bad -Heathrow has been a mess and Frankfurt even worse - when the two biggest airports in the EU are failing you know things are bad…..

The post Covid ramp up has been awful in the EU - I guess you can’t board a plane or load luggage on a zoom cal - who knew?

RobOnLI

6/24/22 - AC804 YVR-DUB has J4 right now. UA can absolutely rebook you on that.

-RM

jsloan

Raymoland ^^

Don't be afraid to contact UA and ask for something better than they were originally able to give you. Just because you accepted their suggestion for a six day delay doesn't mean you can't try again when something better comes up.

united78

The UK left the EU.

WheelsUpGal

I just wanted to say I read this thread even though it had nothing to do with me and I was really impressed by the help you all offered, so quickly, to this poster in a panic!