US agent makes mistake, I get stranded. Seeking advice please.
Jun 9, 2013, 10:54 am
#16
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: DCA
Programs: DL DM, AA EXP, various hotel
Posts: 2,227
Jun 9, 2013, 11:04 am
#17
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Between AMS and BRU
Posts: 8,852
Guess there is a first time for everything... But most airlines would have a problem getting you a boarding pass when a ticket hasn't been issued 
. So I doubt it...
. So I doubt it...
Jun 11, 2013, 10:34 am
#18
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: DCA
Programs: DL DM, AA EXP, various hotel
Posts: 2,227
Especially on DL, I've had them print BPs with nonexistent tickets before, tell me to board, and they say they'll sort it out after the flight departs.
Jun 11, 2013, 10:40 am
#19
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Between AMS and BRU
Posts: 8,852
Still rare or non-existend.... And in this case rather doubtful.
And you would know immediatly there was something wrong.
This was more than likely a case of an award that wasn't ticketed correctly and where only the PNR existed.
And you would know immediatly there was something wrong.
This was more than likely a case of an award that wasn't ticketed correctly and where only the PNR existed.
Jun 11, 2013, 1:15 pm
#20
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Programs: AAdvantage Exec Platinum, Hertz #1 Club Gold Five Star, IHG Platinum, Marriott Gold, HHonors Silver
Posts: 2,038
Completely agree. If we start policing minutae then this forum will lose its focus on content.
On another (content-driven) note: why would someone ever take a plane from EWR to PHL? It's almost always cheaper and faster (when you account for the extra time involved with airport security) to take NJT or Amtrak. Just curious.
And yes- I realize this wasn't the OP's original question.
On another (content-driven) note: why would someone ever take a plane from EWR to PHL? It's almost always cheaper and faster (when you account for the extra time involved with airport security) to take NJT or Amtrak. Just curious.
And yes- I realize this wasn't the OP's original question.
Jun 11, 2013, 4:16 pm
#21
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: BOS
Programs: JetBlue Mosaic, WN A List Preferred, Hyatt Globalest, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Platinum, IHG Spire
Posts: 3,966
Exactly No "Ticket," in Hand + Hotel Tips
lrbenko and Nearly Any Other Normal Traveler,
Be careful with your terms as noted you did not have a "ticket" in your hand unless it said either "flight coupon," or "flight interruptionb manifest," next time, try to take note of exactly what the document they hand you is called.
Most likely, from your story, they handed you an itinerary with your new flights listed on it.
It is common when airlines push and reissue tickets to each other either due to agent error, poor design of the system, or IT interoperability problems between the airlines for the ticket not to be pushed correctly. In other words, the receiving airline has a reservation for you, but not an e-ticket.
Things were a lot easier with paper tickets, you could even take the ticket to a different airline.
Here are some tips for the op or anyone else in this situation:
1. You are lucky the airline reaccommodated you on another carrier if it was weather or ATC, they do and can but aren't required to do so.
2. When the first airline accommodates you on another airline, ask the first airline agent to call the 2nd receiving airline at the airport to verify that an agent from the receiving airline can properly access your pushed e-ticket. This would be especially important on time sensitive or last flight of the night travel. If the agent is reluctant to call because they are busy, try to tell them you have had a problem like this and you don't want to have to come back or get stranded.
3. Airport agents are more familiar with the nuances of pushing tickets than call center reservation agents as a general rule. Also the call center agents likely can't or won't be able to access airport agents of the carrier the ticket is pushed too.
4. You may also be able to verify if a ticket was pushed correctly by trying to OLCI on the new airline.
5. A paper flight interruption manifest, called a FIM, may be more consistently reliable than the push ticket process. However, agents may be reluctant to write a FIM and it may also be that only certain levels of station employees are now given access to the paper FIM's.
6. Anyone can access the customer-paid distressed passenger rates at:
http://apaglobal.com
Coupon Code: jstrk
These are given to distressed passengers with a pink coupon, and paid by the pax. I'm very surprised UA would not give you a pink coupon because it does not cost the airline anything. You can usually just walk up to any counter and ask for a pink coupon. I would advise you to get a pink coupon or two or three on a normal travel day when you have some time, and keep it with you so in a situation you have it. Also the hotel may honor this rate without the coupon, the coupon is really just a formality. Tell them your dog ate the coupon or whatever you have to tell them. Tell them you are bookiing under the
Airport Accommodation
rate. Airport Accommodations is the company that negotiates these rates both the rates the pax pays and other rates the airlines pay with vouchers or eg for crew rooms. There are likely other companys that are like this butt Airport Accommodations is a key one, if not the biggest.
7. You should regularly check the airport accommodations web site (above) in places where you may be stranded so that you become familiar with both the hotel properties and the rates in the locations you need to have this information for. This will also make you familiar and comfortable with their web site, etc. so in a real situation it will be old hat and you'll be working in a web site you have visited and you know the ins and outws of.
8. I've heard of situations where say Hotel X is sometimes offered on Airport Accommodations, and say on date Y it is not offered, the property at its discretion could still honor the Airport Accommodations rate oif you walk in on Date Y and say your stranded and especially if you have the pink coupon which you already do since you got some extra ones "just in case," in the earlier step.
9. You should really get to know someone personally at whatever airline you fly, and get their cell#, so if you have an issue like the ticket not pushed properly, your not just stuck calling the 800 number starting out new with someone who doesn't know you, and who may or may not know all the angles and ins and outs of the system. Also the 800 number is generally going to follow all the rules exactly which may not be exactly the most helpful thing for you, e.g. they will follow the rule about not accommodating on a new carrier due to weather & ATC.
10. As you can see, this is a lot of information, and if you just don't want to deal with it, you are too busy, etc. you may want to use a service like Crankie Concierge, or buddy up with someone that knows all the ins, outs, angles, official and unofficial procedures etc. of the system.
Be careful with your terms as noted you did not have a "ticket" in your hand unless it said either "flight coupon," or "flight interruptionb manifest," next time, try to take note of exactly what the document they hand you is called.
Most likely, from your story, they handed you an itinerary with your new flights listed on it.It is common when airlines push and reissue tickets to each other either due to agent error, poor design of the system, or IT interoperability problems between the airlines for the ticket not to be pushed correctly. In other words, the receiving airline has a reservation for you, but not an e-ticket.
Things were a lot easier with paper tickets, you could even take the ticket to a different airline.
Here are some tips for the op or anyone else in this situation:
1. You are lucky the airline reaccommodated you on another carrier if it was weather or ATC, they do and can but aren't required to do so.
2. When the first airline accommodates you on another airline, ask the first airline agent to call the 2nd receiving airline at the airport to verify that an agent from the receiving airline can properly access your pushed e-ticket. This would be especially important on time sensitive or last flight of the night travel. If the agent is reluctant to call because they are busy, try to tell them you have had a problem like this and you don't want to have to come back or get stranded.
3. Airport agents are more familiar with the nuances of pushing tickets than call center reservation agents as a general rule. Also the call center agents likely can't or won't be able to access airport agents of the carrier the ticket is pushed too.
4. You may also be able to verify if a ticket was pushed correctly by trying to OLCI on the new airline.
5. A paper flight interruption manifest, called a FIM, may be more consistently reliable than the push ticket process. However, agents may be reluctant to write a FIM and it may also be that only certain levels of station employees are now given access to the paper FIM's.
6. Anyone can access the customer-paid distressed passenger rates at:
http://apaglobal.com
Coupon Code: jstrk
These are given to distressed passengers with a pink coupon, and paid by the pax. I'm very surprised UA would not give you a pink coupon because it does not cost the airline anything. You can usually just walk up to any counter and ask for a pink coupon. I would advise you to get a pink coupon or two or three on a normal travel day when you have some time, and keep it with you so in a situation you have it. Also the hotel may honor this rate without the coupon, the coupon is really just a formality. Tell them your dog ate the coupon or whatever you have to tell them. Tell them you are bookiing under the
Airport Accommodation
rate. Airport Accommodations is the company that negotiates these rates both the rates the pax pays and other rates the airlines pay with vouchers or eg for crew rooms. There are likely other companys that are like this butt Airport Accommodations is a key one, if not the biggest.
7. You should regularly check the airport accommodations web site (above) in places where you may be stranded so that you become familiar with both the hotel properties and the rates in the locations you need to have this information for. This will also make you familiar and comfortable with their web site, etc. so in a real situation it will be old hat and you'll be working in a web site you have visited and you know the ins and outws of.
8. I've heard of situations where say Hotel X is sometimes offered on Airport Accommodations, and say on date Y it is not offered, the property at its discretion could still honor the Airport Accommodations rate oif you walk in on Date Y and say your stranded and especially if you have the pink coupon which you already do since you got some extra ones "just in case," in the earlier step.
9. You should really get to know someone personally at whatever airline you fly, and get their cell#, so if you have an issue like the ticket not pushed properly, your not just stuck calling the 800 number starting out new with someone who doesn't know you, and who may or may not know all the angles and ins and outs of the system. Also the 800 number is generally going to follow all the rules exactly which may not be exactly the most helpful thing for you, e.g. they will follow the rule about not accommodating on a new carrier due to weather & ATC.
10. As you can see, this is a lot of information, and if you just don't want to deal with it, you are too busy, etc. you may want to use a service like Crankie Concierge, or buddy up with someone that knows all the ins, outs, angles, official and unofficial procedures etc. of the system.
Jun 12, 2013, 1:35 pm
#22
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: DCA
Programs: DL DM, AA EXP, various hotel
Posts: 2,227
As I read the OP, he checked in at the United *ticket* counter at EWR, then went through security with his new United boarding pass. Does anyone have a different read? If that's the case, he must have been issued a paper ticket boarding pass.
Jun 12, 2013, 2:38 pm
#23
Join Date: May 2004
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Executive Club Silver. Back of the plane on everyone else.
Posts: 262
I have had a very similar situation occur.
I was booked on a UA flight (with miles to be credited to US) that was canceled due to weather 18 hours beforehand. I was rebooked onto a US flight and given a new confirmation code. Upon arrival at the airport, US informed me that the ticket had not been issued properly, so my conf code and seat assignments were not valid. In effect, UA made a reservation but didn't ticket it and pay for it. That plane took off.
United then rebooked me onto Delta (complete with conf code and seat assignments) but again didn't push the ticket through. I could print out the seat assignment from a check-in machine, but not the actual valid boarding pass. That plane took off. Finally, United rebooked me on a Frontier flight. Upon arrival at check-in to get my tickets, the Frontier agent told me United had messed the whole thing up, hadn't ticketed it properly, but she could force it through.
The lesson for me: in these situations, always get a ticket number, not a confirmation number, from the original airline. Force them to push the ticket through, or it will end up in queue.
In your situation, seems like hotel credit and some miles are fully reasonable. It's a shame in that US was trying to do the right thing, but it seems agents often don't take that final step, or are stuck waiting for a back office to issue the ticket and it can't get done in time.
I was booked on a UA flight (with miles to be credited to US) that was canceled due to weather 18 hours beforehand. I was rebooked onto a US flight and given a new confirmation code. Upon arrival at the airport, US informed me that the ticket had not been issued properly, so my conf code and seat assignments were not valid. In effect, UA made a reservation but didn't ticket it and pay for it. That plane took off.
United then rebooked me onto Delta (complete with conf code and seat assignments) but again didn't push the ticket through. I could print out the seat assignment from a check-in machine, but not the actual valid boarding pass. That plane took off. Finally, United rebooked me on a Frontier flight. Upon arrival at check-in to get my tickets, the Frontier agent told me United had messed the whole thing up, hadn't ticketed it properly, but she could force it through.
The lesson for me: in these situations, always get a ticket number, not a confirmation number, from the original airline. Force them to push the ticket through, or it will end up in queue.
In your situation, seems like hotel credit and some miles are fully reasonable. It's a shame in that US was trying to do the right thing, but it seems agents often don't take that final step, or are stuck waiting for a back office to issue the ticket and it can't get done in time.
Jun 12, 2013, 7:49 pm
#24
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Charlotte
Programs: Hilton Diamond, Marriott Platinum Elite, AA Platinum Pro, Hertz Presidents
Posts: 1,214
Above from GNRMatt's post he quotes Phisher...but can't find the original post from Phisher? Believe he was taking issue with the correction of USAir but that can't be right can it? Don't believe that broke any site rules do you guys and gals?
On topic, telling OP to just pull out credit card and buy ticket and sort it out later is probably what I would have done even though I know most would disagree with that approach. "You should have secured authorization " or whatever.
On topic, telling OP to just pull out credit card and buy ticket and sort it out later is probably what I would have done even though I know most would disagree with that approach. "You should have secured authorization " or whatever.
Jun 13, 2013, 11:58 am
#25
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2012
Programs: US CP ; LH FTL ; *G
Posts: 1,630
In the future, if there is something wrong with the ticket, and you're close to the time of departure, call preferred desk, say you're about the miss the flight due to error in the PNR and ask for a supervisor ASAP because you need them to reissue the ticket. Had this happen to me before, and ticet reissue usually takes care of that.
Jun 13, 2013, 3:21 pm
#26
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: PHL
Programs: AA EXP, Marriott Lifetime Plat, SPG Plat, AMEX Plat, Hertz PC, Travels too Much Platinum
Posts: 3,290
It's amazing to me how common this stuff still is today. I have this issue more often then not when signed over to another carrier in irregular ops (UA seems a particular offender, but I don't have stats to back that up).
Just last week I was flying PHL-CLT-GSO-CLT-PHX-PHL on one ticket, and CLT-GSO cancelled due to a night of nasty weather in the Mid Atlantic. Just before it cancelled, in the 3rd hour of a delay, I had the CLT C Club cancel out the segment so I could go beat the rush and rent a car to drive the 105 miles. Once on the road I called the CP desk to double check it had been done correctly - it had not. "Good thing you called in, the ticket needed to be reissued" the agent said, adding that it would've autocancelled the rest of the itinerary overnight. She showed the segment properly cancelled, and notes in the PNR that it was due to weather IRROPS, but the club hadn't pushed it through for reticketing. Good thing I call in out of habit to check on this sort of thing.
A few years ago I was supposed to do PHL-ORD-LHR and back on UA. PHL-ORD cancelled due to maintenance and the only way I could get to LHR that evening was on the first of the two BA PHL-LHR flights - the later US and BA ones were full. The UA agent, after typing away for 15 minutes, gave my colleague and I an itinerary printout. BA wouldn't take it as UA hadn't pushed it through. In spite of the best efforts of the BA agent working on the phone with UA locally and on some helpdesk line, they never fixed it. I wound up buying us two one-ways in BA business and then setting our corp travel agent to go after UA to refund the cancelled piece of the itinerary.
I have other examples as well. This just seems something that is routine enough that it shouldn't happen with this rate today - I don't have a single colleague who flies routinely who hasn't had this issue, regardless of the airlines involved.
Just last week I was flying PHL-CLT-GSO-CLT-PHX-PHL on one ticket, and CLT-GSO cancelled due to a night of nasty weather in the Mid Atlantic. Just before it cancelled, in the 3rd hour of a delay, I had the CLT C Club cancel out the segment so I could go beat the rush and rent a car to drive the 105 miles. Once on the road I called the CP desk to double check it had been done correctly - it had not. "Good thing you called in, the ticket needed to be reissued" the agent said, adding that it would've autocancelled the rest of the itinerary overnight. She showed the segment properly cancelled, and notes in the PNR that it was due to weather IRROPS, but the club hadn't pushed it through for reticketing. Good thing I call in out of habit to check on this sort of thing.
A few years ago I was supposed to do PHL-ORD-LHR and back on UA. PHL-ORD cancelled due to maintenance and the only way I could get to LHR that evening was on the first of the two BA PHL-LHR flights - the later US and BA ones were full. The UA agent, after typing away for 15 minutes, gave my colleague and I an itinerary printout. BA wouldn't take it as UA hadn't pushed it through. In spite of the best efforts of the BA agent working on the phone with UA locally and on some helpdesk line, they never fixed it. I wound up buying us two one-ways in BA business and then setting our corp travel agent to go after UA to refund the cancelled piece of the itinerary.
I have other examples as well. This just seems something that is routine enough that it shouldn't happen with this rate today - I don't have a single colleague who flies routinely who hasn't had this issue, regardless of the airlines involved.
Jun 13, 2013, 4:07 pm
#27
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: PIT/YYZ
Programs: US Silver, OW Ruby
Posts: 256
Not so rare. I don't know about US, but I've had it happen a number of times on DL or UA. There's a procedure to print a boarding pass for a paper ticket, so the airline can print a BP that says "Coupon required" or something to that effect. The system can't distinguish, of course, between a paper ticket that exists and an e-ticket that doesn't.
Especially on DL, I've had them print BPs with nonexistent tickets before, tell me to board, and they say they'll sort it out after the flight departs.
Especially on DL, I've had them print BPs with nonexistent tickets before, tell me to board, and they say they'll sort it out after the flight departs.
If it changes anything, I was late when first boarding my outbound YYZ-PHL flight, and the agent there improperly cancelled/reticketed the entire itinerary, causing every agent down the line to have problems issuing me boarding passes.