Good afternoon,

Backstory - my wife and I booked separate award tickets (different PNRs) through United for travel scheduled MRS-BRU-ADD-CPT in J (operated by ET). Not keen on the routing, a few days later I checked inventory from other cities in Europe in J and GVA had 2 seats open at the same mileage cost. So I called the United desk to get this changed. The agent at United was able to do so, and I got a confirmation # for both of us, to include the confirm # with ET. Great! so I thought...

When I went to check our PNRs on ET.com, my PNR worked fine and showed the correct routing, hers had a different routing and said still pending. I called ET to see what was going on, and they said the problem was with United and that I needed to call them. So I called the United help line to figure out what had happened and they said everything looked good on their end and to give it a few days as sometimes it takes a few days to process changes and re-ticket.

Fast forward a few days, and nothing changed. So I called United and after an hour on hold and a supervisor getting on, they told me there was an issue with the reservation and it was actually not ticketed correctly. But, when they went to look at inventory for the flight, it appeared that it was no longer available so I was SoL. The supervisor made reference to one of their agents had changed something (added a middle name or something) and that was causing ET to not be able to ticket and now there was no more inventory.

So, here I am, with confirmation emails (and mileage debited from my United account) showing a routing of GVA-ADD-CPT for 2 people in J yet United telling me it's not correct. I find this to be a complete violation of the contract of carriage. Had I not been somewhat travel savvy and shown up at GVA, my wife would have been told there was no seat for her and that the ticket wasn't valid (this was confirmed by the customer supervisor). Also, the United supervisor flat out cancelled her PNR (without my consent) while I was on the phone with her and she was trying to figure it out. I called back to inquire about that, and they could see it was cancelled but weren't sure why (miles were never re-debited into my account). They then asked me if I wanted the miles back, but out of caution of agreeing to something that gets United off the hook for these changes I simply said I never consented to cancellation of a PNR and therefore I'm not going to voluntarily agree for mileage refund until this was elevated to someone outside of the call center (and the Vendor supply chain).

What's my recourse here? I'm pretty furious as I have confirmation from United that my wife and I were booked and confirmed GVA-ADD-CPT in J and now because of an "internal" error that's actually not the case, and a supervisor flat out cancelled her PNR. United is essentially selling a product they can't fulfill and their answer was "we are sorry, try back later or here have your miles back.."

My wife and I booked plans out of CPT so aren't flexible on our travel day (nor do I think we should be) nor do I think it's appropriate for the airline to rebook us on some circuitous routing because of their mistake. The supervisor admitted on the phone that the company had violated their contract of carriage but that there was noting they could do.

I went on to united.com earlier and filed a complaint but am also considering filing a DOT complaint. Anything else I'm missing here?

Thanks!

 

Yeah, you can file a DoT complaint. This, imo, is one of the drawbacks of using miles on a route UA doesn't operate. They have no availability to force partner space opening up, unfortunately. On routes they do operate, they can open space for you on their own metal for their mistakes, but they are much more limited here. I don't know what else they'd be willing to do besides a refund. Perhaps there is still availability on the original BRU routing?

 

Buried in the fine print, partners have 24-48 hours to accept new / changed award books including unchanged portions. This is what trips up award changes. The only remedy per UA's CoC is a refund.

However, UA will get you there on UA if possible and that is what you should push for -- UA flies to CPT and JNB and should be able to make you whole.

Work to get the all UA routing. While you may be frustrated, pushing the COC or DOT complaint is only likely to delay resolution.

 

Agreed that this sucks, but if the itinerary never ticketed, I'm not sure how this would be a CoC violation or that UA would be liable beyond a refund.
It appears the OP is originating in Europe, so the UA operated flights may not be a viable solution.

 

Yes, I'm having trouble seeing what CoC violation was . Although the agent probably should have warned the OP of the risk of this type of change

Yeah, missed that, Europe to South Africa itin is not very common for FT.

DoT is complaint is even more of a stretch as none of the flights touch USA and the DOT does not oversee rewards programs.

 

In this case, the award change was made on Friday May 13th, but as of Monday May 15th, still showed as confirmed on United (greater than 48 hours). The agent essentially confirmed that if nothing had happened, we would have shown up to the airport and my wife told she didn't have a ticket.

Reading through the CoC, the ticket was booked through United.com and confirmed through them - even though the flights aren't operated per se by United, United sells the tickets and establishes a contract when miles are exchanged for a good (travel). I could see if the flight cancelled, was re-scheduled or something else; but essentially in this case United sold - and confirmed - a service which they could not provide.

My thought with the DOT complaint was that since the tickets were booked through United, and the transaction was completed in the US by a US citizen and since United is a registered business in the US, they have an obligation to follow US rules and regulations.

I guess my thought is United is in a partnership with ET - there's ultimately someone at a managerial level that should be able to connect with an ET manager and remedy the situation to uphold the contract that was made (and they confirmed).

Appreciate the replies so far!

 

IANAL, so not going to discuss at a legal level, but UA has no more obligation then any other travel agency in this situation (the UA COC makes it clear their only obligation is refund -- UA is not required to provide transportation).

 

My understanding is that there is a liaison for this, but how to contact might be difficult to find, and ultimately ET has discretion on opening up space, so it's never guaranteed to work.

 

It never ticketed. That's the fundamental problem. There's no contract without a ticket.

Which US rules and regulations are you referring to?

They are not in a legal partnership. They are both members of a marketing alliance (Star Alliance). It's true the members of these alliances refer to their alliance "partners" but that's just marketing talk, not an actual legal partnership. There's a reference in another post to a "liason" presumably meaning the Star Alliance liason but I'm not sure that exists anymore. You could try asking for the Star Alliance "liason" or "desk" next time you call UA, and see if that gets you anywhere.

This kind of stuff used to happen all the time. LX, for example, was renowned for failing to ticket UA award itineraries. It seems to be less common now, probably because the systems are better. But the basic rule was and is that if the itinerary never ticketed, there's no obligation beyond a refund. Your energies will probably be better spent working an alternative booking rather than trying to fight UA over a non-existent legal obligation.

 

So to clarify the ticketing part; when I initially called the United help desk, the agent (and supervisor) looked at the reservation and confirmed the ticket # was good and it probably would just take a few days for ET to edit the reservation on their end. So is that not considered a "ticketed" reservation? Does every itinerary change equate to a new ticketing?

My take away is that an airline can advertise and sell a service (whether their own product or that of an alliance member) and can confirm this service (on multiple occasions) but ultimately has no obligation to fulfill their end of the agreement nor inform the consumer of their inability to fulfill the agreement prior to the agreed upon travel date. And should the consumer make financial commitments based on the airline's confirmation of service which they have no obligation to fulfill, they are out of luck.

Luckily enough for us, we are months away from travel so have time to find other options.

 

Not until ticketed by all carriers, which can take 1-2 days for award tickets (although usually less). And itin changes will generally require a new ticketing.

One need to understand the difference in airline spear between confirmed reservation and a ticketed reservation. (the latter has some real meaning.)

For award tickets and making changes, these are the risks. Cancellations, especially departing from Europe you may have additional protections after you are ticketted. But overall, award tickets and/or using partners creates some risk.

 

As far as I know Star Alliance liaisons still exist and can be of some help. For reference I had ANA's liaison contact United about opening seats on a domestic flight after a schedule change by Air Canada would have made it impossible for me to return home. ANA was able to get United to open seats on their planes 1-2 months out due to a schedule change... it can work.

The bigger issue is the fact that it was never ticketed. That may stop them from doing anything at all.

 

You don't have a ticket until you have a ticket number. When it tickets, the reservation updates to say "ticketed" and UA will send you an email to confirm ticketing. Until then, all you have is an unticketed reservation (which is identified with an alphanumeric code that UA usually calls a "record locator").

Do you have an email from UA with a ticket number? It's a 13 digit number that begins with 016.

 

Yes - the confirmation email United sent me with the changed routing (GVA-ADD-CPT) has a 13 digit ticket number in it that begins with 016.

 

I should have asked a more specific question. Each passenger needs their own ticket. Do you have a ticket number for your wife's updated itinerary?