Using United miles? Please recheck your flights...
 

We used United miles for tickets to Asia using partner carriers. We booked the tickets 10 months ago.

Completely by chance we called United to recheck flight times a week before our departure and were shocked to discover that one of the flight legs (on Thai) had been cancelled! We had not been contacted by United nor by Thai. It took several hours over three phone calls with United to get the flight reinstated (for the first two calls United insisted there was nothing they could do).

Just wanted to suggest that anyone using miles for flights on partner carriers might want to call to reconfirm ... just to be safe.

My experience is that flights are <i>usually</i> changed when they are made months in advance. And we were not always notified. It pays to keep checking. ((*))

1. Anybody having a ticket this far in advance needs to check their booking semi-regularly. Doesn't matter if you're using cash or miles. Doesn't matter if which airline you're flying.

Flight schedules get changed all the time, especially thi year when many airlines cut capacity.

2. I'm surprised to hear that you haven't checked your schedule on Thai, with all that has happened in BKK just 2 weeks ago. That airline has their hub closed for over a week, canceling hundreds of flights and disrupting tens of thousands of passengers; yet... :D

that's united for you....thai is becomming known for lack of communication....this has happened to other fodorites in the past both on paid and FF tickets

If you are United Mileage Plus member, your itinerary should be posted on line regardless of whether you used miles or cash for your flights. I check the website weekly for changes in the itinerary for my April trip to Vietnam which involves 8 flights on 4 carriers (United, ANA, Asiana and Thai).

So far, I've only had to make one major itinerary change but there have also been time and equipment changes that have affected flight numbers and seat assignments. With your itinerary on line, if a change is made on a partner airline flight, it no longer shows as part of the itinerary. The best course of action if that happens is to first do some research and then call United to either reinstate the flight or make the necessary changes.

Thanks for the heads up. Lately I've been having problems logging into 'My Itineraries', plus my seat numbers don't show up when I am able to log in. I've booked my October trip to South Africa on Singapore (using United miles). I can see I'm going to have to pay closer attention than I anticipated.

Always a good reminder to check your flights! Like Craig, I check my flights regularly (see &quot;my itineraries&quot; on the United site)for flight time changes, seats, etc.

Note that seat assignments with United partner carriers will not show on your itinerary. Also, in order to get or change a seat assignment on a partner carrier, you must call the carrier directly.

I've had headaches like this,too. Before leaving L.A., for Ghana, I checked my flight schedule MANY times, and all was supposedly in order. Laugh. I had a frequent flyer ticket.
I got to LAX and was issued my tickets on Delta and AIitalia...LA-Milan-Accra. Well, I arrived into Milan, very early morning, only to find out that my late afternoon flight, on to Ghana, didn't even exist, yet I was holding a ticket, just issued at LAX, saying it did. Go figure. I was thus stranded in Milan, and in the dead of a freezing winter.
I had to be VERY persistent to get the mess straightened out. I went to Delta and was there for well over an hour trying to get it straightened out. They close around 1PM or 2PM, so it's good my flight landed EARLY or else I really would have been stranded.

When I asked Alitalia about putting me up in a hotel, I was told that it wasn't their problem and to either go to the airport kiosk that books hotel rooms and get a hotel room somewhere in Milan and then come back the next morning or to sleep in the airport until the flight left the next day. So, they were suggesting that I stay in the airport for 24 hours.

Delta finally agreed to put me up in a hotel. They even sent a whole, empty bus to pick me up at the airport and transport me to the hotel. It kind of looked like the jail bus that my best friend who's a sheriff rides in with the inmates. I was getting kind of nervous. I thought they might be trying to haul me off as I did raise all out h--- over the situation!

Then the next morning they put me on a KLM flight to Amsterdam....yes...Amsterdam...and then hours in that airport before flying on to Accra. I asked why I wasn't just put on the Milan-Accra flight the next day and was told that it was overbooked around 100 seats which no one, at Alitalia, cared to tell me the day before when they told me to just come back the next day. It was the reservationist, at Delta, who told me that I would have NEVER gotten on that flight the next day. And they refused to upgrade me to Business or First Class, where there were plenty of empty seats, in order for me to get on that next day Alitalia flight. They could have cared less.
I remember standing in line at Delta and the Alitalia counter was right across from Delta. The Delta agent called over there and they were all standing and talking and wouldn't even pick up the phone. The Delta agent was totally disgusted. We could hear the phone ring and watch them talk and not even pick up the phone. Aren't they out of business now? Happy Travels!

I called Singapore to get seats, VERY different from dealing with United. Although United reps on the phone have always been polite, Singapore really seemed to go the extra mile. Because of their great reputation, and my experiences with them. I'm hoping I'll be ok should any problems arise.

Another thing that worries me is that I only have an hour to change planes in Singapore. I think it's really tight, but doable if all goes well. However it leaves no room for mishaps. I'll be keeping my fingers tightly crossed. Happier that I'm on Singapore rather than other carriers. I agree with Guenmai's opinion of Alitalia, and would add that I hold the same opinion of Air France.

Femi, I hope your transfer in Singapore goes smoothly. Changi is such an efficient airport, I think you have a better chance of making a close connection there than at most other airports!

femi---we are going to SA in october as well....lets talk about this at the LA GTG in march---i assume you will be there or contact me at [email protected]

bob

Finally! Someone who will listen to me! Most people I know won't even pretend anymore! When I got back last time (after being gone almost a month) some people didn't even ask where I'd been. Most were more eager to fill me in on what I'd missed. And really the last thing I want is to be sucked back in to life's little dramas instead of enjoying the post-vacation euphoria.

I'm booked for Cape Town in April (Grootbos and Kwandwe), and in October I'll be taking a tour on the Shongololo Train with a couple nights stay just outside Jo'berg before and after.

I bit the bullet and paid for it all earlier than usual because I wasn't sure how long the Rand would remain at current levels.

Sounds just wonderful, Femi!

:D \:D/

I'm so excited. It's not Asia (my first choice) prices seem to be higher lately, so while I'm hopefully waiting for bargains to reappear, Africa will keep me occupied.

A similar cautionary tale: After the usual weeks of calls, we finally got the flights we wanted on Thai to Indonesia through United ff. A few days later I called Thai to select seats and they had never heard of us and had no flights booked. Many phone calls later United fessed up that one of their agents had spelled our names incorrectly when entering it in to the Thai record and somehow that triggered Thai to cancel our entire itinerary. Back to square one and no Thai flight available. United put us on one of their flights with less desirable routing so we continue to call to improve our flights. Have them spell yours names over the phone so you can verify all is in order.

Alas! So many cautionary tales about flying these days!

Robbietravels,
You may want to call back - United supervisors do have the ability to open up award inventory on flights where it isn't otherwise available when there's been a schedule change that isn't your fault. On my recent biz class award trip IAD-ZRH-NBO, we were scheduled to fly through Munich on Lufthansa and have a one day stopover in Zurich before continuing on to Nairobi. After booking, the flight to Munich was canceled and changed to one several hours later, such that it would have essentially eliminated our stopover in Zurich. When I realized this (like the OP, I was not contacted by UA, but ALWAYS monitor award flights on a weekly basis) I called to try to get a more favorable flight. I was originally told that was the best they could do and &quot;no award seats available&quot; on other flights, but when I pressed the agent that the itinerary as revised was not acceptable and asked if award inventory could be opened up on more favorable flights, she was able to get a supervisor to put us on an earlier flight on United through Frankfurt, connecting to Lufthansa to Zurich, even though no award inventory was showing as available on those flights. It is helpful to research acceptable itineraries and have those flights to offer the agents as possibilities.

Checking regularly is indeed a must (we do this as a matter of course). It was made more difficult this time because for some reason the itinerary would not show up on the &quot;my itineraries&quot; page and so we had to call an agent every time. The shock was not that a Thai flight might change/cancel after the recent upheaval, but rather the fact that United was not going to do anything to help us get another flight in its place.

hlg22's experience was ours -- only by continuing to press United did they do anything to fix the situation. That was the shocking part a week before we were due to travel -- that United was taking a &quot;there's nothing we can do&quot; attitude. In the end, they did press Thai to reinstate the seats (when the original flight was reinstated but with no FF seats availble). Fingers crossed that we are now all set to get there and back. Will definitely be checking periodically even once abroad....

Robbietravels: I would call United back and talk with a supervisor. I've flown United for decades and have talked directly to supervisors in the past. Once I wanted a flight to Europe and didn't even have all the frequent flyer miles that I needed, but was bold enough to speak with a supervisor about it. She okayed the ticket and issued it to me herself. So, explain your situation, which is a very valid reason to talk to a supervisor, and you should be able to get it worked out.

Femi: You'll probably have a great time in South Africa. My best friend, the one you met at my GTG, was there right after the end of apartheid, about 13 (?) years ago. I think apartheid ended in 1995. It was a very interesting trip. She was there for 3 weeks. It wasn't her first trip to Africa however. She'd done Egypt and Morocco extensively back in the 70s.

Africa is always interesting and amazing. I've been going since the early 80s. I haven't been to South Africa though. My close core of friends and family friends have been to South Africa and all over Africa extensively since as far back as the late 60s...back when it was really a &quot;journey.&quot; Smiles. Happy Travels!