What has just happened to me is our March 6th United itinerary: FAR-ORD-IAD-GIG that I booked last May, which I have been checking from time to time with no major changes; now has a change of flight number on the longest and last leg and gives us no seat assignments, plus, it has a change of arrival of two and three-quarter hours later because of routing via Sao Paulo. Our tickets are in coach and were booked with Mileage Plus. I phoned United and asked for seat assignments and was told that none were available but would be assigned upon check-in.

My question to this board is: what, if anything, should (can) I do? Our scheduled departure time is 10:40 am; a search of United flights shows the possibility of code share flights connecting: Chicago to Miami on US Airways, then Miami to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) on Tam with a much earlier arrival time than the current schedule; or, it also shows a 6:00 am departure to Miami via Denver on United, then Miami to Rio on that same Tam flight. Based on the fact that they have changed my scheduled arrival by two hours and forty-five minutes, do I have any leverage to get them to give me this more favorable route?

You have award tickets, and therefore you have not much leverage. If your seats were on United flights, United will not change the tickets to another airline unless that airline has award seats available. Code-shares do not count with award seats: it only matters which airline is actually operating the flight.

If you can find other United flights, then you might be able to get the itinerary changed, but even then don't count on it.

Your other option, with a significant schedule change such as you describe, is to cancel the tickets and have the miles redeposited to your account at no charge.

Admittedly it wasn't a reward ticket, but I found United to be extremely flexible for a cheap ticket to Europe in March 2008. After a schedule change which meant I'd be spending 5 hours in one airport, they even changed the departure city for me.

I agree that United is unlikely to put you on a codeshare, but if there are other United flights you prefer, or different cities, give it a try.

On your issue re: seat assignments, am I reading that you're on UA 861 on March 6, IAD-GRU and that doesn't have seats available? I looked at the seat map for that flight; the regular economy section is indeed full but the Economy Plus section is mostly open. Overflow from economy will be assigned into E+, but not until you're at the gate for that flight (not at check-in). If you want a seat assignment on that flight in advance, you could buy up to E+; not sure of the cost, but it can be done at any time. Or, keep watching to see if something opens up.

You can always ask if there is award inventory available on a different route. But, as noted above, I think your only leverage would be if you can find a better routing operated by United.

Thanks for all the good information here.

I guess that spending an additional three hours in an airplane/airport isn’t the end of the world, especially for an award ticket.

In regard to the Economy Plus seats, I see that they are $119 each. Question: if we don’t take that option now, what is the chance we will be put into one of these seats at flight time?

I think the chance of getting into E+ at flight time is good but certainly not guaranteed. United also holds back a couple of rows at the back of the plane to give the gate agents some added flexibility; you could get one of those.

I'm not sure how many of you are traveling. If two, that would be about $240 for one flight segment. For $349, you can purchase an annual E+ subscription that is good for the purchaser plus one guest traveling on the same itinerary for all United flights on the trip, plus any others during the year (always subject to availability of course).

I recommend that you call United and find out if award seats are available on the flights you want!