THANK-YOU everyone for your help-- my problems are finally solved. (Great rush of relief.) I basically spoke to five or six different people at reservations yesterday, who were of no help.

Today I called again and spoke to someone who told me that indeed they COULD split the flights, but only my travel agent could do it-- I could not go to a CTO. I called back and spoke to someone who said that I "probably" could get it done at a CTO. That was encouraging. One more call to make sure-- this agent said that they weren't really supposed to touch it if it was booked by a travel agent, but if I was pursuasive, I could get someone to do it. Then she looked at the reservation and said, "You know what? It's already ticketed, it's the same flight number, and frankly I wish they wouldn't even do it if it involved a plane change because it really is a connection. Let me just go ahead and do it for you." It took her about TWENTY seconds to split it!

I immediately asked her for her employee information because I wanted to send her a Premier Service Award and at first she just said, "What? For that little thing?"

[This message has been edited by dw (edited 03-16-2000).]

And get this? Now that I had the flights split, I am also able to confirm the upgrade on the ORD-SFO segment.

The agent who helped me with the upgrade said, "It's a computer thing."

I once booked an Int'l flight as 2 segments initially (with the same flight #) to avoid this problem, and then was "scolded" by an agent when I went to upgrade. I couldn't believe it.

Always try to avoid the 1 flight # bit! When using miles to upgrade a H type of fare I either purchase 2 tickets (i.e. CVG or IND-SFO or LAX, then a LAX or SFO to SIN etc.) which prevents UA from assigning single flight numbers and usually costs less! or I pick a different domestic departure time to switch to another flight that has a different fligth number. Yeah sometimes, theres more connections, but there is only one or two arrival times in places like SIN. UA really has some screwed up inventory management ideas!

I have had the same varying results. I found that the senior gate agent was usually the only one who could override the system reliably and get me into an actual upgrade seat for the international leg. I have also not had good luck with 1k or red carpet club agents being able to help.


[This message has been edited by BD_100k (edited 03-16-2000).]