sriki
Level 2 Member
Backdrop: I had two business class award tickets going from USA to SIN one way with 3 segments.
1. BTR - ORD (Connect in IAH) - UA
2. ORD - PEK - UA
3. PEK - SIN - AC
When booking this award, there was no availability on BTR-ORD in business and so booked that in economy. I saw business availability on the first segment today (a later flight) and called in to see if I can change it to business without paying the change fee of $100. I explained how I booked a business class ticket but had to settle for economy because of no availability and requested if this chnage can be made at co cost. Since the two tickets were on different accounts with different confirmation numbers, I did mine first hoping my wife could call in later and try her luck. I was put on a brief hold by the agent to get this approved from somewhere and got back with an OK to proceed on a one time basis.
When my wife called in later, she did not have the same luck. So, I told her to HUCA. She did and same thing again. Thinking third time is a charm, she called again and this time the genius on the other end started saying that she would have to pay more miles in addition to the $100 change fee. According to him (he said he was looking at the award chart; not sure why he was looking though), if the flight started in ORD, it was 80000 miles. Since it started in BTR, he said it would cost more. My wife told him that this is a single ticket and award chart says it's 70000 on UA and 80000 if on star partners. Since, we are using AC, it''s 80000 and that should be it. But, he refused and just stone walled. My patience wore out and I decided to just pay the $100 online. I logged into her account, made the flight change, entered the CC details and hit submit. A message came back that this itinerary cannot be changed and we have to call in. I checked my CC account and saw there was a $100 temp auth already. This is strange and irritating considering what happened until now.
So, we had to call in again and this time told the agent that we are going to just pay for it. Luckily, she did not say anything about needing more miles and just asked for the CC details. While giving that info, we asked her if it's possible to do this change without being charged for it. She consulted a supervisor and told us that on this particular flight, her supervisor said they could not do that. That seemed strange because there were atleast a total of 5 business class seats still available on that flight and two of them for award tickets.
In the end, I used the Ritz-Carlton card to pay for it. Hopefully, that would post before Dec 31st and Chase would allow me get that reimbursed as part of the airline fee credit.
Was there something that we could have done to avoid this frustrating back and forth with UA?
1. BTR - ORD (Connect in IAH) - UA
2. ORD - PEK - UA
3. PEK - SIN - AC
When booking this award, there was no availability on BTR-ORD in business and so booked that in economy. I saw business availability on the first segment today (a later flight) and called in to see if I can change it to business without paying the change fee of $100. I explained how I booked a business class ticket but had to settle for economy because of no availability and requested if this chnage can be made at co cost. Since the two tickets were on different accounts with different confirmation numbers, I did mine first hoping my wife could call in later and try her luck. I was put on a brief hold by the agent to get this approved from somewhere and got back with an OK to proceed on a one time basis.
When my wife called in later, she did not have the same luck. So, I told her to HUCA. She did and same thing again. Thinking third time is a charm, she called again and this time the genius on the other end started saying that she would have to pay more miles in addition to the $100 change fee. According to him (he said he was looking at the award chart; not sure why he was looking though), if the flight started in ORD, it was 80000 miles. Since it started in BTR, he said it would cost more. My wife told him that this is a single ticket and award chart says it's 70000 on UA and 80000 if on star partners. Since, we are using AC, it''s 80000 and that should be it. But, he refused and just stone walled. My patience wore out and I decided to just pay the $100 online. I logged into her account, made the flight change, entered the CC details and hit submit. A message came back that this itinerary cannot be changed and we have to call in. I checked my CC account and saw there was a $100 temp auth already. This is strange and irritating considering what happened until now.
So, we had to call in again and this time told the agent that we are going to just pay for it. Luckily, she did not say anything about needing more miles and just asked for the CC details. While giving that info, we asked her if it's possible to do this change without being charged for it. She consulted a supervisor and told us that on this particular flight, her supervisor said they could not do that. That seemed strange because there were atleast a total of 5 business class seats still available on that flight and two of them for award tickets.
In the end, I used the Ritz-Carlton card to pay for it. Hopefully, that would post before Dec 31st and Chase would allow me get that reimbursed as part of the airline fee credit.
Was there something that we could have done to avoid this frustrating back and forth with UA?
