ftweb

A few months ago, I called the 1K desk and asked them to book two tickets from SFO to FCO, one revenue ticket for me, and an award ticket for my spouse. The person booked us both SFO-MUC-FCO, which seemed fine. We received both tickets, and I assumed everything was fine. Now the trip is coming up, and after my spouse and I had some confusion over when we are supposed to land in Rome, it turns out that they booked us on two different flights for the MUC-FCO leg. My (revenue) ticket is on an earlier Lufthansa flight with a UA flight number, while the award flight leaves later and has an LH flight number (not a UA code share).

It seems there's not much the 1K desk can do to fix the situation for less than $1000. However, I'm wondering if there's any chance of my spouse being able to stand-by for the earlier flight. The 1K representative I talked to said this is not possible, but given what happened, I don't 100% trust the info I get from the 1K desk now.

So does anyone have advice on trying to get on an earlier flight? I also don't mind paying a small fee, like a few hundred euros. The flight I'm on is selling for 255 EUR, which is unfortunately more expensive than other MUC-FCO flights, but would still be worth it if we could take the same flight. However, presumably if I book that one-way ticket for my spouse, the return trip will be canceled for missing the previous leg.

Thanks for any advice.

Kmxu

Would you mind taking UA flights to FCO (via ORD, IAD or EWR)? It was messed up by a 1K agent and UA should be able to fix the problem for you on its own metals. You may need to talk to a supervisor if 1K agent cannot do it.
Good luck.

ftweb

I don't care how we get there. However, even at the time there weren't good options on UA metal. I should maybe have mentioned that we are in Polaris on the long-haul flights, and the award ticket was in JN for the UA metal, and X/I for the intra-europe flights. Even at the time I was having trouble finding revenue and saver award available on UA metal. Usually I just ticket manually, so calling in to 1K to ticket this was because I was having a hard time (though MUC hadn't come up in my searches). In other words, the 1K agent may have messed up by telling me what I wanted was possible, not by failing to do something they could have done.

All the UA metal flights I check now look like they are JN0. So I don't mind calling again, but what can I realistically ask for? I don't think "Your 1K agent made a booking error two months ago and I didn't notice until now, so please open some JN inventory for me" is necessarily a realistic demand. But if people think that it is something worth asking for, I'll give it a shot.

jsloan

If the flight is JN0, there's no point in calling; the cabin is full, and they're not going to oversell it, and downgrade someone else, for this.

The question about whether or not she can standby for an earlier LH flight is best asked in the LH forum.

You may also have the option of waiting to take the later flight together. Heck, perhaps your UA flight will be delayed and you'll end up on the same LH flight anyway.

athome

Short answer from my side, a frequent traveler on LH. LH does not offer stand-by, as US airlines do. As your spouse is traveling on an award ticket, upsell doesn't work neither, as long as there is no I inventory open.

Kmxu

I do not believe that all SFO-ORD/IAD/EWR flights with reasonable layover times at ORD/IAD/EWR are full in FC cabins. ORD/IAD/EWR-FCO have Polaris business seats available if one searches individual UA hub-FCO flights, instead of SFO-FCO.
If OP is desperate enough, calling 1K line is still the best bet.
Good luck.

xliioper

Not all US airlines allow stand-by on international flights. DL limits same-day stand-by to domestic, PR, and USVI flights (I believe AA has similar limitations).

jsloan

JN is last-seat availability. If it's JN0, one flight or the other is full.

emcampbe

LH is very strict with the rules (in German fashion) and doesn’t allow standby. They absolutely will not let anyone standby on an earlier flight. Not even worth asking. Your better bet would be to ‘sleep’ through the earlier departure and see what LH does with ‘flat tire’ rule, though I’d probably ask for others experience before trying. Also, that would assume availability on the flight, which isn’t a given, especially on day of departure.

your best bet if you want to be on same connection is to make a change in advance, IMO, with whatever fee/fare difference is involved. Or look for awards closer to departure, which sometimes open up on LH in F/J. or the easiest thing, which is to just take the flights as they are booked now, and deal with the separate short-hauls. Not sure if I missed how much later one flight is than the other, or if there is an urgent need to be there on the earlier flight. But that might be the best option.

hindsight is 20/20 of course, but this is also a good reminder to always verify the itinerary is ticketed as you wanted, especially, especially when an agent is doing the work - correct flights, times, name spellings, etc. Avialability notwithstanding, this would have been far easier to deal with (and less costly) within 24 hours of ticketing vs. now. I’ve had situations where even online didn’t work properly - for example, I booked a US-BLR via FRA once where I tried to purchase a couple of times online where the ticket was missing the FRA-BLR segment. It took a bunch of time with an agent to get it sorted out. It eventually worked out - agent gave me a consolation prize of E+ for free (I was silver at the time) for the trouble, and then at check in, I was [double-] op-up’d to J on the LH 748.

LimeyFlyer

As kind of noted above, my experience has also not been great with LH. Even on LH ticketed flights, when I have been at the airport early and looked to get on an earlier wide open flight, they were looking for money to do this.

I just went to the lounge and it cost them a fair few beverages and some food :-)

ftweb

But the question is how much money? If they want, say 255 EUR (price of the one-way flight), then it's worth it to me to fly together. Problem is that it's an award flight on United, so there isn't an obvious way to pay 255 EUR to get my spouse on the earlier flight. For instance, I'm worried that if I just bought the ticket, the return leg (in Polaris) would be canceled, which would be a much more expensive problem than 255 EUR.

jsloan

The answer is, however many MileagePlus miles the itinerary you want costs. You're 100% correct that buying a cash ticket and no-showing the award ticket will cause the return to be canceled. If you explain what you're trying to do to a United rep, they may take pity on you and drop that segment, allowing you to purchase the flight you want with cash without worries -- except that she'll now be on two separate tickets, so there will be no protection if UA delivers you late.

malgudi

How far apart are the two flights? What's the downside in traveling separately (assuming they are not too far apart) vs paying a lot of $$$/miles?

Kmxu

According to today’s MUC-FCO schedule, it is as long as 3.5 hours.
Two separate tickets are not a good idea. the second ticket (MUC-FCO) is on miles. The OP will have the option of cancel this if SFO-MUC is late or beg UA to drop the later MUC-FCO flight if the flight is on time. This has the risk of auto cancellation by UA IT.

malgudi

No.

I meant "separate tickets" as in leaving it as-is, arriving 3.5hrs apart.