frappant

It's about 15 hours from departure for LH2271 (NCE-MUC), which connects to UA195, MUC-SFO.

LH gives me a link to chat and they tell me to contact Citijet or UA.

I was upgraded from Premium Plus to Polaris on UA195 at T-24, with 30 Plus Points applied.

What are my options if I miss UA195 for June 15 and subsequent flights do not have upgrade space?

Or if I have to stay additional days in France or Munich and incur additional expenses??

mahasamatman

You don't need upgrade space, just open space. If you get rebooked in a lower class, you are entitled to downgrade compensation. If they offer you a flight in a lower class and you decide to wait for Business Class, you are on the hook for any additional expenses.

frappant

What is the compensation for the downgrade? Maybe they don't even put me in Premium Plus or the LH equivalent?

LH emailed a link to check on rebooking status and it's their chat bot. I chatted with an agent and they said contact Cityjet or UA.

angetenar

Some missing details: was this flight booked with UA or LH? If booked with UA, then contacting LH will not do anything.
If booked with UA, these are the steps you should take:
1. Find a desired routing to get you from NCE-SFO. Flights on UA can be in business class but flights on other airlines will not be.
2. Contact UA via phone or web chat, mention that your first flight got cancelled, ask to be accommodated on your desired routing

frappant

It is an 016 ticket. Have different confirmation codes for UA and LH. I had to check in with LH today since they have the originating flight.

I'm in chat with the UA agent.

They tell me LH2271 is back on.

Even though if I check Flight Status on the LH site or just Google it, it shows as canceled, including on Flight Aware.

But then Kayak just notified me that LH2271 "May Be" Cancelled.

Maybe they found another aircraft quickly.

jsloan

It’s complicated. LH is responsible for re-routing you; however, you do not have a business ticket, so they will reroute you in PE. However, UA, even though it’s not their responsibility, will often rebook passengers who are on 016 tickets. If UA rebooks you, they’d rebook into J space on UA-operated flights only. (I suppose it’s possible that you’d find some agent who would insist upon PZ space being available, because there’s nothing consistent about UA except its inconsistency, but you should be protected in J).

Note that if LH rebooks you, they’ll put you on 220 ticket stock, which may make it more difficult for UA to help.

LH will almost certainly argue that any delay beyond what was caused by their cancelation is voluntary — so if they could have gotten you to your destination in PE within 3 hours of your scheduled time, they’ll probably deny EC.261 compensation and you’d have to sue if you wanted to see if a judge would agree.

What I would do is look for a flight from MUC to your final destination with J space, and, upon arriving at MUC, call UA to ask them to rebook you. If you need to go through another gateway entirely (e.g., FRA), I’d still ask UA, but note that they won’t do anything unless they’re seeing your flight canceled in their system. As long as they’re still seeing a notification that it’s flying, you’ll be out of luck with UA directly.

frappant

Well UA told me the original flights were going to happen.

Then LH just emailed me saying they rebooked me on NCE-FRA-SFO, LH1059 and UA59.

UA59 is in Polaris.

But I can't check in via the LH site or iPhone app.

Now I'm in chat with LH. They say new tickets may not be issued yet.

I want to see what seats are available on UA59.

So I have to wait for tickets to be reissued to check in and grab seats.

LH emailed me with a 10 Euro voucher to use at FRA airport.

Blah, I will be lucky if I have 30 minutes at the LH lounge before the TATL flight.

jsloan

That’s fantastic. In this case, I’m very happy to have been wrong.

frappant

Well I can't check in because they haven' reissued tickets yet apparently.

I'm about 14 hours from the departure of the first flight.

So who knows what LH is going to do.

Their emails with the new flight numbers have check in link. I click it and I can't complete check in because new tickets don't exist yet.

aacharya

Give it an hour or so.

frappant

Well I spoke too soon.

It initially showed Polaris on UA59 on United.com or LH.com or both.

So I was happy.

But I couldn't check in.

Now it updated and I'm confirmed in Premium Plus.

UA59 is J0 and O0. Not only that, the 30 Plus Points they took hasn't been returned to my account. And I went from an aisle Premium Plus to a middle Premium Plus seat.

I lost a confirmed upgrade because of LH and they just rebooked me to the original fare classes, ignored the upgrades.

Probably didn't have space anyways, to be expected at with a cancellation at roughly 14-15 hours before the original first flight on the trip.

If it was cancelled yesterday I might have had a chance.

UA agent in chat suggests:

1. Go to LH and see if they have a Star Alliance upgrade, but I would have to use miles. With J0, how would LH get me an upgrade?

2. Ask the gate agent to help me out.

Neither suggestion seems useful.

WineCountryUA

That is normal with LH doing the rebooking (which is their responsibility). LH only needs to honor the purchased ticket.

Use your other PlusPoints to get on the waitlist and hope for other misconnects

The original PlusPoints will be returned after the original flight.

frappant

By the time they rebooked me and then reissued the ticket, they'd be at approximately T-17 from the departure of UA59.

WOuldn't they have already processed all the upgrades they were going to give out on this flight?

exerda

No. They may still have misconnects, or pax who changed plans and took another flight. There can be gate upgrades, T-2 upgrades, etc. Worth a shot anyway.

frappant

As far as applying more Plus Points, when I click upgrade cabin, it says this flight isn't eligible to be upgraded.

If I click on my seat assignment number, it directs me to Lufthansa's site.

Brilliant!

Yes I can only check in with LH, since they have the first flight and obviously they have no facility for upgrades.

When I did check in, they offered a €140 upgrade to Business but that was obviously only for LH1059.

Well I guess that's the downside of upgrades on international flights, partners can effectively cancel your upgrade by cancelling their flights.

I'd have waited in Munich another day for a chance at an upgrade, if they put me on a later flight from NCE to MUC.


But I don't have any upgrades applied for this reissued ticket.

I can't even apply for upgrades, not PP nor MUAs.

So the gate agent would upgrade me over others for what reason?

I guess I'll give it a shot, go to the gate at FRA as soon as I get off the LH flight instead of going to the lounge and tell them my story I suppose.